David Grubbs moderates a discussion with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about detective fiction, its roots in Romanticism and Victorian literature, and the changes it undergoes as the television age progresses. Along the way we talk about the sidekick figure, the development of the wounded-warrior stereotype in the genre, and why those toys on NCIS don't really exist. Among the authors, texts, and television shows discussed are Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Bones, ...
Apr 14, 2010•1 hr 17 min
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour on sports, their ethical weight, their psychological functions, their place in the history of civilization and of literary enterprise, and why nobody likes the Yankees. Among the contested ideas are the relative merits of civic sporting patriotism, the goods inherent in playing and in watching sports, and the art of televised football. Among the texts and authors discussed are Homer, John Updike, and A Dying Cub Fan's Las...
Apr 07, 2010•1 hr 7 min
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about the shape of literary education and especially the fight between Critical Theory and Great Books curricula. Beginning with the Renaissance and moving forward into the age of research universities, they examine and critique various visions of general education. Among the texts and authors discussed are C.S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Henry Newman, George Campbell, Adam Smith, and Thoma...
Mar 31, 2010•1 hr 18 min
David Grubbs and Michial Farmer hold forth on scary things, tracing their ancient roots and modern-era American and British flowering and exploring the sorts of things that movies do to scare audiences. Among the movies, texts, and authors discussed are Gilgamesh, Edgar Allen Poe, Horace Walpole, The Shining, H.P. Lovecraft, Jaws, Dracula, and Frankenstein.
Mar 24, 2010•1 hr
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and special guest co-host Chris Gehrz about the purpose and the future of Christian colleges, our experiences with them, and various theories of education--ranging from Reformed to Pietist--which inform life in the Christian college. Among the authors and texts discussed in this week's show are Arthur Holmes, Chris Gehrz, Will Willimon, and James K.A. Smith.
Mar 17, 2010•1 hr 22 min
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion of youth ministry, its roots in twentieth-century American youth culture, some departures from older ways of thinking about childhood, the different ways that youth ministers have tried to adapt to the cult of the young, and some interesting developments and alternatives. Among the texts, authors, and movements discussed in this episode are J.D. Salinger, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jack Kerouac, homeschooling, Johnson City style youth ministry, and chubby bunnies. (T...
Mar 11, 2010•1 hr 16 min
David Grubbs moderates a discussion of literary origin stories, starting in the Babylonian and other Levantine predecessors of Genesis, spending a fair bit of time on Genesis, and launching forth (after a detour through the Greeks and Romans, of course) into the Christian era's accounts of creation. Among the authors and texts discussed are Enuma Elish, Genesis, Rig Veda, the Gospel of John, Ovid, Caedmon, Paradise Lost, and the Chronicles of Narnia.
Mar 03, 2010•1 hr 14 min
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion of Sam Tanenhaus's recent book The Death of Conservatism , its relative truth and worth, and how the Christian Humanists relate to various iterations of conservatism. Among the authors and texts with which we engage are Sam Tanenhaus, Edmund Burke, Neil Postman, Stanley Hauerwas, Augustine, and Plato.
Feb 24, 2010•1 hr 7 min
David Grubbs moderates a discussion about the varieties of epic, the nationalist ideologies that motivate some of the theories of epic, the relationships between novels and epics, and how all of these discussions inform the Christian Humanists' common sense that most movies claiming to be epic movies are nearly unwatchable. Among the authors, texts, and movies discussed are Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, Hudibras, Troy, King Arthur, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies, Garden State, and 300.
Feb 10, 2010•1 hr 18 min
Michial Farmer and David Grubbs hold forth on the character of literary comedy, its place in Christian traditions, and why life is in fact one long Monty Python movie. Among the texts, authors, and movies discussed are Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Monty Python, Weird Al, G.K. Chesterton, Aristotle, and... no, at this point not even we believe this list.
Feb 03, 2010•1 hr 1 min
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion of how life-after-death, especially the unpleasant sort, appears in literary texts, beginning in Classical poetry, moving through a healthy dose of medieval poetry, and finishing with a consideration of some interesting twentieth-century visions of Hell. Among the texts and authors we discuss are Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon homilies, Guthlac, Genesis B from the Junius Manuscript, Dante, Langland, Gower, Milton, C.S. Lewis, and Sartre.
Jan 27, 2010•1 hr 6 min
David Grubbs moderates a discussion of the national mythology, the spiritual realities, and the ongoing plight of Haiti, focusing on the comments of Pat Robertson and responses from some of his liberal critics. We delve into theodicy, Providence, apocalyptic, archaeology of knowleddge, and other topics, and the texts we discuss are the Biblical books of 1 Chronicles, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Revelation; Boethius, Calvin, The Wanderer, and Jon Levenson.
Jan 12, 2010•1 hr 11 min
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion of the theological enterprise called apologetics, starting from patristic endeavors and moving through high-medieval theology and finishing with the Humanists' suggestions for Christian apologists in the twenty-first century. Among the writers we discuss are Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, C.S. Lewis, Kierkegaard, John Milbank, Cornelius van Til, Ken Ham, and Richard Dawkins.
Jan 12, 2010•1 hr 6 min
Nathan Gilmour, snotty English teacher, moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer on various attempts to stymie Christmas over the centuries, culminating in a discussion of the 21st century's versions of the same. Among the texts we discuss are Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Morte d'Arthur, Washington Irving's The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon , A Christmas Carol, The Grinch who Stole Christmas, and various 24-hour news programs. Listen to hear our favorite story of St. Nicho...
Dec 10, 2009•1 hr 5 min
David Grubbs moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about modern-era speculative fiction, including fantasy and science fiction. Discussion ranges from our early experiences with the genres to theological and philosophical curiosities within and objections to both. Among the authors we discuss are J.R.R. Tolkien, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Walker Percy.
Dec 01, 2009•1 hr 2 min
Technical difficulties unfortunately shorten a further discussion of Emergent and New Calvinism, this time focusing on border figures like Clark Pinnock, James K.A. Smith, and Michael Spencer. Further discussions of muti-site churches and book publishing almost get rolling.
Nov 24, 2009•34 min
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion about Emergent and New Calvinism, their perceived and real impact, their relationships to history, and other such things. Among other topics, the discussion treats Mark Driscoll, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, celebrity culture in the church, multisite worship, and the plague of hipness in the Church.
Nov 17, 2009•1 hr 1 min
Mchial Farmer moderates a discussion about the relationships between Christianity and American origins, Christian ethics and participation in the state, and resisting evil. Among other topics the hosts discuss Anabaptist politics, the Declaration of Independence, and the problems of being Christian and affirming the American Revolution.
Nov 10, 2009•1 hr
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the ways that John Calvin affects our scholarship, our theology, and other parts of our life and about Calvin's helpful reminders to 21st-century Christians. Along the way we treat Calvin's early interactions with Seneca, Calvin's attitudes towards worldly learning, and how Calvinism affected the course of medieval studies.
Oct 27, 2009•1 hr 5 min
Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs about what Christian humanism means, how it plays into the life of the Church and of the academy, and how a Christian humanist might respond to common criticisms. In the course of things we trace humanism's roots in Patristic encouters with philosophy and rhetoric; the flowering of Christian Humanism in the Renaissance, especially in the work of Desiderus Erasmus; and some twentieth-century figures who have continued the ...
Oct 22, 2009•1 hr 5 min
Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson hold forth about "Dance of the Happy Shades," a short-story collection from 2013 Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro.
Jan 01, 1970•1 hr 9 min
