Burt's Books 30x30

In "The Divine Magician," Peter Rollins describes Christianity as a magic trick. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are demonstrative events in which God's self-estrangement from Himself calls human beings into the metaphysical "lack" at the center of our existence. All are guilty of the frenetic pursuit of imaginary Sacred Objects that were crucified with God.

Ambiguous language matters because of what it permits to go under the radar. Jon Harris' recent anti-anti-racist polemic shows why.

The Greek presented the concept of tragedy as a universe indifferent to human virtues. I look at Kazuo Ishiguro's excellent "The Remains of the Day" as both a successor and challenge to that tradition. I suggest the book asks universal questions about what it means to define character amid absurdity and tragedy. Burt's wish list: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/genericItemsPage/15X0LWXA5T9O2  

In his 1970 collection of essays, Albert Murray assaulted both right and left wing culture warriors. At the center of his criticism was the "folklore of white supremacy and the fakelore of black pathology." Murray argued for an incontestably "mulatto" character in American culture.

Christian theologian, medical ethicist, and public provocateur Stanley Hauerwas talks with Brett about his recent book “The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson.” In this revealing interview, Hauerwas explains the ancient tradition of virtue ethics, the significance of the human body in morality, and how the project of modernity, particularly in the United States, detaches Americans from the narratives and commitments necessary to sustain virtues like truthfulness and justice.  Read articles by Brett at www.burtreadsbooks.com Burt's Book Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_4?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist #stanleyhauerwas #2021 #Trump #virtue #modernity #aristotle #character #thecharacterofvirtue #bookreview

Listener discretion advised. After his death, rumors emerged that French philosopher Michel Foucault had travelled to San Francisco with the knowledge of an AIDS diagnosis and willfully infected multiple partners in a philosophical experiment. James Miller, in his provocative biography of Foucault, finds the rumor unlikely. He does, however, take seriously the claims that Foucault's philosophical paths of inquiry certainly could have led him, with perfect rationality, to such a murderous end. Brett concludes by contrasting Foucault's philosophical quest with that of Russian novelist Fyodr Dostoevsky whose similarly relentless pursuit of truth led him to find, not possibilities of personal pleasure in sado-masochistic pain, but redemption of humanity's universal suffering.  Burt's Books Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=cm_wl_huc_view        

In this, the second of two episodes on Robert Bellah's "Habits of the Heart," Brett explores the consequences of American individualism being removed from the traditions that once gave it a direction and purpose. Today, Americans are expected to "find themselves" independent of any outside influences. Bellah finds a deep and troubling irony in the way this philosophy opens Americans to a pervasive doctrine of consumption and conformity. In contrast to the early days of the Republic, individualism today renders Americans incredibly ambivalent towards politics and governmental power. Tragically, Bellah points out, it is precisely traditions such as civic participation that could actually give Americans a meaningful sense of self. https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_4?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist #RobertBellah #Individualism #Conformity #Capitalism #Consumerism #BookReview #Habitsoftheheart

In this, the first of a two part review on "Habits of the Heart" by Robert Bellah, Brett explores Bellah's historical account of three major traditions that flow through American history: the Biblical, the Republican, and the Individualistic. Bellah finds that even as these traditions remain influential, they have each been ripped off from a wholistic understanding of the American as an independent but engaged citizen. As America transformed from an agrarian to an industrial society, a cool and calculating self-interest ascended to create the isolated form of individualism Americans know and embrace today. Discussion Questions: 1.) Where do you see the three traditions influencing public life today? Can you think of specific examples in both liberal and conservative circles? 2.) Why does the therapist replace the independent citizen as the ideal representative American? 3.) How do you connect the meaning of your home life and work life? Do they serve the same ultimate purpose? Why or why not? Burt's Book Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/genericItemsPage/15X0LWXA5T9O2?type=wishlist&_encoding=UTF8  

In the first episode of Season Two, Brett reviews Robert Putnam's famous sociological study of American life. In "Bowling Alone," Putnam's massive collection of data shows a steep decline in the American individual's involvement in social life between the late 1960s and 2000. Why? The answers are surprising, even disturbing. Brett closes with an analysis of why religion, specifically evangelicalism, provides most of our country's social engagement even as it seems to play a key role in our social disenchantment. Burt's Book Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_5?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlistTo explore Robert Putnam's data and fine more information on increasing our nation's social capital visit: www.bowlingalone.com#RobertPutnam #CivilDiscourse #CivicVirtue #BowlingAlone #BookReview

Brett ends season one with a meditation on what it means for people to desecrate the spiritual garden of the world. In the tradition of Wagner and Tolkien, Brett analyzes modern forms of politics and culture that instrumentalize people and values. In his own country, Brett finds leaders abdicating the constraints of moral authority that are necessary to cultivate notions of “the true” and “the good.” In this new dark ages, where else can we find purpose, not just for ourselves but for our common life in the city? Burt's Books Wish Listhttps://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2?type=wishlist&filter=unpurchased&sort=default&viewType=grid Roger Scruton on "Beauty & Desecration"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqaIFzVd0qk&t=646s&ab_channel=TheHildebrandLegacy Burt's Books' Website:www.burtreadsbooks.com

In this special episode, Brett explains the ancient philosophy of stoicism, introduces three great stoic authors, and talks about what it was like to live like a Stoic during this year's annual Stoic Week event. He closes by looking at Stoicism's similarities to Christianity and asks listeners to consider how both belief systems are present in the United States today. https://www.burtreadsbooks.com Brett's Amazon Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2?type=wishlist&filter=unpurchased&sort=default&viewType=grid  

Let the ruling classes tremble: Karl Marx and Friederich Engels have looked to history and believe they can see its end. In his review of "The Communist Manifesto," Brett counts Marx and Engels among the many genius thinkers of the European Enlightenment tradition. Like many of these thinkers, Marx and Engels inherit not only a new way of exercising human reason but (like the Puritan Christians before them) an obsessive compulsion to find universal principles that can order and discipline society. Beneath their incisive observations about alienation and the changing world order Brett finds a potent but reductive account of the human enterprise. Special thanks to Andrew Beard for his excellent voice acting in today's opening clip! Help out the show by sending Brett a book - just add from this Amazon list to your cart and they will give you the option to send the book to me! https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2?type=wishlist&filter=unpurchased&sort=default&viewType=grid Stoic Week 2020: https://learn.modernstoicism.com/p/stoic-week  

In this listener-requested episode, Brett reviews author Ta-Nehisi Coates' eight year chronicle of the Obama years leading up to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. In "We Were Eight Years in Power" Brett finds a master's grasp of pathos; a memoir and essay collection that draws readers into the nihilistic "black atheism" of a man who watches his hopes slowly dashed against the rocks over the course of eight painful years. Brett critiques those in Coates' following who read the book as a prescriptive piece of work like the anti-racist literature of Robin DiAngelo or Ibram X. Kendi. Instead, Brett finds Ta-Nehisi Coates to be a self-aware writer who despairs of and describes the moral decay that corners people into two-dimensional and reductionist thinking.   Articles by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic:https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ta-nehisi-coates/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwuD7BRDBARIsAK_5YhUtv0uyzi9-gVCpZwYBUmtvRAZN-iGn3Ch_3j2VzFX2vv5Nevj8cL8aAvN-EALw_wcB   Brett's Amazon Wish List:https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_3?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist  

The political philosophy of most Americans is characterized by the belief that politics is the coordination and harmonization of our individual pursuits of autonomy and happiness (whatever happiness means). In today's episode, Brett presents the ancient greek political theory of Aristotle as a challenge to our understanding of politics. Particularly, Brett claims that the language of virtues that is ritually deployed in our political discourse is completely out of place and unjustifiable given our views of autonomy and happiness. To speak of courage, compassion, temperance and justice requires a politics of constraints. These constraints are put in place by particular times and places; by the particular stories that form the common goals and purposes of our social life. This is "The Politics" by Aristotle.Burt's Books Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2?&sort=default   David Foster Wallace Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGLzWdT7vGc&t=1193s&ab_channel=ManufacturingIntellect   "Aristotle for Everybody" by Mortimer Adler https://www.amazon.com/Aristotle-Everybody-Difficult-Thought-Made/dp/0684838230/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=aristotle+for+everybody&qid=1600543706&sr=8-1  

What if we lived in a world where everyone's self-interests were perfectly harmonized? What would this organization look like and what would it cost? Brett opens a mini-series on political philosophy by contending that Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" is a commentary on western culture's project to implement this idea. At the center of this project is pleasure's intoxicating ability to overpower our achievements in beauty and truth which come only from commitments that often cause suffering. Brett's Amazon Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_3?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist Jimmy Carter's Crisis of Confidence Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYWqveU1Tdk&t=1199s&ab_channel=DominicNaylor Review of Paul Collier's "The Future of Capitalism" in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/books/review/paul-collier-future-of-capitalism.html Stanley Hauerwas on Christianity as a politics: https://www.abc.net.au/religion/the-politics-of-the-church-and-the-humanity-of-god/10100464  

Brett concludes the series on race and religion in America by traveling back in time to the end of the Middle Ages. He argues that understanding the emergence of the modern, secular mindset is key for understanding the rise and fall of the Civil Rights Movement. The Puritans brought a new modern mindset to America and ensured a tenuous future for our experiments in the ancient Greek ideal of the democratic republic. Black civil society, excluded from participation in American society, independently developed the kinds of traditions necessary to sustain democratic participation. During the 1960s, the inherent contradictions of modernity and American society came to a clamoring head. As a result, we are living today in the aftermath of processes that span the centuries.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s beliefs and methods were open to question from the very beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. So argues Taylor Branch, revered historian and author of the monumental trilogy "America in the King Years." In this review Brett draws out themes from Branch's trilogy which revolve around the tragic events of the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign. Brett argues that if Branch's account is correct, today's moment requires Americans either to revive or reject as irrelevant MLK's views on nonviolent, democratic participation. Resources mentioned in this podcat: -John Lewis' original and revised speech compared: https://billmoyers.com/content/two-ve... -"Mississippi Goddamn" by Nina Simone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-... -James Chaney (murdered civil rights activist) Eulogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jKNH...   Additional Resources: -Taylor Branch and Bob Moses talk about America after George Floyd's death: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/07/... -Video about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sp7s...

John McWhorter's controversial series of articles argues that conservative religion and the anti-racist movement, as a subsidiary of today's progressive liberalism, have much in common. Brett argues that analyzing the tone of today's debate about racial issues in the context of philosophical history reveals a culture in revolt against the reality of what Charles Taylor calls our "Secular Age."   John McWhorter articles mentioned into today's show: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/why-third-wave-anti-racism-dead-end/578764/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/dehumanizing-condescension-white-fragility/614146/

Their ubiquitous influence on American society is ignored until it is felt. They completely transformed Christian theology. They put Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump in the highest office in the land. Their institutions maintain and perpetuate the racialized society. Pulitzer Prize winning historian Frances Fitzgerald answers the pivotal question: who are the Evangelicals?

Last week, we unpacked Michael Emerson and Christian Smith's research on segregation in the American Evangelical Church in their book "Divided by Faith." This week, I sat down with Pastor Curt Wright to talk about the book and the situation on the ground. Brett also admits to testing out Facebook advertising.

"High noon on Sunday is the most segregated hour in American life" said Malcolm X. In their monumental study from 2000 "Divided by Faith" Michael Emerson and Christian Smith discover the sobering truth about the Evangelical Church's role in maintaining the segregation and inequality of the white/black color line in the United States.

Brett opens a series of episodes on race and religion in America with the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Based on Malcolm's story, Brett contends that to change one's perspective on race in America is tantamount to a religious conversion experience.

Americans of all political persuasions are increasingly demanding candidates who can “buck the establishment.” If independent presidential candidate Mark Charles is right, it would seem that the majority of Americans have little idea of what constitutes that establishment. Today, I talk with Mark Charles about his campaign and his book "Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery," an epic account of racism and religion in America with a narrative arc that stretches back to the time of Caesar and Christ.

In this Mosaic episode, Brett looks at common themes surrounding violence and war in the last four books he reviewed and finds that a culture in denial of death may be the source of strange modes of violence in the United States.

In his 1983 work on Christian ethics "The Peaceable Kingdom," theologian Stanley Hauerwas gives a scathing critique of modernity and proposes that an ethic based in narrative is the only way to develop a people with the virtues necessary to live peaceably.

Sebastian Junger's 2010 memoir "War" follows the life and relationships of an American platoon stationed in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. What emerges from his story is a beautiful and disturbing picture of two ethical ways of life that divide Americans on the homefront and Americans on the battlefront.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's 1996 study "On Killing" explores the biological, psychological, and sociological cost of killing in war. The clarity that his research provides on empirical facts about killing, however, may open up more questions than answers for our moral claims about killing.

Modern moral sensibilities and intellectual standards decry violence. In "The Illiad" of Homer the reader finds that, for good reason, the ancient mind held violence as a redemptive force that made man like the gods. Today we ask if Socrates and Jesus were right to change that perspective. www.burtreadsbooks.com  

Brett looks at the themes of complexity and courage in the last five books and why they should inform our ethical point of view. This first "Mosaic" episode covers five books: Eric Hoffer "The True Believer" Shusaku Endo "Silence" Edmund Burke "Reflections on the Revolution in France" Ngugi Wa T'hiongo "Petals of Bloods" Plato "The Apology" www.burtreadsbooks.com www.facebook.com/burtreadsbooks  

Plato’s account of the criminal defense speech of the philosopher Socrates in his dialogue "The Apology" has inspired people morally and intellectually for more than 2000 years. And while people often think of Socrates as someone obsessed with “the life of the mind,” this dialogue demonstrates the philosopher had an equally high view of the body. www.burtreadsbooks.com www.facebook.com/burtreadsbooks  

Ngugi wa Thiong’os 1977 anti-imperialist masterpiece “Petals of Blood” uses sexual metaphor to critique the influence of British religion and economics in post-colonial Kenya. The result is nothing less than a polemic worthy of the Old Testament prophetic tradition. Interested in why Ngugi wa Thiong'o chooses sexual metaphor? Check out my article "Feeble to Effeminacy" in which I argue that understanding the British Empire in a sexual context may be more literally appropriate than you might suspect: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gvjh/vo... www.burtreadsbooks.com www.facebook.com/burtreadsbooks  

While the word “conservatism” may bring to the modern mind a set of policy platforms, Edmund Burke (the so-called father of modern conservatism) was far more concerned with carving out a philosophical position. His 1790 political tract “Reflections on the Revolution in France” helps us understand how and why. www.burtreadsbooks.com www.facebook.com/burtreadsbooks  

When Christians experience God's absence, their tradition reminds them that their suffering is noble and reflects the image of a suffering savior. Shusaku Endo's 1966 masterpiece "Silence" provocatively asks whether any such honor exists when our convictions are the cause of others' suffering. www.burtreadsbooks.com www.facebook.com/burtreadsbooks  

It often seems that when people gather around an ideal they are capable of atrocity. In his 1951 book "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" German sociologist Eric Hoffer reflects on human motivation on the madness of crowds. 30x30 is a video series in which Brett Bateman-Linsley gives a book review for each of the 30 books that have most influenced him before turning 30 years old. www.burtreadsbooks.com www.facebook.com/burtreadsbooks