The Ad Fontes Podcast

This week Rhys, Colin, and Jonathan continue the podcast's readthorugh of Begotten or Made?  This time they discuss the relational and procreative good of marriage and how they relate, why IVF is Nietzschean, and what Protestants think of contraception. Timestamps 00:00:00-00:09:38 - intro, recap, the unitive/relation good of marriage 00:09:47-00:18:47 relation of various goods in marriage 00...

This week, Rhys and Colin are joined by Davenant House Groundskeeper Jonathan McKenzie to discuss the virtue of moderation. Prompted by Davenant Press's recent publication A Treatise on Christian Moderation , they discuss the philosophical history of moderation, how it relates to both physical and intellectual pursuits, and how it fits into the pursuit of holiness. Timestamps 00:00:00-00:14:0...

Recorded in August 2023, Colin hosts this special live episode with the return of Onsi Kamel and our most featured guest, Colin's brother Justin. Colin, Onsi, and Justin discuss a paper Onsi delivered at the Bay Area Thomas Aquinas Society conference on a Thomistic view of "place". Albert the Great, Thomas' mentor, saw close links between metaphysics and his view of place physi...

Happy New Year! Rhys and Colin are back together to discuss Made Like the Maker , the second volume in Colin's modernization of Thomas Traherne's Christian Ethics . They talk about who Traherne was, before diving into the nature of Christian ethics, what wisdom of "the whole" means, and Colin's provocative introductory essay to the book. Subscribe to Ad Fontes from just $2...

It's a Christmas special! This week, Rhys and Colin discuss an unlikely candidate for a Christmas story: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Is there anything festive to be fount in this famously bleak post-apocalyptic story? Much in every way! Subscribe to Ad Fontes from just $2.50 per month! Gain access to our quaterly print editions and exclusive interviews, and support our work. Subscribe here:...

This week, Rhys and Colin continue their readthrough of Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan. Continuing through Chapter 3, they discuss the realities of artificial insemination by donor, covering the ethics of donor anonymity, and the motives behind AID verses adoption. Subscribe to Ad Fontes from just $2.50 per month! Gain access to our quaterly print editions and exclusive interviews, and...

This week, Rhys and Colin continue their readthrough of Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan. In Ch. 3, O'Donovan finally addresses the topic of artificial insemination, addressing questions about the ends of medical intervention; the differences between cure, compensation, and circumvention in treatment; and the ethics of involving a third party in the reproductive process. Subscribe t...

This week, Rhys and Colin are joined by Nathan Johnson, Provost of Davenant Hall, to discuss his Ad Fontes article "When Rights Go Wrong: Simone Weil on Uprootedness and the Way Forward". Why are obligations more important than rights? What roots do human societies need to flourish? And is rootedness compatible with multiculturalism? They discuss all these questions and more! Subscribe t...

This week, Rhys and Colin resume their walkthrough of Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan. Having discussed "the psychological case" in transsexualism, they now discuss O'Donovan's account of "the social case". What are we saying when we refuse to admit someone is "in the wrong body", yet make social allowances for them? Should medicine be marhsaled i...

We're back! This week, Rhys and Colin are joined by James Wood, discussing his recent Ad Fontes article "How Abraham Kuyper Lost the Nation and Sidelined the Church." They discuss Kuyper's approach to church and state, the critiques made by his forgotten foil Hoedemaker, and how their debates are relevant to contemporary debates about politics and the renewal of the church. Sub...

In Onsi's final episode as a host, he, Colin, and Rhys talk about the dominant force in American Protestantism: the non-denominational megachurch (or, to its truest admirers, "hot dog church"). Does Davenant do hot dog church? What are its strengths? How does it fit into the Reformation tradition? NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these l...

The classical education world has experienced some healthy internal debate recently. Two significant features of modern education - an emphasis on diversity and the prevalence of standardized testing - have come into focus in discussions around the increasingly popular Classical Learning Test (CLT). Here, we repost audio of a Twitter Spaces conversation between Colin Redemer and Jeremy Tate, Found...

Recorded LIVE at our 2023 National Convivium Irenicum, Colin and Onsi are joined by Pastor Daniel Doleys to discuss the sessions from our annual gathering, which focussed on "Christ and the Nations: A Protestant Theology of Statecraft". They talk about Schleirmacher,  kingship, supererrogation (whatever that is), and more. NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases...

This week, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys answer YOUR questions! They talk about Onsi's problem with C.S. Lewis, working in a Catholic college, a curriculum for the classics, Protestant and Thomism, whether modernity exists, and why they've remained silent on the topic of fairies. NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institut...

How does our society perceive gender confusion? Continuing their readthrough of Begotten or Made? Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss what Oliver O'Donovan calls "the psychological case", one of two ways our society tries to explain the problem, but which he argues is fraught with insonsistencies. NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links g...

People talk a lot about "the image of God" these days, or the imago dei. But what do they mean by this? Often, it's not what people used to mean. This week Onsi, Colin, and Rhys talk about shifting views of "the image of God", the lack of traditional consensus on the topic, and whether you even need the idea to talk about human dignity. NOTE: most books below are linked vi...

Procreation is linked to the male-female binary. But how do we respond to that reality: with welcome, or resentment? Onsi, Colin, and Rhys continue their readthrough of Oliver O'Donovan's Begotten or Made?  and tackle this question and more as they reach Chapter 2, "Sex By Artifice." NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give...

Should Christian classical education teach Plato? Or any philosophy, for that matter? This week, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss Colin's recent Ad Fontes article, responding a to a review of his chapter in Reforming Classical Education . They discuss whether Christian high schoolers should really be learning philosophy, and why Christians who believe philosophical primary texts to be important...

How did our society's view of freedom come about? And why would Christians ever have a problem with compassion? Continuing their readthrough of Begotten or Made? , Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss these big questions, which ends up involving a surprisng conversation about opera. NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute...

How should Christians approach Bible translation? Should Scripture be fitted into out native language, or should our native language stretch to make room for Scripture? This is a key question for Protestantism, which was birthed in the context of new biblical translations. Translations produced by Protestants, such as Luther's Bible and the KJV, have undoubtedly shaped their native tongues. T...

Should technology have a role in human reproduction? This is the basic question tackled by Oliver O'Donovan's book Begotten or Made? , one of the 20th century's most important works of medical ethics, and recently republished by the Davenant Press. This week, our co-hosts continue their walkthrough of the book, unpacking its riches. They discuss what kind of art medicine is, why peo...

Thomas Traherne is an overlooked figure from church history. But this 17th century cleric, poet, and mystic has grown in popularity since being rediscovered in the 1890s. The Davenant Press is now publishing a new edition of his "Christian Ethics", a rich Christian meditation on how God made man to live.  Our very own Colin Chan Redemer has modernized the text, and so we discuss Traherne...

Should technology have a role in human reproduction? This is the basic question tackled by Oliver O'Donovan's book Begotten or Made? , one of the 20th century's most important works of medical ethics, and recently republished by the Davenant Press. This week, our co-hosts begin a walkthrough of the book, unpacking its riches. They discuss definitions of begetting vs. making, the cat...

The workplace has changed beyond recognition. We live an an age of robots, offshored jobs, megacorporations and more. How can Protestant Christians begin to think about an economy that has undergone such sea changes? This week, Colin, Rhys, and special guest Joseph Minich discuss Colin and Joe's chapter on work and labor in Davenant's recent book Protestant Social Teaching to try and add...

Do you smoke? The question provokes a lot of reactions these days, including among Christians. This week (still together live at ETS!) Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss the topic of smoking from a Christian perspective, bringing the Westminster Larger Catechism, Aristotle, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien to bear on the conversation. NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make vi...