Seeking the Hidden Thing Podcast

Seeking the Hidden Thing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Sponsorship Partners FoxNSons Coffee Steve Fox is one of “our guys” and he sells coffee. Good coffee. If you live in the US — sorry Canadians…too much government red tape involved in shipping coffee over the border…my supply comes hand delivered — he ca...

Ron and I get together to extend our discussion of the church as a nation unto itself by discussing the politically charged terms "ethos" and "genos" as they were used then and how they apply now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

Dave and I get together to discuss the state of the Global American Empire This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

I have Garen Kaloustian on to talk about the central organizing force of America and American society. Is it Protestant Christianity? Anglo culture? Enlightenment liberalism? It's commerce. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

Scripture Reading 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable...

Ben and I get together to talk about the Reformation, what caused it, and how we should properly think about it in the context of the times and the flow of historical events. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

Ben Fleming is back to discuss a work, Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground," that underscores the thesis that the west is largely "stuck" playing out the same themes and ideas from the 1850's-1920's. Seeking the Hidden Thing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss t...

Pulpit Notes Note: the spoken version of this message diverged quite a bit from the text that I brought with me to the pulpit. Today is Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. Deep into Lent, we are boring into core Christian teachings. Who is Jesus? Who are we as Christians? The text we have in front of us is thought to be an early Christian hymn that Paul is using to make a point, likely because of its f...

Carl Schmitt's short work "Political Theology" offers some key insights into the nature of LLM algorithms, and their key, fundamental fatal flaw. It's the same problem the "the rule of law" has. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

The politics of ideas -- conservative vs. liberal -- and the notion of popular sovereignty persist to this day. We need to understand why populism is a political dead end. Seeking the Hidden Thing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Sponsorship Partners FoxNSons Coffee Steve Fox is one of “our guys” and he sells...

Scripture Ephesians 5:8-14 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But ev...

An interesting piece was brought to my attention: a reflection on the so-called "Cain and Abel" story. I was going to respond with a note, but there is enough here to warrant a short meditation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

Some recent questions in my replies require longer answers than a mere "reply" can provide. One such query on immigration got me thinking and gave me an opportunity to think through this issue. Sponsorship Partners FoxNSons Coffee Steve Fox is one of “our guys” and he sells coffee. Good coffee. If you live in the US — sorry Canadians…too much government red tape involved in shipping coffee over th...

Black Horse recently posted a monologue on the fertility crisis, making the big point that almost everything you think caused it, didn't because most of your assumptions about it are wrong. Here is the video monologue from The Red Ensign Substack (with charts!): https://theredensign.substack.com/p/tre-special-15-modernity-and-fertility Sponsorship Partners FoxNSons Coffee Steve Fox is one of “our...

Ben Fleming and I get together to discuss Edmund Burke because of a series of exchanges on Twitter with Erin O’Toole where he suggested that what is needed today is “ordered liberty.” When we mocked this idea, he suggested that we might benefit from reading more Edmund Burke who is seen as the intellectual forefather of modern conservatism. Ben and I thought to ourselves, “Why not?” So we embraced...

Pulpit Notes One of the compliments that people often give when assessing a sermon is that it was “meaty.” What they often mean is that it was heavy in theology or history. It made them think about the text. Perhaps they learned something that they didn’t know before. In our text this morning Paul draws a contrast between milk and solid food. In most of our minds, our default understanding of this...

Ever since the phrase, "You can just do things" hit the online ecosystem, it has troubled me, in large part because it gives the promise that "fixing" everything would be easy if we just had the will. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

This text is one that is surprisingly political and many do not want to hear its message. Revealing the Kingdom of Heaven through the church community is not the same as "taking back the nation." This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

The Black Horse and I get together to talk about the writing and thought of Peter Thiel. We look at several essays written between 1995 and 2010 dealing with the question of diversity, technological progress, the Malthusian problem, the neutral, open society and the question of Athens or Jerusalem, and the return of the “strong gods” and much more. It ended up being one of our more productive and...

Ron and I get together to discuss the theology of the church as the covenant people of God under his Kingship and why this is the proper place to begin when talking politics as Christians. Seeking the Hidden Thing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with oth...

I invite David on to talk about Eliade: why we should not just casually accept the idea of "history" and the negative effects it has on society today. Sponsorship Partners FoxNSons Coffee Steve Fox is one of “our guys” and he sells coffee. Good coffee. If you live in the US — sorry Canadians…too much government red tape involved in shipping coffee over the border…my supply comes hand delivered — h...

Although I don’t talk about it specifically in the message, this reconstitution of the people of God in Christ has many implications for how we understand ourselves, for the meaning of the Lord’s Supper and for Christians as a people, as a people with their own interests and telos. Any Christian political theory worth its salt must begin by discussing the nature of the Christian community itself a...

These last couple of weeks over Christmas have been busy with family home over the break. I was invited to preach, though, and I am finding these themes to be important for our moment. I am going to start doing something new with my sermon postings. Rather than make a separate text post, I am going to post my pulpit notes here. They are in many ways a sketch, a guide for what will happen live on t...

I am joined by Ron Dodson, Josh Abbotoy and Jeremy Carl to discuss the reasons why Evangelicals have not formed a nationally dominant or competitive elite and what can be done about it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe

An abiding frustration of mine is that so many--even people I like--get the "friend-enemy" distinction wrong, apply it wrongly, muddle it up, and in so doing miss much of the potency of the concept. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.seekingthehiddenthing.com/subscribe