The Christian Humanist Podcast

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Episode 19: Detective Fiction Apr 14, 2010

Show notes

David Grubbs moderates a discussion with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about detective fiction, its roots in Romanticism and Victorian literature, and the changes it undergoes as the television age progresses. Along the way we talk about the sidekick figure, the development of the wounded-warrior stereotype in the genre, and why those toys on NCIS don't really exist. Among the authors, texts, and television shows discussed are Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Bones, House, The Wire, and the Talmud.

Episode 18: Sports Apr 07, 2010

Show notes

Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs and Nathan Gilmour on sports, their ethical weight, their psychological functions, their place in the history of civilization and of literary enterprise, and why nobody likes the Yankees. Among the contested ideas are the relative merits of civic sporting patriotism, the goods inherent in playing and in watching sports, and the art of televised football. Among the texts and authors discussed are Homer, John Updike, and A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request.

Episode 17: Great Books and Critical Theory Mar 31, 2010

Show notes

Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion with Michial Farmer and David Grubbs about the shape of literary education and especially the fight between Critical Theory and Great Books curricula. Beginning with the Renaissance and moving forward into the age of research universities, they examine and critique various visions of general education. Among the texts and authors discussed are C.S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Henry Newman, George Campbell, Adam Smith, and Thomas Malory.

Episode 16.1: Horror Movies Mar 24, 2010

Show notes

David Grubbs and Michial Farmer hold forth on scary things, tracing their ancient roots and modern-era American and British flowering and exploring the sorts of things that movies do to scare audiences. Among the movies, texts, and authors discussed are Gilgamesh, Edgar Allen Poe, Horace Walpole, The Shining, H.P. Lovecraft, Jaws, Dracula, and Frankenstein.

Episode 16: Christian Colleges Mar 17, 2010

Show notes

Michial Farmer moderates a discussion with David Grubbs, Nathan Gilmour, and special guest co-host Chris Gehrz about the purpose and the future of Christian colleges, our experiences with them, and various theories of education--ranging from Reformed to Pietist--which inform life in the Christian college. Among the authors and texts discussed in this week's show are Arthur Holmes, Chris Gehrz, Will Willimon, and James K.A. Smith.

Episode 15: Youth Ministry Mar 11, 2010

Show notes

Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion of youth ministry, its roots in twentieth-century American youth culture, some departures from older ways of thinking about childhood, the different ways that youth ministers have tried to adapt to the cult of the young, and some interesting developments and alternatives. Among the texts, authors, and movements discussed in this episode are J.D. Salinger, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jack Kerouac, homeschooling, Johnson City style youth ministry, and chubby bunnies. (This might be the last time chubby bunnies ever makes the show notes for this podcast.)

Episode 14: Literary Genesis Mar 03, 2010

Show notes

David Grubbs moderates a discussion of literary origin stories, starting in the Babylonian and other Levantine predecessors of Genesis, spending a fair bit of time on Genesis, and launching forth (after a detour through the Greeks and Romans, of course) into the Christian era's accounts of creation. Among the authors and texts discussed are Enuma Elish, Genesis, Rig Veda, the Gospel of John, Ovid, Caedmon, Paradise Lost, and the Chronicles of Narnia.

Episode 13: The Death of Conservatism? Feb 24, 2010

Show notes

Michial Farmer moderates a discussion of Sam Tanenhaus's recent book The Death of Conservatism, its relative truth and worth, and how the Christian Humanists relate to various iterations of conservatism. Among the authors and texts with which we engage are Sam Tanenhaus, Edmund Burke, Neil Postman, Stanley Hauerwas, Augustine, and Plato.

Episode 11: Movies: Epics Feb 10, 2010

Show notes

David Grubbs moderates a discussion about the varieties of epic, the nationalist ideologies that motivate some of the theories of epic, the relationships between novels and epics, and how all of these discussions inform the Christian Humanists' common sense that most movies claiming to be epic movies are nearly unwatchable. Among the authors, texts, and movies discussed are Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, Hudibras, Troy, King Arthur, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies, Garden State, and 300.

Episode 10.1: Movies: Comedy Feb 03, 2010

Show notes

Michial Farmer and David Grubbs hold forth on the character of literary comedy, its place in Christian traditions, and why life is in fact one long Monty Python movie. Among the texts, authors, and movies discussed are Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Monty Python, Weird Al, G.K. Chesterton, Aristotle, and... no, at this point not even we believe this list.

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