What would drive someone to renounce all their possessions, relationships, and ambitions to join a religious community? Sean talks with Zena Hitz, whose new book A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life explores this question — drawing from her own experience. They discuss the occasionally perplexing relationship between faith and reason, why Hitz thinks the act of renunciation is the pinnacle of Christian belief, and why the radicalism at the heart of Christianity seems so absent from mainstream practice.
Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area
Guest: Zena Hitz, (@zenahitz) author; tutor, St. John's College
References:
A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life by Zena Hitz (Cambridge; 2023)
Lost In Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz (Princeton; 2020)
The Madonna House in Combermere, Ontario, Canada
Confessions by St. Augustine (401 AD)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
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A philosopher takes on religious life | The Gray Area with Sean Illing podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
