Guests on Volume 90: J. Mark Bertrand, on how the language of "worldviews" can mean something richer than it often does; Michael P. Schutt, on how the day-to-day practice of Christian lawyers can reflect a Christian view of the nature of law; Michael Ward, on how C. S. Lewis'sChronicles of Narnia were shaped by medieval cosmological beliefs about the seven planets; Dana Gioia, on the disturbing trends in the reading (non)habits of Americans; Makoto Fujimura, on reading, painting, and attending to the world; Gregory Edward Reynolds, on lessons about reading from the study of media ecology; Catherine Prescott, on why portrait painters often depict their subjects with books in their hands; and Eugene Peterson, on the place of reading in the spiritual lives of Christians.
Guests on Volume 91: John Witte, Jr., on the life and work of legal historian Harold Berman and on the revolutionary changes throughout the history of law in the West; Hugh Brogan, on Alexis de Tocqueville’s understanding of democracy, equality, liberty, free association, social status, and the dangers of centralized government; Daniel Ritchie, on Tocqueville’s analysis of the dangers of individualism (and how they might be avoided); Daniel Walker Howe, on the confidence in progress and Providence in early 19th-century America; George McKenna, on how the Puritan understanding of God’s purposes in history shaped American political culture; and Patrick Deneen, on the differences between Aristotelian and modern political philosophy and on how Wendell Berry’s thought demonstrates his identity as a "Kentucky Aristotelian."
Guests on Volume 92: Jake Halpern, on the ecosystem of celebrity and the complicated reasons why people seek to become famous; Stephen J. Nichols, on how the dynamics of American culture have shaped our understanding of who Jesus is; Richard M. Gamble, on resources for and the outlines of a theology of education; Peter J. Leithart, on how concerns from some postmodern thinkers echo the eschatological perspective of Solomon (as presented in the book of Ecclesiastes); Bill Vitek, on how wise living on the Earth requires the humble recognition of our ignorance as well as the application of knowledge; and Craig Holdrege, on lessons from Goethe about how we understand the rest of Creation as participants, not detached and potentially omniscient observers, and also on the "conversational" quality of our engagement with Creation.
Guests on Volume 93: Alan Jacobs, on practical consequences of belief in original sin (and the five distinct components of that belief); James A. Herrick, on redemptive myths advanced by science fiction and speculative science and on evolution as a religion; J. Daryl Charles, on the commitment by the magisterial Reformers to the idea of natural law; Robert C. Roberts, on the role of emotions in ethical and spiritual life; Allan C. Carlson, on how the industrial revolution changed the shape of households (including their floorplans) and the understanding of marriage; and Sheila O'Connor-Ambrose, on the work of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese in defending marriage against the various claims of individualism.
Guests on Volume 94: Maggie Jackson, on how multitasking exalts efficiency and promises the overcoming of bodily limitations as time is restructured and on the importance of attentiveness in sustaining personal and social order; Mark Bauerlein, on how technologies have rearranged the social lives of teens (and their expectations of education); Tim Clydesdale, on what the first year in college means for teens; Andy Crouch, on the physical basis of cultural life and how "culture making" is done; and Jeremy Begbie, on how music is a way of engaging with the order in Creation and on how writing and hearing music involves a recognition of likenesses in Creation and the exercise of "hyper-hearing."
