Creative Retrieval

This episode discusses Book 8 of St. Augustine's Confessions .

This episode discusses Book 7 of St. Augustine's Confessions .

This episode covers Book 6 of St. Augustine's Confessions .

This episode covers Book 5 of St. Augustine's Confessions .

This episode covers Book 4 of St. Augustine's Confessions .

This episode covers Book 3 of St. Augustine's Confessions .

This episode covers Book 2 of St. Augustine's Confessions.

This episode covers book 1 of St. Augustine's Confessions.

In this discussion I finish talking about Dickens' A Christmas Carol, by discussing Staves 4 and 5. The great gift Scrooge receives from the three ghosts is a awareness of the gift that had always already been given; this brings about a new life of gratitude in Scrooge. Life gets its full meaning only when one becomes grateful for what one has always already had - life itself. This is the meaning...

In Stave 3 of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, we find the ghost of Christmas Present, revealing to Scrooge the excessive abundance of the feast which is the present. I argue that it is gratitude that is the meaning of life, and hence the source of joy and happiness. The Crachit's feast is meager, but because the are grateful for it, it becomes more than they need and hence more than a meager f...

In stave 2 of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol , we find Scrooge visited (haunted) by the ghost of Christmas Past - which is his own past. Our pasts can often haunt us, and perhaps they should haunt us. The root of this haunting is that we are able to judge our present lives in light (not the Ghost has a light shining forth from his head) of our past life...or better yet, in the case of Scrooge,...

In this first of five lectures, I offer a Christian existentialist reading of Charles Dickens's masterpiece A Christmas Carol. This work is about the meaning of Christmas, which is the meaning of the incarnation. The life of the world, the eternal, entering into the now , in order to redeem the past, present and future through his death. The incarnation isn't separable from the crucifixion, just a...

I talk about the importance of memory throughout the Brothers Karamazov. I also talk about the power of the Good to bring good out of all things, even trama, sin, and brokenness.

We talk about fatherhood, and why Dimitri is a Job figure.

We talk about the trial of Mitya.

We talk about the first part of book 11, and especially Dimitri's discussion on the Hymns he will sing underground in Siberia.

We talk about Kolya, Illusha, and the roll of children in the Brothers Karamazov.

In this lecture, I talk about Dimitri's dream about the suffering of the "wee ones" and link it up with Ivan's suffering children, and Smerdyakov's hatred of the 'wee ones.'

We talk about Dimitri and the comparison with Zosima, and conscience as our ability to condemn ourselves as guilty so that we don't rebel against God's judgement.

We talk about Dimitri as the incarnation of a man who is either hot or cold NEVER lukewarm. We also talk about his sudden decision to let go of his life.

We talk about Alyosha's rebellion, the onion, and the wedding of Cana.

This lecture is about Zossima's homilies/talks, sin, death, alcoholics anonymous, and St. Mary of Egypt.

I talk about the life of Zossima.

I talk about the Grand Inquisitor, the weight of freedom and conscience, and ideology.

We talk about the need for a love that isn't contempt, the need for loving life with one's guts, and Rebellion.