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 103: A New Relativism?
February 10th, 2017 | 30 mins 8 secs
Traditionally relativism has been something that conservatives blamed on liberals. But in a new world of alternative facts is there a new relativism on the rise? We talk about this, and Bill's frustrations after doing a google search.
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Episode 102: American Exceptionalism
February 6th, 2017 | 32 mins 13 secs
In this episode we discuss the concept of American Exceptionalism, in addition to rehashing Bill's recent chastisement by a Facebook Group administrator.
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Episode 101: Natural Law
February 4th, 2017 | 36 mins 56 secs
The most recent Supreme Court Nominee is Neil Gorsuch. Mr. Gorsuch is a respected legal scholar and intellectual whose work has focused on, among other things, natural law. He wrote a monograph on the topic which served as his doctoral thesis at Oxford. We talk a little about natural law and its role in public life.
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Episode 100: More On The Truth
January 27th, 2017 | 35 mins 34 secs
In this episode we continue thinking about the nature of truth in a world of alternative facts.
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Episode 99: Truth and Bull@#!$
January 23rd, 2017 | 30 mins 41 secs
In this episode we continue to reflect on the nature of truth, specifically the relationship between truth, lies and bull@#!$. We reference the following pieces in the podcast: Harry Frankfurt’s On Bull@#!$ and On Truth. We also discuss C.J.
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Episode 98: The Myth Of Objectivity?
January 18th, 2017 | 35 mins 24 secs
In this episode we talk about a recent NY Times exchange about objectivity in a post-fact world. You can find the piece here.
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Episode 97: Conversation and Criticism
January 10th, 2017 | 29 mins 36 secs
We talk about conversation and criticism and the importance in our culture, inspired by Richard Rohr and A.O. Scott.
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Episode 96: Love Is What We Need
January 3rd, 2017 | 31 mins 21 secs
In this episode we take inspiration from a passage from Tomas Halik’s new book I Want You To Be.
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Episode 95: Lights Old And New
December 31st, 2016 | 35 mins 55 secs
In our last podcast of 2016 we discuss what may be the most important theological conflict in American religious history: the Old/New Light controversy. We reference a previous podcast we did in this episode. You can find it here: https://www.blubrry.
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Episode 94: The Variety of Religious Experience
December 29th, 2016 | 35 mins 2 secs
We talk about religious experience in a secular age inspired in part by a recent article in the NY Times by Ross Douthat. You can find the piece here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/sunday/varieties-of-religious-experience.html.
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Episode 93: Patience
December 20th, 2016 | 29 mins 12 secs
We dedicate this most recent podcast about the work of the Czech theologian and philosopher Tomáš Halík to our beloved friend, of blessed memory, Dr. Howard Baker. We continue to miss him and wish we could have listened in on a conversation between Drs...
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Episode 92: Born of a Woman
December 13th, 2016 | 29 mins 30 secs
In this episode we consider the birth of Jesus and what it means for us today.
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Episode 91: The Electoral College
December 9th, 2016 | 26 mins 55 secs
In this episode we share our thoughts about the venerable electoral college, among other things. Show Notes: We reference a Freakonomics episode on public trust. You can find it here: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/trust-me/
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Episode 90: West World Wrap Up
December 5th, 2016 | 16 mins 55 secs
QWe’re joined by a special guest to unpack the Season Finale of West World!
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Episode 89: Do I Have To Believe In My Belief?
December 1st, 2016 | 28 mins 58 secs
In this episode we do a little Luther vs. Calvin on the question of faith in the spiritual life. We ask if our faith is something in which we should in any sense believe. Our thinking was originally stimulated by Philip Cary’s extremely helpful essay,
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Episode 88: Let’s Get (Meta)Physical!
November 26th, 2016 | 49 mins 56 secs
In this episode we get metaphysical…BIGLY! We consider the relationship between philosophy and theology, inspired by the work of one of, if not the greatest, living theologians, Robert Jenson.