The Theology Pugcast

Tom continues his reflection on the theological implications of technology. Are there any lines here? If it can be done, must it be done? What happened at Babel? And what about Cain's sons? They're identified in the Bible as the fathers of the arts. As usual, Glenn and Chris join in and try to throw Tom an occasional curveball to see if he can hit it. (He always does.) Plus a couple of announcemen...

The best kept secrets are the ones that you are keep from yourself. In today's show Glenn shares his thoughts on evangelical secularism--in other words, there are assumptions and biases that many evangelicals have that actually have their origins in a secular outlook. The paradox of this state of mind is evangelicals can unwittingly undermine the Christian faith even as they seek to promote it. Ch...

In today's show Chris introduces two virtues that he has written about elsewhere--pietas and gravitas. These virtues are at one and the same time alien to the contemporary world, yet longed for. What's more, there is a sense of recognition when people see them in practice, yet because we've lost the old ways of thinking about them and speaking about them, we no longer know how to promote them. Thi...

In today's show Tom introduces the subject of technology and its uses and abuses. While technology is an expression of God's image in human beings, it also can be used to deconstruct that image--or at least deface it in some way. So, do we use technology to shape the world, or does technology shape us--or is it both? Glenn and Chris join in, reflecting on the "cultural mandate", the Fall, the Towe...

In this episode Glenn Sunshine shares his memories of Notre Dame from his time in Paris, as well as his thoughts on the art of interpreting the meaning embedded in the structure of a cathedral. Following the recent fire at Notre Dame there were disturbing remarks by some Protestants and secularists dismissing the significance and meaning of church buildings. (This is not a coincidence.) In today's...

Today the guys get into a little literary criticism as they discuss an article that Chris wrote for Touchstone Magazine years ago comparing C. S. Lewis and H. P Lovecraft. Most listeners to The Theology Pugcast are likely to be familiar with C. S. Lewis and his fiction--particularly the Chronicles of Narnia and the space trilogy. Fewer are likely to know about Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos, nev...

Tom continues his reflections on his Oxford mentor's essay on sins of speech. Glenn and Chris speak up when they have something to say, all the while hoping that they are telling the truth. 

In our time of campus speech codes and hectoring for "misgendering" someone, it is tempting to downplay the fact that you really can do harm with your speech. Two of the Ten Commandments prohibit forms of speech--blasphemy and false witness. A case could be made that those are the same thing--just applied to God and man respectively. Today Tom Price shares his reflections on another essay by his m...

Today Glenn shares some of his reflections on how the image of God is reflected in creation by the respective roles of men and women. Using the pattern of "forming and filling" from Genesis chapter one, Glenn notes that these correspond to the respective tasks of men and women as God's regents. Naturally this leads to a wide-ranging discussion as Tom and Chris comment on Glenn's thoughts. 

In today's show C. R Wiley raises the question, "Can Christians be Pragmatists?" Quotations from William James and Richard Rorty, two of the 20th centuries greatest pragmatists, show how pragmatism is hostile to the classical Christian understanding of the relationship between words and the world. Words are tools for pragmatists, not windows--they create meaning and can be used to manipulate peopl...

Today Tom Price shares an article by the English theologian Oliver O'Donovan entitled, The Natural Ethic. The discussion gets into late medieval developments in philosophy--specifically voluntarism and nominalism. Glenn raises some historical qualifications, but all are agreed that we live in a time when things are falling apart because we've lost the ability to see meaning in nature.

In today's show, Glenn analyzes the phenomenon of transgenderism and its meteoric rise to cause celebre'. Using "cultural marxism" to understand the phenomenon Glenn discusses both its appeal and its use of intimidation to force normalization. Tom looks at the phenomenon through the lens of the relationship of the transcendent God with his creation--particularly as that doctrine has been misconstr...

Chris gives an overview of the newsletter The Masculinist, and its creator Aaron Renn. Then he introduces the controversial claim made in the latest edition that "Complementarianism" (the belief that men and women have different roles in the household and the church but not in wider society) is doomed. Glen and Tom ask for a better account of complementarianism, but all three agree that version of...

In today's show, Dr. Thomas Price shares an article written by his old mentor at Oxford, Dr. John Webster. The article is entitled: "Love is Also a Lover of Life: creatio ex nihilo and Creaturely Goodness." After Tom explains the importance of transcendence and the doctrine of creation from nothing, then Chris, Glenn, and Tom venture to "comb out" the implications for worldview, ethics, salva...

Dr. Glenn Sunshine speaks with Dr. Thomas Price and C. R. Wiley about his recent article at BreakPoint entitled: An Emerging Worldview." Although none of the Theology Pugcast team like the term "Cultural Marxism," it is useful for understanding at least one aspect of this phenomenon.