The Pugcast

Working off an article about the inability of modern writers on the Vikings to understand their conversion to Christianity, the guys discuss the weaknesses of Norse religion and the answers Christianity offered them. Glenn tells a number of stories about Vikings and explains how Norse Christianity saw itself as the fulfillment of pagan mythology. To round out the discussion, the guys talk about Le...

On today’s show Tom and the guys look at how technocratic rationalists are increasingly longing for something deeper and fuller even though their search mostly remains within the bounds of modernist assumptions and relativism.   The guys look at Tara Burton’s article Rational Magic: Why a Silicon Valley culture that was once obsessed with reason is going woo in the New Atlantis. T...

Here’s a teaser of the inimitable George Grant giving us a little sample of what he will talk about with the pugs at one of our live Pugcasts in Memphis —John Witherspoon, educator, Founding Father, and Presbyterian minister. Join us at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Memphis, Wednesday, June 14th for two live recordings of the Theology Pugcast from 3:00-7:00pm. Food, fellowship, an...

In this week’s episode, the Pugsters riff off a Twitter thread and article contrasting the way Aragorn is portrayed in the movies and in the books. But Aragorn isn’t really the point. His character in the books but not in the movies displays magnanimity, or great-souledness (if that’s a word). The guys talk about the ideas roots in Aristotle, how the concept was Christianized in...

In today's show the Pugs respond to an article published in First Things entitled: Don't Spare the Rod, by Daniel Buck. Buck is a public school teacher and in the article he describes the break down of the order that had once at least partly been kept in public school classrooms. The guys reflect on their own educations in public schools and wonder aloud, "What should Christians do about public ed...

On this week's episode Tom engages insights from Vigen Goroian's article (and book chapter) on Chesterton, Rallying the Really Human Things. The guys join Tom in discussing things human and the humane and the requisite theological and trascendent frame which grounds such things. For example, Christian virtues ripped from their theological mooring become barbaric and inhumane once unleashed on a ci...

Malcolm Guite’s book, Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God, provides the Pugster’s with the starting point for this week’s episode. After a summary of some of Guite’s ideas about imagination as the means by which reason and intuition are united, making the imagination an essential tool for understanding reality, the guys engage in their usual wide-ranging di...

Kemper Crabb is a musician who was involved in the “Jesus Music” of the late ‘70s and ‘80s that later turned into CCM, an Anglican priest working in a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, and a scholar of medieval literature and history, among other things. On today’s episode the Pugsters have a wide ranging conversation with Kemper, including an inside look at the history...

Once upon a time Thomas Aquinas referred to theology as the "Queen of the Sciences"--but what was he referring to? Today the Pugsters take up the crisis of knowledge. The tendency today is to reduce everything to material and efficient causes--in other words, to a material basis. Whole dimensions of human life are now considered too subjective to warrant referring to them as knowledge. Nevertheles...

A timely discussion of the biblical reality of the spiritual realm, the angelic, the demonic, and Christ’s victory over Satan, death, hell, and the grave. Tom introduces the problematic placement of the place of angels and demons in contemporary theology and the need to retrieve the rich biblical vision which shaped classic Christian orthodoxy. Chris and Glenn chime in with a wealth of insig...

Today’s Pugcast is a discussion of Naomi Wolfe’s Substack piece, “Have the Old Gods Returned?” which is a reflection and development of the ideas in Jonathan Cahn’s The Return of the Gods. The premise is that with the rejection of Christianity, God’s protection over the Western world has been withdrawn and the old gods—demonic entities that were pushed to...

The Pugsters welcome apologist and philosopher Doug Groothuis to the show this week to talk about neither apologetics nor philosophy but music. Doug is a jazz fan who has published articles and concert reviews for “All About Jazz.” We talk about the elements that make jazz what it is, jazz performers and standards, and how jazz points to an approach to other activities beside music, in...

Today Chris interviews another speaker from The Traditional Fatherhood Intensive--Nathan Spearing, retired Army Ranger and host of The Life on Target Podcast. Nate shares briefly on a theology of violence, as well as on how to become more dangerous. If you'd like to hear more, sign up for the Traditional Fatherhood Intensive which will be May 5-6 in Vancouver, Washington. Here's a link to the...

In this brief bonus show C. R. Wiley interviews Rory Groves, author of Durable Trades, about what he will be speaking about at The Traditional Fatherhood Intensive. TFI is a two-day conference being held in Vancouver, Washington, May 5-6, 2023 and will feature C. R. Wiley, Rory Groves, and Nate Spearing. To learn more and to register simply follow this link-- ⁠https://www....

Today the Pugs reflect on a remarkable essay by Jon Haidt in which he correlates the mental health of young people since 2013 and their sex and political outlook. The mental health of all young people has been getting worse, but it is worst for liberal girls and it is best for conservative boys. Why 2013? And why does sex and political outlook make a difference? These are the questions that the Pu...

Today's show looks at Jacques Ellul's 'Those whom God wishes to destroy He first Makes Mad' from his book The Betrayal of the West. Tom introduces the topic by looking at how civilizational self-contempt became a defining orientation of Western cultures once it took a nihilistic and idolatrous turn from the Christian vision. Once culture lost its ground and aims in true transcendence the meaning a...

The Man Who Was Thursday is considered by many critics to be G.K. Chesterton’s masterpiece. Published in 1908, it has never gone out of print. It’s simultaneously a comedy, a mystery, a philosophical action-thriller, a spoof on anarchism and German philosophy, and a serial romp from the real into the surreal and back. The guys talk about the book, its themes, and its relevance for toda...

Today the Pugsters take up the notorious Klaus Schawb's prediction for an ideal future: "You will own nothing and you will be happy." Just what sort of human being would you need to be in order for this to be appealing, or even make sense. Chris proposes--you would need to be a plastic pleasure monkey. But is that so? Or are there other truer ways to think about human beings? If so, what are they?...

This week’s show engages one dimension of our current identity crisis in the West by attending the increasing loss of our ability to discern, define, and acknowledge the distinction between created natures and purposes and the artificial and constructed. Tom, Chris and Glenn unpack the topic by looking at the history of this loss and some of its core ingredients: theological and philosophica...

This week’s Pugcast has another special guest. While Glenn is still away, Tom and Chris are joined by Labin Duke, the Executive Director of the Blake Center for Faith and Freedom of Hillsdale College in Somers, Connecticut.   Labin introduces our audience to the fascinating history, mission, and vision of the Center. Extending the reach of the Hillsdale vision of faith and freedom into...

On today’s show Chris and Tom host the show without Glenn, but they are joined by Michael Warren Davis, author of the entertaining and informative book, The Reactionary Mind. Mike helps the pugs understand the differences between conservatives and reactionaries, and why genuine conservatives are actually the latter. Along the way the conversation ambles from Savonarola (a good guy) to Nom Ch...

Few people today know about the remarkable career of Sabine Baring Gould. Anglican priest, father of fifteen, archaeologist, anthropologist, author of novels, short stories, hymns, biographies, and travelogues, amateur painter and ironworker, translator, preserver of folk music, the list goes on and on. Tony Esolen commented that he could only have lived in the nineteenth century. Using Baring Gou...

Listen in for a quick Q&A following yesterday’s episode: The New Asceticism     Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Like The Theology Pugcast? Check out another show sponsored by Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville AL: ‘Got a Minute?’ Theology, Philos...

In some pockets of the Protestant world ‘asceticism’ is a dirty word. It brings works righteousness and unbiblical acts of self-abuse to mind. But is that the whole story? Jesus said, ‘When you fast’ not ‘If you fast.’ In other words, it’s expected, and there’s a right way to do it. So, perhaps it comes as a surprise that self-denial is actually grow...

Today the Pugcast welcomes the versatile artist Jack Baumgartner. Jack is a farmer living with his wife and six children outside of Wichita, Kansas. Jack is a musician (the banjo you hear on this episode is Jack), a painter, printmaker, woodworker, furniture maker, and puppeteer. He’s also a thoughtful Christian whose faith is reflected in all of his work. Chris has collected Jack’s wo...