New Persuasive Words
"The revival in religion will be a rhetorical problem - new persuasive words for defaced or degraded ones." - Thornton Wilder
Episodes
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Episode 135: Friday Night Lights: Gods Old & New
June 2nd, 2017 | 32 mins 39 secs
We talk about an article in the Aeon journal on the Frankfurt School entitled "Theory from the ruins", among other things.
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Episode 134: Monuments and Memory
May 30th, 2017 | 37 mins
In this episode we talk about the recent removal of Confederate Civil War monuments in New Orleans and the nature of historical memory.
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Episode 133: Ascension Matters
May 25th, 2017 | 28 mins 13 secs
Today is Ascension day 2017, the most overlooked day on the Christian religious calendar. We think that's a shame. It's an important doctrine that offers real hope to real people living a complex, messy world.
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Episode 132: The Alienated Mind
May 23rd, 2017 | 38 mins 19 secs
This is a bullgeschichte episode where we're joined by our friend Jace Broadhurst to talk about a recent David Brooks column in the NY Times entitled "The Alienated Mind".
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Episode 131: Where Do Words Come From?
May 20th, 2017 | 32 mins 26 secs
In this episode, inspired by a short essay written by the renowned novelist Cormac McCarthy. It deals with the origins of human language, and whether evolutionary explanations do it justice.
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Episode 130: From Russia With Love
May 16th, 2017 | 24 mins 59 secs
In this episode we discuss President Trump's recent sharing of code-word clearance intelligence information with the Russian Foreign Minister and the Russian Ambassador to the United States.
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Episode 129: The Road Not Taken
May 15th, 2017 | 25 mins 2 secs
In this episode we consider the meaning of a poem often quoted during commencement season, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken".
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Episode 128: Faith, Fragility and Friendship
May 12th, 2017 | 37 mins 17 secs
In this episode, which is a combo of our Friday Night Lights and Bullgeschichte episodes, we talk with Matt Milliner.
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Episode 127: What Is Sophistry?
May 8th, 2017 | 30 mins 17 secs
In this episode we talk about Sophistry and its role in contemporary public life.
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Episode 126: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
May 5th, 2017 | 37 mins 34 secs
In this episode we talk about break ups. It happens to friends, families, lovers, churches, even countries. Break ups and loss are a part of life, but can you come out of them ever feeling alive again?
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Episode 125: A House Divided?
May 2nd, 2017 | 32 mins 30 secs
Reflecting on a recent podcast by Dan Carlin and an Opinion piece in the New York Times, we consider the future of our country as a united one.
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Episode 124: Wisdom
April 27th, 2017 | 32 mins 4 secs
In this episode of the podcast we talk about wisdom and it's connection to a life well lived.
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Episode 123: The Myth of the Christian Worldview
April 23rd, 2017 | 30 mins
In this episode we talk about "the myth of the Christian worldview" inspired by a recent podcast interview with Molly Worthen and an op-ed piece she wrote for the NY Times.
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Episode 122: Bullgeschichte...Thoughts On Things "Constantinian"
April 21st, 2017 | 39 mins 30 secs
This is our first "Bullgeschichte" where we invite a friend or colleague to chat with us about something on our minds. Our first guest is Josh Retterer. We talk with him about Christendom, Constantinianism and how these terms are used today, and whether they're helpful.
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Episode 121: Humility
April 18th, 2017 | 33 mins 7 secs
In a recent NY Times Op-ed piece Peter Wehner writes: "Over breakfast with a social psychologist I know, I asked him what constructive contribution Christians could make to public life. An atheist who finds much to admire in religion, he answered simply: 'Humility.'" We reflect on that exchange a bit in the podcast.
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Episode 120: Saturday Night Dead
April 14th, 2017 | 24 mins 33 secs
In this podcast we reflect on Holy Saturday, the day between Christ's death and Resurrection, and what it means for Christian existence and identity.