The Christian Humanist Podcast

Nathan Gilmour, David Grubbs, and Michial Farmer respond to listener emails. The Subject Matter breaks down thus: [02:07-05:50] Speaking about things Greek [05:50-13:30] The Christian Humanist Journal [13:30-16:48] A Defense of a Sequel [16:49-22:25] Christian Existentialism [22:27-26:03] Greetings from Trinity Western [26:05-32:04] Hobbits and Tolkien [32:05-34:34] Tillich and Laches [34:34-37:50] Faustus [37:50-41:16] Silence

Victoria Reynolds Farmer, along with other CHRN hosts and listeners, talks turkey and explores one holiday in which food is what human beings do well.

David Grubbs, Michial Farmer, and Nathan Gilmour consider the trivium as they talk together about her essay "The Lost Tools of Learning."

Michial Farmer, Nathan Gilmour, and David Grubbs talk for a spell about the work and the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Nathan Gilmour, David Grubbs, and Michial Farmer wax dramatic with a conversation about Christopher Marlowe's "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus."

David Grubbs, Danny Anderson, and Nathan Gilmour talk about Catholic colleges, seminaries, and universities, tracing their history and talking about parallels with and distinctives from the evangelical colleges that they have served.

Michial Farmer, David Grubbs, and Nathan Gilmour talk about the Back to the Future films.

Todd Pedlar, David Grubbs, and Nathan Gilmour talk about Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film "The Seventh Seal," getting medieval and existential all at once.

Nathan Gilmour, David Grubbs, and Danny Anderson talk back to the listeners as they respond to emails and Facebook messages. The subject matter breaks down thus: 3:00-9:35 [The Excluded Catholic] 9:36-14:33 [Ages Past: Since the Beginning] 14:35-16:05 [Lucrative Project] 16:06- 18:55 [Sex and Children's Tales] 18:56-26:09 [Challenges in Expertise and German Struggles] 26:11-29:45 [The Office] 29:49- 35:09 [Aviation Stories and the Fox in the Desert] 35:10 - 40:18 [Johnathan Dudley Interview] 40:20-43:12 [Praise for the Existentialist]

David Grubbs, Todd Pedlar, and Nathan Gilmour talk about "Hammer of God" and "The Miracle of Moon Crescent," two Father Brown mysteries from G.K. Chesterton.

Danny Anderson holds forth with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour on David Foster Wallace's commencement address "This Is Water."

Nathan Gilmour chats with David Grubbs and Todd Pedlar about Plato's brief dialogue the Laches and alternatives to its concept of courage.

David Grubbs talks with Danny Anderson and Nathan Gilmour about the office as a historical development, an environment in which human existence happens, and the site of battles over air conditioning.

Danny Anderson introduces The Sectarian Review, the network's newest show, dedicated to cultural criticism from a Christian intellectual angle.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about the book of Amos, a soaring and terrifying oracle from YHWH, God of the Bible.

Michial Farmer takes David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour through a few months' email to the show. The questions we take on and the times when we do so are thus: [0:00] An announcement from David Grubbs! [5:05] Why Christian Existentialism? [9:12] Kierkegaard and Christendom [17:41] John McAdams and academic freedom [27:09] More holy fools [30:15] Episode suggestions [35:43] John Adams insults / Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution. Also, Assassin's Creed [39:58] The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (and Fuller House) [42:34] Young-earth creationism [55:16] A child's Dream of the Rood [56:46] Half-Handed Cloud and Rex Stout [59:01] The Noble Savage in Star Wars [1:07:41] Funding our educations [1:24:25] More Dream of the Rood [1:26:40] Paradise Lost editions [1:28:35] Rene Girard [1:30:03] Donations? [1:33:16] Did the podcast get us our jobs? [1:35:57] Our new web design [1:37:07] Separating Christianity from fundamentalism

David Grubbs talks with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the place of books and bookshelves in all three hosts' workplaces, dwellings, and modes of life.

Nathan Gilmour talks with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about Rodney Clapp's 1996 essay "Why the Devil Takes Visa."

Michial Farmer talks with Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs about Daniel Amos's 1991 album "Kalhoun."

David Grubbs talks with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about Helmut Thielicke's 1959 essay "A Little Exercise for Young Theologians."

Nathan Gilmour talks with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Michial Farmer leads Nathan Gilmour and David Grubbs in a discussion of the fool in theology, literature, and culture.

David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour talk about "Dream of the Rood," a fascinating Old English Jesus poem.

Nathan Gilmour chats with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the late-career correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

David Grubbs chats with Nathan Gilmour about the hymn of Caedmon, a poem from the Old English version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History.

Michial Farmer chats with Nathan Gilmour about the strange history of book-censorship, digging into the particular oddities that make banned books such a fun matter for conversation and for an unearned sense of moral superiority.

Nathan Gilmour brings David Grubbs and Michial Farmer into the wild world of postliberal theology as the trio chats about Stanley Hauerwas's essay "Terministic Screens."

Danny Anderson chats with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about Kenneth Burke's essay "Terministic Screens."

Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson hold forth on Jean-Paul Sartre's twentieth-century play "No Exit." Michial waxes eloquent on what a bad translation "No Exit" is for the title.

Nathan Gilimour and Michial Farmer respond to listener emails. The questions addressed happen at these times: [1:56] How can we conceive of the inconceivable if the Creator of the universe is Himself inconceivable? Do mortal minds break at the sight of God? [8:00] Robin William's movies [11:01] Teacher film recommendations [14:49] Allegory and Dracula [17:20] Irony and Sincerity in Nostalgia [21:20] Platonic descent and ascent of the soul [25:03] Errors in Ancient Aliens on the History Channel [27:21] What is up with the intro music? [31:37] Doctrine of Predestination [36:47] Podcast recommendation: Personal devotions and reflection in the Christian life. [41:13] Charlie Hebdo: Bravery versus Heroism

Danny Anderson hosts a conversation with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about "A Christmas Story," the movie that has become ubiquitous in the twenty-first century. Nostalgia abounds, and somebody might just shoot his own eye out.

Nathan Gilmour holds forth with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson on Immanuel Kant's essay "What Is Enlightenment?" The trio digs into the strange paradox of argument and obedience as well as into the piece's vision of history as a progression towards an end.

Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about nostalgia. Going back to the word's seventeenth-century roots and exploring its mutating connotations, the trio ponders whether nostalgia is always individual or might also be a cultural phenomenon.

David Grubbs chats with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about Good Will Hunting, the third in our trio of Robin Williams movies. Digging into mentorship and psychology and restaurants, the trio enjoys this third part of our tribute to Williams.

Nathan Gilmour converses with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about Dead Poets Society, the second of the Robin Williams trilogy. The trio takes on the strange truncated readings of poetry in the film as well as the conceptions of conformity and friendship that arise.

Michial Farmer leads David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour into the semester's trilogy of episodes on Robin Williams movies with a conversation about The Fisher King. As the trio digs into a story that's as much a media ecology as a medieval appropriation, Dante resurfaces (again) as the trio explores the salvation of Jack Lucas.

David Grubbs gets spooky with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour as the trio discusses the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. Conversations range from literary influence to biological racism, with some discussions on artistic imagination thrown in for good measure. The stories at the core of the conversation are "The Call of Cthulu," "Arthur Jermyn," and "Pickman's Model."

David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour answer listener emails and such. Highlights are as follows: 04:11 Let your sins be strong? 10:21 Robert Louis Stevenson 13:41 Some episode suggestions from Australia 19:25 Suburban corrections 23:53 Thomas and the Ontological Argument 32:35 Thomas and the Cosmological Argument 38:44 Christian Humanist pilgrimages 44:00 Neil Postman and the value of the academic essay 48:15 Amusing Ourselves to Death cartoon 50:48 A recent iTunes review

Nathan Gilmour chats a spell with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about Psalm 119. The trio ranges from the literary form of the verse to the ways that the Psalm has shaped the identities of monks and Fundamentalists, landing eventually on some pedagogical speculation.

Dan Dawson, Charles Hackney, and Todd Pedlar roll out Book of Nature, the Christian Humanist Radio Network's new science and mathematics show.

Michial Farmer holds court with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about the children's novel "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The trio digs into the satirical and philosophical character of the book before discovering once again that Gilmour is heartless and Farmer gets sad more easily than most.

David Grubbs holds forth with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about allegory, both as a mode of reading and as a literary genre. The debate hinges on what terms mean in which contexts: is a literary text defective because it's an allegory, or are there good or bad allegories? Explore that and other possibilities with us.

Nathan Gilmour hosts a conversation with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the five "proofs of God" from the opening sections of Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae. The trio's discussion ranges over what a proof is for, whether the ontology in the proofs holds up post-Kant, whether reason and revelation can really be friends, and all sorts of groovy philosophical things.

Michial Farmer hosts a conversation with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about the suburbs, their history, and their place in ethical reflection. Among the writers, texts, and places engaged are John Cheever, the Roman Empire, the suburbs of Mongomery, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, and the politics of suburbanization.

David Grubbs chats with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about the range of Christian convictions and backgrounds that go into the Christian Humanist project. Among other matters for discussion, the trio discusses why one is an existentialist, why another isn't a Pelagian, and how the Bible relates to what the Christian Humanist project is all about.

Los Tres Humanistas respond to a variety of listener emails. Among the topics covered (and when we cover them) are as follows: [03:05] Mark Heard and listener feedback about listener feedback. [04:29] Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology and "A Primer on Religious Existentialism." [06:41] Spoon River Anthology and A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. [08:47] A case for stupid songs and Grubbs's Dick Van Dyke moment. [12:08] Non-Trinitarian Christianity. [16:05] Postmodernism vs. Bertrand Russell. [20:52] American political theory. [29:44] A defense of Francis Schaeffer. [33:30] The Bible and The Christian Humanist Podcast. [46:33] The best philosophical works? [55:04] Podcast recommendations. [57:09] Jaws and Rabbits. [1:01:11] A physics lesson on Mark Heard. [1:04:09] War and technology.

Nathan Gilmour holds forth with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer on Tertullian's treatise "On Idolatry." The trio digs into the rhetorical performance that marks the piece as masterful prose as well as the concept of complicity that makes it troubling and interesting even eighteen hundred years later.

Michial Farmer hosts a chat with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour about influential but little-known Jesus-rocker Mark Heard. Focusing on his final three albums, the Humanists dig into the sound, the content, and themes of love and death in his late work, from the early nineties, conversing as well about other works that hold in common Heard's particular outlook on human existence.

Wrapping up the spring semester, David Grubbs hosts a chat with Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour about what plays when we listen to the Internet. From politics to Walt Disney World, the trio suggests a wide range of shows for our own listeners to check out.

Nathan Gilmour holds forth with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer on "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World," two short stories by recently deceased Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Garcia Marquez was one of the most prominent writers of Spanish-language fiction for a generation, and his pioneering work in realismo magico occupies the Humanists this go-round. Among the writers and other realities engaged are Magical Realism, Borges, hermeneutics, and Kafka.