Beatrice Institute Podcast

Increasingly, technology is dominating our lives.  How do we stay human in the midst of digital upheaval? What lessons can we glean from dystopian literature? Is there a heuristic we can adopt that helps us to discern which technology to use and which to reject? Can only a deistic story compete with the Machine story or are there secular alternatives? Peco and Ruth Gaskovski have been exploring these timely questions from a hopeful, practical perspective on their Substacks Pilgrims in the Machine and School of the Unconformed.   Join Grant, Peco, and Ruth as they explore these and more questions to encourage us to live unconformed lives in a digital age.

Liberalism is often taken to be essentially about the promotion of radical individual autonomy, but might this understanding of liberalism be only one kind of liberalism? And, if so, why does that matter?  In this episode, Weston and Fred discuss the meaning of "off-liberalism," an understanding of liberalism that highlights how disparate historical, cultural, and philosophical sources contribute to what is often labeled as "liberal" today, complicating the idea that liberalism is essentially about maximizing personal autonomy.  Weston and Fred discuss the practical stakes of thinking about liberalism this way, the intersection of theology and political theory, and how these ideas can inform contemporary governance at a time of growing dissatisfaction with liberalism. Tune in for an enriching dialogue that blends philosophy, theology, and practical politics, offering fresh insights into the nature of liberal practices.   Read Fred's original article here: https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/journal/2021/9/23/diverse-roots-and-routes-of-liberty.

Does it take a trained expert to read books in our own language? The heart of English departments around the world is the love of amateurs, yet that heart seems to be gradually shrinking, replaced more and more with cold technical literary analysis. Kathryn Mogk Wagner identifies this as the reason English Departments themselves are shrinking too.  Literary analysis is shutting out truth and reading for edification, turning instead to niche readings and unique techniques. Can a culture raised on suspicion re-learn how to read the great texts for truth not tetrameter? Is there a balance between reading holiness and historicity in a text? Can ivory tower English professors read a book for edification instead of interpretation? In this episode, Mogk Wagner teaches us to return to the roots of reading – to relearn how to read.  

You are marveling at a beautiful sunset, standing in awe before an Italian masterpiece, or gazing lovingly into the face of your beloved. These moments of beauty, however brief, impact our hearts, minds, and souls in a profound way. What exactly is occurring in these moments? John Paul Heil offers insight through a reading and discussion of his essay “Ekstasis and the Chicken Truck,” in which he offers insight into the nature of these experiences we all share, which are yet so individual to each of us. Heil explains the importance of attentiveness, boldly criticizes Petrarch, and recounts how a truck full of frozen chicken led to a moment of transcendence.  

What has become of the trades within our country? Where did the blue-collar workers go and what is the reason behind their disappearance? Is there anything we can do to rebuild and re-vitalize this crucial section of today's society? A co-founder of the College of St. Joseph, the Worker, Jacob Imam helps to answer our questions. Join Grant and Jacob as they discuss the root of America's trade epidemic and discuss the new college of St. Joseph, the Worker. This new school based in Steubenville, Ohio is quickly becoming the paradigm of trade education, combining a traditional liberal arts education with power tools. The best part of all? No debt. Tune in now to hear how they do it!  

As a bioethicist and Catholic deacon-in-training, Dr. Michael Deem has spent years in the medical trenches as well as in theological and philosophical research. Michael Deem joins Grant in this episode to answer questions such as, “Do bioethicists actually change minds?” “Does healthcare flourish under a provider-of-services model?” and “Are bioethical principles self-evident?” Their discussion covers territory from contraception to logic to the style of recent Catholic popes.

How can we help locally, but in a way that works economically? This is the challenge that thwarts many solidaristic startups. Luckily, Sara Horowitz has picked up the gauntlet. Sara Horowitz has been both the chair of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the founder of the Freelancers Union and the Freelancers Insurance Company and talks eloquently on mutualism. Join Grant and Sara's discussion on mutualism, in which they expound on friendly societies and the history of mutual aid societies and ask the questions: What should be the current strategy of protecting laborers? Why do local movements seem invisible to the public eye? And, what is necessary to make mutualism successful?

How is mathematics a liberal art? How can being good at math translate into virtue?  Dr. Francis Su, the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, is well aware of mathematics' place in human flourishing. In this episode, he and Grant converse over these questions. They also discuss the reverence evoked by math and the transcendence found in it, the effectiveness of mathematical assessments, and popular mathematical literature.

Modernity strives to break with the past, especially genealogy. However, is it possible for a society to break a genealogical thread? In this episode, we explore the meaning and value of genealogy, a way of thinking that will shape the rest of this series. We ask how different forms of genealogical thinking can reconnect us to the past without limiting our future to the past. We see how critical genealogy does the important work of challenging both of those kinds of modernity claim that purport to leave the past behind, and noble origin stories which claim a purely virtuous inheritance from the past. But we also see how recovering the past can offer possibilities for flourishing in the future. In Chinese ancestor rituals, medieval family trees, and modern reconciliation ceremonies, we see how communities use creative genealogy to open up new connections and new beginnings. For the full season, complete show notes, and resources, visit Genealogies of Modernity.

We often think of modernity as a time period in history. But people have been claiming to be modern since at least c. 550 AD, when the Roman writer Cassiodorus used the term modernus to mark off everything that had happened since the fall of the Roman Empire. Harvard scholar Michael Puett takes us back much further, to the third century BC in ancient China, when a series of emperors claimed modernity to consolidate their rule. Puett argues that modernity is best understood as a claim to freedom from the past. By recognizing two forms of modernity claim—one that tries to erase the past and another that tries to master it—we can better understand what is at stake in our own invocations of “modernity."

For the past three years, Ryan has been working with an interdisciplinary group of scholars to produce a narrative podcast about Genealogies of Modernity. Today's episode is a sneak preview of the first episode of that series, which will be released in its own feed starting the first week of November. In the thread of the Beatrice Institute podcast, Ryan has focused on interviewing scholars who are interested in the complex relationship between the past and the present. This narrative podcast doubles down on those interests with focused inquiries into the nature of modernity, the genealogical imagination, and the ways the past continues to be present and available to us today. Each episode tells a story, or set of stories, that echo but also challenge a particular standard narrative of what it means to be modern and how a particular modern phenomenon came about.  We'll be releasing the first three episodes in the Beatrice Institute stream so that you, our core audience, can have early access. And we're also hoping that you will share the series with your friends. That would be a huge help. For now, enjoy episode one, “Mountain Modernity.”  

This episode is brought to us by SpirituallyIncorrect: We all love a good story. We watch movies, listen to friends talk about their last vacation, or listen to podcasts (this one included) just to hear an entertaining and provocative tale. But one story trumps them all: the story of how we have arrived at our modern world. With technology evolving every year, drugs lessening the effects of illness, and possibilities undreamt of just a few decades ago, it's easy to imagine that the story of how we got here is one of triumph. We've conquered the stone age, overcome every obstacle, and now the march of progress of inevitable. Yet with lessening resources, dying environments, and threats of war and crises flavoring every news broadcast, it's time to ask, is the story we tell ourselves real? Or have we been lying to ourselves the whole time? Are we really progressing? Here to help us through this tricky issue is Dr. Ryan McDermott, who runs the Genealogies of Modernity project. If you've ever felt not at home in the modern world, this is the episode for you.

Anthony Bradley is a professor of religious studies and director of the Center for the Study of Human Flourishing at the King's College in New York City. He gives a personalist analysis of the criminal justice system (touching on everything from architecture to food) and the Black Lives Matter movement. In this rerun episode, Anthony and Ryan discuss the relationship between Afro-pessimism, hope, and Eastern Christianity, and how Black experience informs trinitarian theology. They also touch on the dangers of missional narcissism and the invention of whiteness. 

If happiness is to be had, it must be studied. Tal Ben-Shahar acted on this belief when he created the Master's of Arts in Happiness Studies in partnership with Centenary University, through which students of eighty-five nationalities learn how to achieve well-being and how to impact others' flourishing. In this episode, Tal joins Grant to discuss the study of happiness in an academic setting. They ask: How successful are the liberal arts in teaching students how to be happy? What does religion have to offer in the conversation on happiness? What is the ideal profile for the teacher - or student - of a happiness course? And, is happiness the missing key to uniting the University?  

Can faith leaders, steeped in tradition, contribute anything to the conversation of ever-new artificial intelligence? What if the questions they are asking are the same? When David Brenner realized the metaphysical overlap between the spiritual questions and the questions of AI ethicists, he decided to institute AI and Faith, which engages the fundamental values of the world's major religions in modern ethical technological debates.  David joins Gretchen in this podcast and asks: Why is AI so attractive? Can generative AI create real art? Why does the current population distance itself from the spiritual yet become enamored with the virtual? And, how can disparate faiths find commonality in order to further the development of AI ethics?  

If chickens can't act as chickens and humans can't act as humans, Western civilization is not making progress. So observes Mary Harrington, contributing editor for Unherd and most recently, author of Feminism Against Progress. While society champions the defying of limits, our natures - as humans, as men, as women - always reemerge. In this episode, Mary and Grant discuss the apocalypse, gender, and eros, asking: What if our idea of the traditional family isn't traditional enough? Can technology suppress human nature? And, what will it take to garner enough enthusiasm to bring new people into this life?  

Although the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence is a modern topic, it can be seen as a new version of an old question famously posed by Tertullian: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Today's podcast guest, Derek Schuurman—computer scientist, author, and professor at Calvin University—rephrases that question for those living in the age of AI: what does Silicon Valley have to do with Jerusalem? In order to answer this question, Derek posits that it is vital to have an ethical imagination that is formed by story, viewing ourselves as participants in the narrative of Creation, the Fall, and Redemption. When our daily actions are suffused and shaped by this narrative, technology—along with the rest of our daily lives—is taken up into that story.  Derek and Gretchen play out what this story-shaped ethics looks like in relation to technological questions. Are computer bugs the result of original sin? What does open source software have to do with Genesis? What's the difference between predestination and technological determinism, and what do both mean for our freedom? Listen to their conversation as they ponder how we might sanctify technology for the glory of God's kingdom.

Where has a manifest God gone? In his recent book, The Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age, Joseph Minich explores this question. A teaching fellow at the Davenant Institute, Joseph helps provide resources for retrieving an intellectual heritage to build up the contemporary Church. Join Joseph and Ryan in their discussion as they ask these questions of modernity: Why has the existence of God become unobvious in modern times? What does it mean to believe in orthodoxy in an age in which it's not the norm? How has technological artifice affected our understanding of reality? Does it matter that we understand ourselves to live in the modern age?

What is the person, and why does it matter in psychiatric care? Brent Robbins, professor of psychology at Point Park University and director of the Psy.D. Clinical Psychology Program, has decided to put this question at the forefront of his research and teaching. Grant and Brent join in conversation to discuss scapegoating, stigma, and reductionism, asking: how do we find personal meaning in and through mental illness?

As technology develops at an ever more rapid pace, it can seem that ethics struggles to keep up with it. While science and technology advance by building on discoveries of the past, virtue and moral knowledge must be cultivated afresh in every individual and each generation.  This is where Brian Green comes in. As director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, his areas of research are many, ranging from transhumanism and artificial intelligence, to catastrophic risk and the ethics of outer space. This diverse array of interests all pivot on the intersection between technology and humanity.  In this rerun episode, Brian and Gretchen dive into many areas of tech ethics that both impact our present lives and promise to shape our future. From immediate ethical dilemmas like self-driving car crashes and responsible tech development, to long-view issues like the establishment of extra-terrestrial colonies and the achievement of artificial general intelligence, they reflect on a large range of themes that can affect human lives for both good and ill. Listen in as they discuss old and forgotten tools for answering ethical questions, the Christian commission to work miracles, which human qualities can't be programmed into machines, and more. Together they ask, should our predictions about technology and ethics be dire, or hopeful? What choices are we making now that will shape coming generations?

“Language and values and concepts come packaged together, don't they?” asks Peter Ramey, recent translator of The Word-Hoard Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. Indeed, his opus reflects just this and resolves the distance between culture and language in a uniquely faithful yet readable translation.  Join Peter and Ryan as they delve into Beowulf, asking: What is the value of a word? Who was Beowulf? Is Beowulf pre-Christian, Christian by overlay, Christian by accident, or Christian in essence?  

The modern debate on gender elucidates some apparent contradictions: Is gender essential, something we know within us? Or is gender a social construct? Is sex real or not? Does Christianity affirm or deny the body? Abigail Favale, Professor of the Practice at Notre Dame's McGrath Institute for Church Life, has traced the evolutions of sex, gender, and feminism from Genesis to Tumblr. Join in this episode to hear Grant and Abigail discuss the gender paradigm, capitalism, fertility, and the question “What is a woman, essentially?”  

AI gives us information. It furnishes facts. It prompts us with news headlines. But could AI also answer our religious questions?  When Shanen Boettcher paused his tech career and completed a master's degree in world religions, he began to ask himself this question. Recently, he conducted a study to put it to the test. In this episode, Shanen and Gretchen discuss his findings and explore the previously widely-ignored intersection of technology and faith. They ask: Do people feel they have more privacy speaking about spirituality with AI? What kind of authority do AI-generated answers evoke? How will the religious realm, a realm of mystery and prayer, be incorporated into the factual, statistical world of technology?

Health care workers are essential yet underappreciated. Janette Dill, Associate Professor in the Division of Health Policy & Management at the University of Minnesota, is researching why. Her work studies racial and gender disparities, the rewards for professional certification, and the realities of unionization in the health care workforce. Join Janette and Grant as they ask: Why is social mobility difficult in direct care positions? What unique challenges do men, women, and minorities face in this field? How have the constitution and appreciation of working-class jobs changed since the 1970s? How do we achieve justice in the health care sector?

How do we differentiate between Christian action and the action of the Church? Anne Carpenter and the Genealogy and Tradition Reading Group delve into the relationship of the Church and its people in Part Two of their interview with Anne Carpenter, author of “Nothing Gained is Eternal.” Anne offers a Catholic theology of tradition that is critical yet hopeful. Continue the conversation with Anne, Ryan and the Reading Group as they discuss the Catholic imagination, poetry and questions such as: How do we adopt tradition without being duped by misinterpretation? How do we be Church for the present world?  

“What is history?” is the opening query of Anne Carpenter's new book, Nothing Gained is Eternal: A Theology of Tradition. Anne's answer: history is what humans do. The following chapters consider the consequences of this definition: that tradition must be renewed, not just preserved, and sins, from racism to colonialism, must be dealt with. In this episode, the Genealogy and Tradition reading group join in conversation with Anne to discuss her recent work. In this question-and-answer session, the group asks Anne: How would you rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral? Are we justified in putting humans at the center of history? and, most importantly, How can we best love tradition, and can we love it too much?  

Plato said that craft, or techne, “answers to a genuine human need and solves it.” Does our abstract, postindustrial work fulfill this criteria? Dr. Jeffrey Hanson, Anglican priest and senior philosopher at Harvard's Human Flourishing Program, has dealt with these questions in his most recent book, Philosophies of Work in the Platonic Tradition: A History of Labor in Human Flourishing.  In this episode, Jeffrey and Grant weigh the Platonic and postmodern ideas of work, asking: How do we find meaning in “meaningless” work? What is the proper place of work among the other values in our life? And, is work directed toward changing reality, or changing ourselves?  

What enables a being to create? Generative AI appears to approach human capabilities; is it only a matter of time until it surpasses them? Joanna Ng, formerly the head of research and the director of the Center for Advanced Studies at IBM Canada, knows these questions from the inside. Joanna is not only a patented inventor and author, but a leader in the integration of Christianity and technology. In this episode, she and Gretchen ask: Why is it important to distinguish between AI and ASI? What does being a Christian 2.0 mean? What is Church? And, who is caring for the Christians in tech?   

The Genealogies of Modernity project is organizing a reading group around Thomas Pfau's new book, Incomprehensible Certainty: Metaphysics and Hermeneutics of the Image. By way of advertisement, we are re-running this episode with art historian and theorist Matthew Milliner, where he talks about the book and the wider context of image theory. Milliner also recently published a review of Incomprehensible Certainty in “The Hedgehog Review.” His new book on Our Lady of Perpetual Help, discussed in the episode, is now available. If this episode and that review entice you, join the reading group! It will begin meeting Thursday, February 23, 7-8:30 pm, in person in Pittsburgh as well as on Zoom, and it will run through much of the summer. If you are interested, send an email to admin@beatriceinstitute.org and we'll put you in touch with the group organizers and get you on the mailing list. For now, please enjoy Matthew and Ryan's discussion on how the past can erupt into the present; why cultivating these temporal possibilities must be an ecumenical project; the way images reveal timeless truths that underlie our visible surroundings; and how the ideas of thinkers like Chesterton can converse with, and be informed by, ancient Indigenous mythology.

Do men need equal opportunity? Dr. Richard Reeves answers with an emphatic “yes.” His work as senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative has encouraged him to author the book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It.  In this conversation, Grant and Dr. Reeves respond to the fact that men are underrepresented in higher education and struggling in the professional world, asking: What does affirmative action for men look like? How does child education harm or empower boys, and is the academic world donning a feminine identity? Should we celebrate “toxic” masculinity? Modernity calls for a new contract between men and women. What is the fate of the post-industrial man?

The liberal tradition frames the story of modernity as the gradual victory of freedom against state hegemony. Liberty, the consent of the people to be governed, and individual rights are the mainstay of western society. But are we really more free than before? What if freedom isn't what we think?

For some, Ireland is the archetype of Christianity's decline in the wake of modern secularization. But is it possible that there is a resurgence of theological and philosophical fervor in this traditionally Catholic country? Gaven Kerr, a lecturer in philosophy at St. Patrick's Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland, recently hosted a conference called "The Future of Christian Thinking." Gaven has a surprisingly optimistic, up-to-date, on-the-ground evaluation of Christianity's prospects in Ireland. In this episode, he and Ryan ask: What caused the loss of Irish Catholic identity? What role does Irish superstition and folklore play in the country's Christian faith? In the world of head and heart, modernity and tradition, what is the future of Christian thought?

While we may think of phones and laptops when we hear the word “technology,” it can also be thought of as a way of viewing the world: the belief that knowledge of reality means the ability to predict, experiment, and transform it, and that nature is completely open to that process. But while this approach to the world and how we understand it makes us very good at solving problems, it also blinds us to an entire realm of thought. Science and technology can neither ask nor answer the “big” questions: what is a human being? What is a good life? Michael Hanby—professor, writer, and postliberal thinker—joins Grant to dig into some of those questions. Does technology as ontology serve human persons as a tool, or act upon them as objects? Can a Christian political order coexist with this worldview? In a time when technology has made it possible to change our very bodies in ways that would have been unimaginable to previous generations, are we less human than before?

Of the many hopes that society hangs on artificial intelligence, one is its potential to clean up the results of human messiness. Whether on a large scale (solving climate change, reducing war crimes through use of autonomous weapons) or on an individual one (sex robots for isolated people), AI promises to sidestep the problems caused by human limitations.  But in making computers to solve ethical dilemmas and robots to enter relationships, are we creating something in our own image? Is it possible to separate intelligence or emotion from the body? Would the result live up to its promise, or simply be monstrous? Noreen Herzfeld, who teaches both computer science and theology, has spent a lot of time reflecting on these issues. She and Gretchen discuss the many questions that arise from that contemplation. Why is it so important to us to seek other forms of sentience—whether robots, pets, or even alien life? If AI fulfills the role of other persons in our life, can it become our “neighbor?” How does the way we treat and think about AI impact our relationships with other humans, for better or for worse?

One of modernity's many attributes is its ingratitude towards the past. Both through forgetfulness of pre-modern thought and ways of being (whether intentional or accidental), and also by reconfiguring pre-modern narratives to make them palatable to modern minds, a rupture is created between past and present. But what if these reconfigured or “misremembered” discourses in fact embody thoughts and ideas long dead and forgotten? This is one of many intriguing ideas presented by Cyril O'Regan, theologian at Notre Dame University. By revealing the ways that Hegel, Blake, and others have adapted and distorted Christian doctrine through Gnostic lenses, he works to unveil “doppleganger” forms of Christianity that leave modern minds too comfortable, forcing us to the intellectual honesty of confronting ourselves as sinners in a world created by a God who is benevolent, but far beyond our comprehension. Using the metaphors of anatomy, haunting, and genealogical battles, Cyril and Ryan engage in a conversation ranging from poetry to ancestry to children's literature, helping to illumine some of the places obscured by the shadow of abandoned heresies and forgetfulness.

Anne Carpenter joins Ryan to discuss the intersection of history, tradition, art, and theology. What is the difference between ressourcement and genealogy? Are art and theology the same thing? What can video games teach us about theology? How can everyday Christians contribute to renewing the theological tradition? Anne is associate professor of theology at St. Mary's College of California and has recently published Nothing Gained Is Eternal: A Theology of Tradition with Fortress Press.

Innovation is often seen as key to modern society. Whether in pursuit of economic growth, more convenience in daily life, or simply greater well-being, the pursuit of the new and better ideas and technology is always underway. But what if the key to human flourishing doesn't lie in the search for the new, but rather in maintenance of what we already have? Could the endless pursuit of innovation as a goal in itself is actually causing us harm? Lee Vinsel, co-author of The Innovation Delusion and founder of the Maintainers, explains the costs of this pursuit and the hold that innovation-speak has exacted on our society.From climate change to crumbling infrastructure, he and Grant discuss how maintenance rather than novelty might be the key to a more sustainable life, and how understanding and prioritizing the needs and well-being of human persons can lead to a more functional, beautiful world.

In this episode, Ryan sits down with Madhavi Nevader and T.J. Lang, both biblical scholars at St. Andrew's School of Divinity in Scotland. In a conversation that roams from the Tower of Babel to journey of the apostle Paul to the third heaven, they discuss how the understanding of God's identity—as Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, as Jesus the divine man, as multiple Persons who are yet one—has unfolded in time.  From unpacking the many conceptions of God in the Old Testament, to the scandal of Jesus's claims to oneness with the Father, to the fruitful give-and-take between Greek philosophy and early Christian metaphysics, they contemplate the nature of tradition and the way that historical and geographical forces shape it. Modern scholarship, archaeological science, and the ambiguities of translation all become tools to gain a deeper understanding of the revelation of who God is and His relationship to His people.

For much of middle class America, 401ks are seen as good stewardship, and wise investing in the stock market as a way of attaining financial goods for oneself and the economy at large. But do these things we take for granted contribute to the overall good of the human person and society?  Jacob Imam, economist and executive director of New Polity, argues that not only are these things not necessary to a healthy economy, but that we should question whether stock ownership has any role to play in Christian life. Beginning with the example of medieval economic relationships, he and Grant discuss the difference between investment and speculation; the relationship between work and ownership; and how investment, properly understood, might dignify the labor of our neighbors rather than simply profiting from the work of others.  How would the way we invest have to change to bring us closer together and build the Kingdom God? Is retirement part of God's plan for the human person? Listen in as Jacob and Grant discuss these and other challenging questions. 

The prophet Isaiah speaks of the foolishness of those who bow down to the work of their own hands, idols made of wood that cannot speak and have no power of their own. And yet the irony of idolatry is that idols come to have a strange power over us and our actions. John Wyatt of the Faraday Institute sees this biblical image of the idol as a powerful lens for assessing the spiritual, ethical, and philosophical repercussions of AI. Although AI is developed with the goal of helping mankind shape a better future, in many ways it is us who are changed by the technology we've created. From children forming relationships with analogous persons like Siri and Alexa, to engineers who believe that programs can become sentient, to people who prefer interacting with chatbots over human relationships—in these and many other ways, we are only beginning to feel the impact of AI on the human person. John and Gretchen discuss these issues and more, and bring up important questions that Christians must ask in the age of AI. If we are image bearers created in the likeness of God, is mankind then making AI in its own image? How do we respond to the desire to “upgrade” humanity in light of the Incarnation and Resurrection? 

Ryan, Grant, and Gretchen ask each other all their burning questions, probing more deeply into past interviews and breaking new territory. Together they ponder how Jesus might run a tech company, the desire to live forever and its impact on procreation, and what it means to be stewards of reality.

The liberal tradition frames the story of modernity as the gradual victory of freedom against state hegemony. Liberty, the consent of the people to be governed, and individual rights are the mainstay of western society. But are we really more free than before? What if freedom isn't what we think? Historian and theologian Andrew Willard Jones talks with Grant about the ways that liberalism contradicts the Christian idea of the human person, how liberalism ultimately tends towards tyranny, and what a post-liberal world might look like. What is the role of government if self-gift and peace are seen as the foundation of human society? How ought the Church and state relate to one another? Most importantly, how can we work here and now to build a just post-liberal society in a culture shaped profoundly by individualism?

The modern conception of how time unfolds leaves us trapped in a chronological sequence with no return to the past; but is it true that “you can't go back”? In the second part of their conversation, Matthew and Ryan discuss how the past can erupt into the present; why cultivating these temporal possibilities must be an ecumenical project; the way images reveal timeless truths that underlie our visible surroundings; and how the ideas of thinkers like Chesterton can converse with, and be informed by, ancient Indigenous mythology.

We often think of the time before the birth of Jesus Christ in terms of the Old Testament. But what about the humans in other parts of the world, long before the history of Israel begins? Art historian Matthew Milliner joins Ryan to discuss how "the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world" might have been present in cultures tens of thousands of years ago. The first of two parts.

Although the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence is a modern topic, it can be seen as a new version of an old question famously posed by Tertullian: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Today's podcast guest, Derek Schuurman—computer scientist, author, and professor at Calvin University—rephrases that question for those living in the age of AI: what does Silicon Valley have to do with Jerusalem? In order to answer this question, Derek posits that it is vital to have an ethical imagination that is formed by story, viewing ourselves as participants in the narrative of Creation, the Fall, and Redemption. When our daily actions are suffused and shaped by this narrative, technology—along with the rest of our daily lives—is taken up into that story.  Derek and Gretchen play out what this story-shaped ethics looks like in relation to technological questions. Are computer bugs the result of original sin? What does open source software have to do with Genesis? What's the difference between predestination and technological determinism, and what do both mean for our freedom? Listen to their conversation as they ponder how we might sanctify technology for the glory of God's kingdom.

Healthcare workers have been lauded as heroes during the pandemic; but even as nurses and other medical employees have been praised for their service, COVID-19 has exposed many of them to long hours, dangerous working conditions, and lack of resources. Although COVID may have magnified these problems in an unprecedented way, they are hardly new challenges for laborers in the healthcare industry. Is living with these conditions expected of heroes, or are nurses allowed to ask for something better? Does a desire to serve entail vulnerability to exploitation? This coexistence of care and exploitation is a familiar theme for historian Gabriel Winant. In his book The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America, he uses Pittsburgh as an example of the economic shift from industry to services (including healthcare), and the impact that shift has on the working class.As a Marxist, the lens Gabe turns on these issues is different than Grant's Catholic personalism; but together they tackle the health care industry, the current state of working class jobs, and many other issues.From the political power of nurses tothe meaning of women's work, they ask what care might look like in a society where it is not work to be marketed or exploited, but an act of freedom that finds value in others.

In this episode, Ryan interviews historian Brad Gregory, Henkels Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. In his book The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society, Brad connects the Reformation in surprising and sometimes controversial ways to the making of the modern world, from secularization and the privatization of religion to the battle between faith and science. Brad argues that the naturalism proper to the natural sciences can't provide a full understanding of human life; as temporal beings who live in a present that has been shaped by events of the past, history is a vital component to meaningfully understanding the world around us. In this packed conversation, he and Ryan discuss how historical knowledge impacts our understanding of such diverse fields as economics, theology, and eschatology. Among the many questions they ask, some pose painful challenges to the modern Christian. What if Christianity in the Western world holds responsibility for such things as the climate crisis and the sin of slavery? If pre-history was characterized not by scarcity, but abundance, what justifies the avarice so characteristic of our times? Can we hope for goodness here on earth, or is the virtue of hope only fulfilled in heaven?

As technology develops at an ever more rapid pace, it can seem that ethics struggles to keep up with it. While science and technology advance by building on discoveries of the past, virtue and moral knowledge must be cultivated afresh in every individual and each generation. This is where Brian Green comes in. As director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, his areas of research are many, ranging from transhumanism and artificial intelligence, to catastrophic risk and the ethics of outer space. This diverse array of interests all pivot on the intersection between technology and humanity. In this episode, Brian and Gretchen dive into many areas of tech ethics that both impact our present lives and promise to shape our future. From immediate ethical dilemmas like self-driving car crashes and responsible tech development, to long-view issues like the establishment of extra-terrestrial colonies and the achievement of artificial general intelligence, they reflect on a large range of themes that can affect human lives for both good and ill. Listen in as they discuss old and forgotten tools for answering ethical questions, the Christian commission to work miracles, which human qualities can't be programmed into machines, and more. Together they ask, should our predictions about technology and ethics be dire, or hopeful? What choices are we making now that will shape coming generations?

On this episode of the podcast, Grant interviews Ted Castronova, Professor of Media at Indiana University and author Life is a Game: What Game Design Says about the Human Condition.  Mathematical game theory defines a game as anything that has players making strategic choices to achieve an outcome that matters to them. From this, Ted argues that life itself is a game, and as Christians we can view God as a game designer who has given us free will to make choices within His design.  But if life is a game that we are playing, why do so many people find themselves frustrated and bored by it? And why is the allure of virtual worlds—from the hype around the Metaverse, to the vibrant culture around online gaming—so strong? Many futuristic movies and novels (such as The Matrix, Ready Player One, and Snow Crash) portray virtual reality as having a fundamental role in a dystopian world, often as a distraction from a real world that is somehow broken. Is virtual reality attractive because we've forgotten how to “play” the game of life? Or can the games of the real and virtual worlds coexist in a balanced way? Which game are we all really playing, and how do we actually win it? What can games—whether tabletop or VR—teach us about living? Listen as Ted and Grant discuss these and other questions about games, reality, and the many places where the two meet. 

In her book The Permeable Self, Barbara Newman—John Evans Professor of Latin, as well as English, Classics, and History at Northwestern University—explores the importance of coinherence in the medieval view of personhood. This is the concept that persons are profoundly interconnected, existing not in isolation but “in” each other. One illustration of this is the trope of exchanging hearts, whether between lovers or between female mystics and Christ.  The concept of our selves having such porous boundaries is perhaps an alien one to the contemporary American mind. But in this episode, Barbara discusses stories of heart transplant patients who—without knowing anything about the donors of their new hearts—began to take on personality traits of the donors. In a society where we often define personhood by its individuality and separateness, what do we make of instances such as these, which seem to bear out a medieval understanding of what it means to be human? Barbara and Ryan discuss this and other aspects relating to how people in the Middle Ages conceived of personhood. They delve into saintly telepathy, the relationship between virginity and fertility, the social life of trees, and the tension between the public, performative persona and a private, interior sense of self. Together they ponder the different ways that people can be seen as existing coherently with each other, both in the present and across the boundaries of time through genealogy.

In April of 2019, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention published a document called “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles.” Armed with the belief that God has created humans with both the ability to invent new technologies and the wisdom to answer new dilemmas those technologies raise, the document outlined basic principles to guide a Christian ethical approach to advances in AI. In a cultural moment when many Christian voices express anxiety over the effects of the digital world on faith, community, and identity, the tone of this document was one of hope, acknowledging the dangers of advances in technology while professing that “nothing we create will be able to thwart [God's] redemptive plan for creation.”  In this episode, Jason Thacker, lead drafter of the document and director of the Research Institute for the ERLC, further explores the intersection of theology and digital technology with Gretchen. Together they consider the meaning of discipleship in the 21st century, the ways that our identity is (and isn't) formed by technological advances, and the “big” questions that underlie ethical issues relating to data privacy, digital surveillance, and more. Jason seeks to help root the Church's approach to AI in a posture of wakefulness and hope, alert to the impact of timeless questions on current issues and equipped to engage with them as members of a digital age.