The liberal tradition frames the story of modernity as the gradual victory of freedom against state hegemony. Liberty, the consent of the people to be governed, and individual rights are the mainstay of western society. But are we really more free than before? What if freedom isn’t what we think?
For some, Ireland is the archetype of Christianity’s decline in the wake of modern secularization. But is it possible that there is a resurgence of theological and philosophical fervor in this traditionally Catholic country? Gaven Kerr, a lecturer in philosophy at St. Patrick's Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland, recently hosted a conference called "The Future of Christian Thinking." Gaven has a surprisingly optimistic, up-to-date, on-the-ground evaluation of Christianity's prospects in ...
While we may think of phones and laptops when we hear the word “technology,” it can also be thought of as a way of viewing the world: the belief that knowledge of reality means the ability to predict, experiment, and transform it, and that nature is completely open to that process . But while this approach to the world and how we understand it makes us very good at solving problems, it also blinds us to an entire realm of thought. Science and technology can neither ask nor answer the “big” quest...
Of the many hopes that society hangs on artificial intelligence, one is its potential to clean up the results of human messiness. Whether on a large scale (solving climate change, reducing war crimes through use of autonomous weapons) or on an individual one (sex robots for isolated people), AI promises to sidestep the problems caused by human limitations. But in making computers to solve ethical dilemmas and robots to enter relationships, are we creating something in our own image? Is it possib...
One of modernity’s many attributes is its ingratitude towards the past. Both through forgetfulness of pre-modern thought and ways of being (whether intentional or accidental), and also by reconfiguring pre-modern narratives to make them palatable to modern minds, a rupture is created between past and present. But what if these reconfigured or “misremembered” discourses in fact embody thoughts and ideas long dead and forgotten? This is one of many intriguing ideas presented by Cyril O’Regan, theo...
Anne Carpenter joins Ryan to discuss the intersection of history, tradition, art, and theology. What is the difference between ressourcement and genealogy? Are art and theology the same thing? What can video games teach us about theology? How can everyday Christians contribute to renewing the theological tradition? Anne is associate professor of theology at St. Mary's College of California and has recently published Nothing Gained Is Eternal: A Theology of Tradition with Fortress Press....
Innovation is often seen as key to modern society. Whether in pursuit of economic growth, more convenience in daily life, or simply greater well-being, the pursuit of the new and better ideas and technology is always underway. But what if the key to human flourishing doesn’t lie in the search for the new, but rather in maintenance of what we already have? Could the endless pursuit of innovation as a goal in itself is actually causing us harm? Lee Vinsel, co-author of The Innovation Delusion and ...
In this episode, Ryan sits down with Madhavi Nevader and T.J. Lang, both biblical scholars at St. Andrew’s School of Divinity in Scotland. In a conversation that roams from the Tower of Babel to journey of the apostle Paul to the third heaven, they discuss how the understanding of God’s identity—as Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, as Jesus the divine man, as multiple Persons who are yet one — has unfolded in time. From unpacking the many conceptions of God in the Old Testament, to the scandal of Jesu...
For much of middle class America, 401ks are seen as good stewardship, and wise investing in the stock market as a way of attaining financial goods for oneself and the economy at large. But do these things we take for granted contribute to the overall good of the human person and society? Jacob Imam, economist and executive director of New Polity, argues that not only are these things not necessary to a healthy economy, but that we should question whether stock ownership has any role to play in C...
The prophet Isaiah speaks of the foolishness of those who bow down to the work of their own hands, idols made of wood that cannot speak and have no power of their own. And yet the irony of idolatry is that idols come to have a strange power over us and our actions. John Wyatt of the Faraday Institute sees this biblical image of the idol as a powerful lens for assessing the spiritual, ethical, and philosophical repercussions of AI. Although AI is developed with the goal of helping mankind shape a...
Ryan, Grant, and Gretchen ask each other all their burning questions, probing more deeply into past interviews and breaking new territory. Together they ponder how Jesus might run a tech company, the desire to live forever and its impact on procreation, and what it means to be stewards of reality.
The liberal tradition frames the story of modernity as the gradual victory of freedom against state hegemony. Liberty, the consent of the people to be governed, and individual rights are the mainstay of western society. But are we really more free than before? What if freedom isn’t what we think? Historian and theologian Andrew Willard Jones talks with Grant about the ways that liberalism contradicts the Christian idea of the human person, how liberalism ultimately tends towards tyranny, and wha...
The modern conception of how time unfolds leaves us trapped in a chronological sequence with no return to the past; but is it true that “you can’t go back”? In the second part of their conversation, Matthew and Ryan discuss how the past can erupt into the present; why cultivating these temporal possibilities must be an ecumenical project; the way images reveal timeless truths that underlie our visible surroundings; and how the ideas of thinkers like Chesterton can converse with, and be informed ...
We often think of the time before the birth of Jesus Christ in terms of the Old Testament. But what about the humans in other parts of the world, long before the history of Israel begins? Art historian Matthew Milliner joins Ryan to discuss how "the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world" might have been present in cultures tens of thousands of years ago. The first of two parts.
Although the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence is a modern topic, it can be seen as a new version of an old question famously posed by Tertullian: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Today’s podcast guest, Derek Schuurman—computer scientist, author, and professor at Calvin University—rephrases that question for those living in the age of AI: what does Silicon Valley have to do with Jerusalem? In order to answer this question, Derek posits that it is vital to have an ethic...
Healthcare workers have been lauded as heroes during the pandemic; but even as nurses and other medical employees have been praised for their service, COVID-19 has exposed many of them to long hours, dangerous working conditions, and lack of resources. Although COVID may have magnified these problems in an unprecedented way, they are hardly new challenges for laborers in the healthcare industry. Is living with these conditions expected of heroes, or are nurses allowed to ask for something better...
In this episode, Ryan interviews historian Brad Gregory, Henkels Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. In his book The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society , Brad connects the Reformation in surprising and sometimes controversial ways to the making of the modern world, from secularization and the privatization of religion to the battle between faith and science. Brad argues that the naturalism proper to the natural sciences can’t p...
As technology develops at an ever more rapid pace, it can seem that ethics struggles to keep up with it. While science and technology advance by building on discoveries of the past, virtue and moral knowledge must be cultivated afresh in every individual and each generation. This is where Brian Green comes in. As director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, his areas of research are many, ranging from transhumanism and artificial intelligence, to catastrophic risk and...
On this episode of the podcast, Grant interviews Ted Castronova, Professor of Media at Indiana University and author Life is a Game: What Game Design Says about the Human Condition. Mathematical game theory defines a game as anything that has players making strategic choices to achieve an outcome that matters to them. From this, Ted argues that life itself is a game, and as Christians we can view God as a game designer who has given us free will to make choices within His design. But if life is ...
In her book The Permeable Self, Barbara Newman—John Evans Professor of Latin, as well as English, Classics, and History at Northwestern University—explores the importance of coinherence in the medieval view of personhood. This is the concept that persons are profoundly interconnected, existing not in isolation but “in” each other. One illustration of this is the trope of exchanging hearts, whether between lovers or between female mystics and Christ. The concept of our selves having such porous b...
In April of 2019, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention published a document called “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles.” Armed with the belief that God has created humans with both the ability to invent new technologies and the wisdom to answer new dilemmas those technologies raise, the document outlined basic principles to guide a Christian ethical approach to advances in AI. In a cultural moment when many Christian v...
In the United States, deaths of despair—from alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide—have risen sharply in the past decades. Many countries have recognized levels of social disconnection so high that they have become a public health crisis; both Japan and the U.K. have appointed Ministers of Loneliness in the hopes of answering this need for community and connection. But awareness of this growing crisis in human well-being does not easily translate into knowing how to fix it—or if we can fix it at a...
Join Ryan and Gretchen as they interview each other and explore a variety of topics together: from digital wisdom and genealogy, memory and wonder at the mystery of creation, incorrupt bodies and corrupt code, and the Impossible Burger.
The birth rate in the United States is the lowest it’s ever been. Between rising costs of living and anxiety about humanity’s impact on the environment, people are having fewer children than ever. And yet surveys indicate that we still want babies, and want them in larger numbers than they’re being born. Demographer and pro-natalist Lyman Stone joins Grant to discuss why this desire doesn’t translate into a higher birth rate, why that matters, and what we should do about it....
From weaponized drones to dancing robots, artificial intelligence has become the locus of many hopes and anxieties about humanity’s future. In the face of rapid technological development, finding the golden mean between utopian daydreams and dystopian forecasts can seem an impossible project. Robert J. Marks—professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, and Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence—sits down with Gretchen to dive into ...
Over the past year, the debate over how to address racism and systemic inequality has been at the forefront of many people’s minds. Theologian Jonathan Tran argues that the concept of race emerged as a “fig leaf” to cover the naked evils of slavery and racism, rather than as something essential to our identity as human beings. Because of this, seeing race as core to identity risks perpetuating injustice. How can we find ways to talk about identity and difference that don’t assume race is essenti...
Micah Redding, a computer programmer by training, a follower of Christ, and now the executive director of the Christian Transhumanist Association, joins Gretchen to discuss the history and future of transhumanism, the impact of artificial intelligence, and the role of Christians in this technological age. Together they ask, “Can Christians embrace transhumanism on their own terms?”
Amy Adamczyk joins Grant to discuss some of the most contentious topics in American culture. Why are Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Jews so bad at transmitting their faith to their children? Why have attitudes on abortion not liberalized over time the way views on homosexuality and marijuana use have? What can we learn from comparing Chinese and American attitudes toward abortion? Amy is a professor of sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Programs of Doctoral Study in ...
Anne Carpenter joins Ryan to discuss the intersection of history, tradition, art, and theology. What is the difference between ressourcement and genealogy? Are art and theology the same thing? What can video games teach us about theology? How can everyday Christians contribute to renewing the theological tradition? Anne is associate professor of theology at St. Mary's College of California and has recently completed Nothing Gained Is Eternal: A Theology of Tradition , forthcoming from Fortress P...
