Poets & Philosophers

Sam wrote a paper on Kierkegaard... of course he did.

We discuss how the therapist Carl Rogers misreads Kierkegaard's phrase "becoming who you are." Rogers strips out the theological context of Kierkegaard's phrase to use it for his own ends.

Dr. Hamilton is a professor in the Biblical Studies Department at Florida College. He has developed at habit of reading the Lord of the Rings every year.

In this episode we discuss the timelessness of Tolkien's work including how Christians can read this work.

We discuss the medieval form of education called disputation where two students will argue over a point in the lesson to understand it better.

You know of C.S. Lewis. You know of J.R.R. Tolkien. But do you know Owen Barfield? You may after this episode. Barfield was one of Lewis' key interlocutors on his journey from Materialism to Christianity. How to persuade such a mind as C.S. Lewis, listen to find out.

In this episode, we discuss,

• Owens' writings
• How the imagination is the organ of meaning
• Why using a story to propagate a message is not something that Barfield, Lewis, or Tolkien would agree with

the audio is this is a bit rougher than normal

Politics. Everyone has an opinion on politics, even Socrates. In this episode we cover the Republic's Book 8.

We discuss:

• 3 Ordered and 3 disordered regimes
• Socrates' solution to politics - The Philosopher-King
• How Christians can think about politics

In this episode, we discuss Irving Babbit’s Essay Two Types of Humanitarians Bacon and Rousseau.

We discuss

• Our understanding of human nature reflects our education philosophy
• The classical, Baconian, and Rousseauian view of Human Nature
• The Scriptures insight into human nature

The basis of the poets is story. A story is an imitation of life. Why do we love stories? Why is there Hollywood and Bollywood? What should Christian make of these stories? In this episode we will discuss the purpose of stories according to Aristotle, the genres of stories, and how Christian should engage them.

Leisure the Basis of Culture (1948) is a classic praising the liberal arts. Josef Pieper argues that to build a meaningful life, we must be willing to practice leisure. Instead of always working on maximizing our time to be the most productive, Pieper says we must work to live. In our podcast we discuss his 70 page book.

Features on this podcast:

• Discussion of the importance of the liberal arts
• Pieper's critic of those like Kant who believe philosophy should always involve strenuous effort
• Why leisure leads to worship

Why do so many philosophers and poets call for a slower life? Why would Kierkegaard prescribe silence for modern ills (in the late 1800’s !)? Listen to this podcast to slow down and not miss out on what silence can teach us. 

In this podcast we discuss:

• The Religious Nature of Silence
• Silence and Reading Good Books
• How To Cultivate Silence

Recommended Works by Kierkegaard

• Fear and Trembling
• The Present Age
• The Lily of the Field and The Bird of the Air (3 sermons)

How should we understand God? How should we begin to approach understanding God? Is the Bible literal when it describes God? This episode we sit down with our friend Shane Scott, and preacher and a Ph.D. student. He has a wonderful way of explaining things and what better thing to learn about than the nature of God.

In this episode we discuss:

• The Features of Classical Theism
• Book Recommendations on the Topic
• How It Differs from Divine Personalism

This episode is about how we study and the habits we have to study. If you're someone whole likes to talk about productivity and habits, this is your type of episode.

In this episode we discuss

• The Zettelkasten System
• Digital or Paper books?
• Our Reading Schedules
• Should You Go To College to Study the Great Books?

What is a soul? Can we name its parts? What does a soul have to do with a city? This episode covers Plato’s Tripartite Soul. A scintillating idea that once you understand it, you’ll see it everywhere. And we do mean everywhere. Listen up, because Plato is handing out red pills.

In this episode we discus James Emery White’s book A Mind for God. Dr. White has many insights on what it means to think Christianity and how to engage the culture by going back to the past.

Creating a reading habit of difficult books is hard. We know there is a payoff after and even during reading those difficult books, but getting started is difficult. On the podcast, Abe and Sam discuss their own journey to reading difficult books and how they continue to read them.