Virtue in the Wasteland Podcast (general)

We mail it in.  We were going to a basketball game, so why not?  We talk about mailing it in.

If you find the audio quality distracting, come back next week, when we'll be back in studio.  

Direct download: ViW67_Mailing_It_In.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Rapture culture rapping with Dr. Amy Frykholm, writer for and associate editor with the Christian Century, and author of Rapture Culture, Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography,  and See Me Naked: Stories of Sexual Exile in American Christianity. We talk about Nicolas Cage, dispensationalism, the rapture, eschatology, the recent film adaption of the books, the way gender plays into the book series, American religion, popcorn, paper planes, and happiness.  We had a lot of fun with this one.

Direct download: ViW66_Left_Behind_with_Dr_Amy_Frykholm.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

South Africa, Yoruba, Christianity, excommunication, Nelson Mandela, women in African society, racism in America and one superb woman: Nokukhanya Shabalala. We play a clip from Micah Bournes.

Direct download: ViW65_Africa_-_The_Good_The_Bad_and_The_Beautiful_with_Noks_Shabalala.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

This one is a messy but relaxed discussion of the big question of human culture: are we basically violent and chaotic, or cooperative and caring?  Should we embrace utopianism and primitivism?  Scotland voted to stay in the UK.  What does this mean?  Jeff thought he saw a sea monster.  Was it because of what Jeff failed to describe with the correct term, which is hyperactive agency detection device.  

Direct download: ViW64_The_State_of_Nature.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

All about the phenomenon of witch hunts, contemporary and old timey.  Salem, McCarthy, and Bewitched.

Direct download: ViW63_Witch_Hunts.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

We discuss recent downfalls of evangelical Christian leaders, the vocation of the journalist, including the work of Janet Mefferd.  We check to see if the hosts are dogmatists or authoritarians using an old psychology questionaire.  We reflect on the structures that failed Mark Driscoll, Ted Haggard, and Bill Gothard.

Direct download: ViW62_Dont_Touch_the_Anointed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

We talk about the history of the Reformation as it affected the idea of vocation, the Max Weber thesis, the puritans, Theodore Beza, the practical syllogism, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, providence, Roger Williams, and Labor Day.

Direct download: ViW61_The_Protestant_Work_Ethic.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

You'll have to excuse us this week for sounding a bit like the odd couple.  Stemming from a conversation that began some time ago, Dan truly believes that we live in the greatest time period in human history (yeah, yeah, there are caveats of course) and Jeff is pretty sure that we aren't.  Dan is very unfashionable in some circles for his love of the Enlightenment, and Jeff is sometimes cautious when he talks about why he can dig the postmodernists.  Nevertheless, this show discusses just how good (or bad) we have it right now from a historical and philosophical perspective.  
And if that seems a little too heavy, while we were recording, our favorite classicist CJ Armstrong strolled by the studio and we had him sit in and join the conversation and add a bit of levity (you might not get the Flinstone's reference, but Dan is still laughing about it). Enjoy!

 

We mention Jacobi, Hamann, Radical Pietism, Kierkegaard, Grundtvig, Continental Philosophy, Voltaire, Ovid, Art of Love, Metamorphoses.

Direct download: ViW60_Greatest_Era_in_Human_History.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Too often we get caught up using bad analogies.  While there are many commonly used poor analogies, we find the hitler/holocaust and "fall of rome" parallels particularly confusing and unhelpful. What do these events have that cause constant modern analogies? How might we better understand certain landmark historical events without taking them out of time and making a modern "version"?  In what ways are the present and future different?  We tackle these and other related topics.  Give it a listen.

Direct download: ViW_59_The_Hitler_Show_Edited.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT

Dr. Adam Francisco, a historian who specializes in Islam and Middle Eastern history, joins us as we discuss the current conflict in the between Israel and Hamas, and the possible future of Palestine.

Direct download: ViW58_The_Overpromised_Land.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:00am PDT