The Theology Pugcast

With the recent spate of memes presenting Anakin Skywalker as the Zoomer hero of the Star Wars prequels, the Pugsters discuss this trend and look under the hood to see why this has become popular with Zoomer men. Starting with the article “Getting Sith-Pilled on the Boomers,” the guys discuss where Gen-Z has legitimate gripes, where they get in their own way, the Boomers, the Postwar Consensus, an...

Chris couldn’t make up his mind on what to talk about so he decided to talk about both. In part one he discusses our feudal future and the breakdown of the free market, and in the second part he outlines a theory of idolatry and suggests that old fashioned idolatry is coming back in part due to advances in artificial intelligence. Learn more about the Theology Pugcast and contact us: https://www.t...

On today’s episode, the pugs engage the question: have contemporary Christian forms of spirituality made Christians more or less susceptible to secular, technological formation and manipulation? Tom introduces the topic by discussing Lori Branch’s significant work: Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth. From that introduction, the pugs then delve into a wi...

Effective Altruism (EA) is the guiding ethical approach in much of the tech world and especially among A.I. gurus and the ostensibly independent body that is overseeing the A.I. companies. In this episode, the Pugs discuss what EA is and the problems with it, most importantly, its superficial concept of the Good and its efforts to quantify everything. If you want to know what our A.I. overlords th...

In this episode, we welcome Tara Thieke on the show to talk about her two-part article on the rising popularity of witchcraft. The conversation touches on why witchcraft is growing, witchcraft as the female parallel to transhumanism, its connection to critical theory, Lindsey Clancy, the collapse of secularism, and the church’s failure to recognize the cultural drift toward the occult. We finish w...

The Pugs respond to a book review by Robert Bellah of Harold Bloom’s, The American Religion, from all the way back in 1992. Bloom contended that beneath the surface of an ostensible Christianity lurked an American version of Gnosticism. Bloom rejoiced, many people at the time objected, but has Bloom been proven right 30 years later? Tune in and find out what the Pugs have to say. Article: https://...

In this episode, the Pugs welcome back Dr. Natalie Atwell to discuss her new book, Humanity Under Siege. After more than twenty years as a licensed clinical mental health therapist, Dr. Atwell noticed that the cases were becoming stranger. This led her on a quest to figure out why, and she concluded that there was a spiritual dimension that counseling had largely ignored. She then worked on diagno...

This week’s podcast looks at the important book by Tobias Rose-Stockwell: Outrage Machine: how tech amplifies discontent, disrupts democracy, and what we can do about it. The pugs engaged the book, recognizing that the author is correct to note how social media and contemporary technology serve as environments of spiritual and moral formation. But what is being formed is something that actually ma...

In this episode, Glenn leads off the discussion by citing recent claims by scientists that we need to reduce global population by more than half by 2200 for the sake of the planet. The guys note the failed predictions of Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book The Population Bomb that have led to disastrous things like China’s one child policy and constant calls for reducing population even as we’re facing a bir...

Today the Pugs reflect on an essay from Matthew B. Crawford’s Substack entitled, The Fate of Liberty in the American Experiment. One feature of the essay is a reflection on the understanding of virtue assumed by the American Founders, does it have more in common with the classical understanding or is it modern in character. If the latter, is the experiment doomed? If the former, is there any hope...

This week’s episode looks at a variety of social and ethical visions that aim for the perfect society or state of being through, especially in the West. These visions, some of which have religious and even Christian roots, end up bracketing out a full Christian view of transcendence and replace it with one or another type of reality immanent in nature or the human or in human invention alone. The...

On today's show the Pugs respond to a variety of questions submitted by Patreon patrons. Tune in for a wide ranging conversation! Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https...

The Pugsters welcome Fr. Dwight Longenecker to the show to discuss his new book, Bloodshed and Blessing. The book discusses blood sacrifice as a component of all traditional religions until those sacrifices find their fulfillment and ending in Christ. The conversation ranges over the “why” of sacrifice, its significance in the Eucharist today, and even the Sword of St. Michael, a set of seven chur...

Today the Pugs come down to earth to talk about the writing life. What time of day do they write? What tools do they use? Eating first or writing on an empty stomach; does it even matter? All this and more is on the table for discussion. Tune in learn about what Tom, Glenn, and Chris have in common and what distinguishes their approaches to writing! Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https:/...

In this episode, the Pugsters look at the role of imagination in finding truth. Starting with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s definition of imagination, the conversation explores the role of the Logos in creating and sustaining the world. For Coleridge, it is our primary imagination that sees and understands the words of the Logos in creation; the secondary imagination works from the primary imagination...

This week the pugs discuss the theologically profound and philosophically astute nineteenth century fiction writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Interacting with key aspects of this Russian Christians challenging life and intense suffering, they place his writings and their profound engagement with the human condition, looking at the idolatrous and soul destroying paths on many modernist ideologies, and hig...

By What Authority: https://firstthings.com/by-what-authority-2/ Experimental Sermons Substack: https://jwdell.substack.com/ Pre-Order Exile and Return: https://payhip.com/b/Hc6up Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo....

Today’s show is a short one. Tom and Glenn are out of the country, but Chris is joined by repeat guest, Dr. George Grant to discuss a recent article he published with Ligonier Ministries about Rev. John Witherspoon, the only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence! The Presbyterian Rebellion: https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/the-presbyterian-rebellion?utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1dennh...

With Tom on vacation, Chris and Glenn welcome back Kemper Crabb to talk about his father, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times, along with Kemper’s experiences on missions to India with his dad, his dealings with the invisible world, and how all of this relates to Reformed theology. Kemper offers valuable insights and experiences that many will find challenging but that are th...

Today the Pugs welcome Hillsdale Professor and historian, Brad Birzer to the Pugcast to discuss his forthcoming book on the Inklings 'Tolkien and the Inklings: Men of the West'. As long time listeners know, we’re fanboys of the Inklings and we think Brad is pretty great too. Brad is a prolific author and an old friend of Chris (he wrote the introduction to Chris’s book on Tom Bombadil). We...

In this episode, the Pugsters welcome Megan Basham to the show. Megan is a former culture correspondent for World magazine and host of their popular podcast “The World and Everything in It.” She has since moved to the Daily Wire. Her book, Shepherds for Sale, became a bestseller and raised important questions about what Big Eva is doing and why. In our conversation, we talk about how Megan came on...

Today’s show engages the recent encyclical of Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas. The encyclical offers wise guidance from a Christian set of resources to help human beings protect their humanity and the common good in light of the radical changes coming from advanced technologies, especially AI. The pugs especially focus on the call for discernment, and offer some insight into the riches that Chri...

“Knowledge is Power, Francis Bacon”—we’ve all heard it over and over. But what did he mean? And was he right, or did he intentionally leave important things to know out of his thinking? He’s credited with developing the scientific method, and we should be grateful for this part of his legacy, but people have speculated from the start that he was a closet atheist. He was Thomas Hobbes’s mentor, wha...

In lieu of a new episode this week, we're revisiting last year's conversation Malcolm Guite: poet, priest, and theologian. Chris leads off the conversation with Mariner, Guite’s biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge which uniquely among studies of Coleridge brings out the importance of his return to Trinitarian Christianity to his life. The conversation uses Coleridge’s life and work as a j...

Inspired by Malcolm Guite’s Galahad and the Grail, Glenn walks the other Pugs through the evolution of the story of Arthur from his historical roots as a warlord through his transformation into the ideal king surrounded by a band of noble knights, into the world of the medieval romances. This leads to the emergence of the story of the Grail and its ultimate connection to the Eucharist. In the proc...