Explore every episode of the podcast The Moral Imagination
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 63: Escaping the Technocratic Paradigm | 05 sept. 2026 | 01:03:56 | |
This episode of The Moral Imagination Podcast is a lecture I gave on Escaping the Technocratic Paradigm at a conference on Social Engineering the Poor. My main argument is that the dominant way that we have addressed poverty and other social problems throughout the world has been based on a mechanistic vision of the person and society – a “technocratic paradigm.” This technocratic vision has led to attempts to scientifically manage people, which not only failed to deliver on its promises, but has caused injustice, weakened families, and the natural communities where people flourish. Inspired by the success of industrialism, the assembly line, advances in science and technology, and especially the military victory of World War II, the idea was that we could use the state and social policy to do incredible things. We won the war. Let’s now use our energy, political and economic power, social engineering, and technology to “win the peace.” My argument is that this dominant, technocratic paradigm fails because there is no technical solution to the problems of evil, sin, suffering, poverty, and death. The technocratic paradigm fails because it is based on a mistaken vision of the human person, a simplistic view of society. It is based on erroneous visions of justice, a lack of regard for the family as the fundamental unit of society, a degrading of the importance of economic opportunity, and failure to practice solidarity, subsidiarity, and charity properly understood. Ultimately it reduces poor people to objects to be managed, rather than seeing people as protagonists with freedom and capacity. OUTLINE I divided the talk into 4 main sections: First, I set out the idea of the technological society and technocratic paradigm. The term technocratic paradigm can be found in the encyclical Laudato Si from Pope Francis where he writes, also quoting the theologian Romano Guardini and There is a tendency to believe that every increase in power means “an increase of ‘progress’ itself”, an advance in “security, usefulness, welfare and vigor; …. as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such. He argues that our “immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, in values and conscience.” This echoes the work of C.S. Lewis, an early critic of technocracy in his book The Abolition of Man and his novel, That Hideous Strength, and the writings of Benedict XVI, especially in from Jesus of Nazareth and Spe Salvi Second, I give various examples of the technocratic paradigm in practice including: * Architecture * Education * Agriculture and Monoculture * Family and Marriage * Healthcare * Genetic Engineering * Euthanasia * World Economic Forum Vision * Behavior Modification * Transhumanism With a specific focus on how technocratic poverty alleviation programs have cause harm including * Urban Renewal * The loss of intergenerational wealth * Welfare and Policy Programs * Public Housing * Foreign Aid * UN Millennium Goals * Population Control Programs Third, I set out some of the key attributes and characteristics of the technocratic paradigm and the technological society * Scientism and Philosophical Materialism * Plastic Anthropology – person has no essential nature, but is simply malleable * Myth of Progres * Utility and Efficiency as Higest Values * Primacy of the Technical * All problems are ultimately technical problems * If it is technically possible it is material possible * The shift from Charity to Humanitarianism * Denial of the Transcendent + Utopian Ideology Fourth I contrast the technocratic approach with a non-technocratic, decentralized, and specifically Christian approach to thinking about society and addressing poverty focused on seven key principles: * Christian anthropology. What does it mean to be a human person? * the family as the fundamental unit of society – and fundamental economic unit. * Charity as opposed to humanitarianism. * Justice – legal, commutative, and distributive * The principle of Solidarity, * The principle of Subsidiarity * Eschatology * I argue that the problem of the technocratic society is not simply a policy program or a technical problem, but it’s actually a philosophical and a theological problem rooted in errors of metaphysics and specifically eschatology. As Benedict XVI writes in Spe Salvi paragraphs 25 and 26 25. What this means is that every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed. Yet every generation must also make its own contribution to establishing convincing structures of freedom and of good, which can help the following generation as a guideline for the proper use of human freedom; hence, always within human limits, they provide a certain guarantee also for the future. In other words: good structures help, but of themselves they are not enough. Man can never be redeemed simply from outside. Francis Bacon and those who followed in the intellectual current of modernity that he inspired were wrong to believe that man would be redeemed through science. Such an expectation asks too much of science; this kind of hope is deceptive. Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it. On the other hand, we must also acknowledge that modern Christianity, faced with the successes of science in progressively structuring the world, has to a large extent restricted its attention to the individual and his salvation. In so doing it has limited the horizon of its hope and has failed to recognize sufficiently the greatness of its task—even if it has continued to achieve great things in the formation of man and in care for the weak and the suffering. 26. It is not science that redeems man: man is redeemed by love. This applies even in terms of this present world. When someone has the experience of a great love in his life, this is a moment of “redemption” which gives a new meaning to his life. But soon he will also realize that the love bestowed upon him cannot by itself resolve the question of his life. It is a love that remains fragile. It can be destroyed by death. The human being needs unconditional love. Suggested Additional Reading Jacques Ellul: The Technological Society Augusto Del Noce: The Crisis of Modernity Romano Guardini: The End of the Modern World: Power and Responsibility Iain McGilchrist: The Master and His Emissary James C. Scott: Seeing Like a State For a good introduction to Del Noce listen to my podcast interview on Del Noce with Carlo Lancellotti who translated his work into English Jaron Lanier: Ten Arguments to Delete Your Social Media Right Now Benedict XVI: Jesus of Nazareth and Spe Salvi C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength Ismael Hernandez Rethinking Charity You can also read my forward to Re-Thinking Charity here Eric Voegelin: The New Science of Politics Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America Photo Credit: Simon Scionka Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Episode 62: John Johnson on Artificial Intelligence, Human Intelligence, Theology, and Freedom | 02 juil. 2026 | 01:24:16 | |
In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with John Johnson, founder and CEO of Patmos Technologies. We discuss some of the philosophical and theological dimensions of AI, the error of reducing the person to consciousness, the nature of personhood, the problem of commodification, and possible implications of artificial intelligence on human identity freedom, and morality. One Note: This podcast was recorded before Pope Leo XIV released his encyclical, Magnificent Humanity which is why we don’t refer to it. A key theme we discuss the importance or embodiment in understanding the human person. We discuss the dangers of data centralization, behavior modification, the alignment problem in AI. John also shares some of his insights on how he built his company, Patmos to provide services in a “parallel” economy that respects individual agency and freedom and tries to bypass the alliance between the state and big tech. We discuss a number of things including: * The error of viewing the person in terms of digital technology and AI * The limitations of “consciousness” in understanding personhood * The importance of the body in understanding our humanity * Artificial Intelligence and the Alignment problem * The philosophical underpinnings of transhumanism * Artificial Intelligence versus different ways of knowing —including inarticulate rationality and connatural knowing. * Theological reflections on digital technology and artificial intelligence. * Behavior modification generally and especially for vulnerable populations. * The risk of AI and centralization of data * John also shares insights from the Prodigal Son and the Book of Revelation Key Themes Outline Section 1: Introduction & Context 00:00 – 08:50 * Introduction to John Johnson - founder and CEO of Patmos Technologies * The rise of technocracy and its implications for individual freedom * The alliance between the state and big tech as a structural problem Section 2: Patmos Technologies & the “Parallel Economy” 05:46 – 12:06 * Patmos was built as a direct response to technocratic challenges * The goal is to provide services in a “parallel” economy that respects individual agency and freedom * Johnson’s insight: it is possible to build outside the dominant tech ecosystem Section 3: The Nature of AI & the Human Person 12:06 – 32:22 * The error of viewing the person through the lens of digital technology and AI * How to think about using a tool versus subordinating ourselves to a tool * Consciousness alone is insufficient for understanding personhood * The error of mechanistic visions of the person * Aquinas on the intellect and the soul * The importance of the body in defining our humanity * AI versus different ways of knowing — including inarticulate rationality and connatural knowing Section 4: Moral & Theological Dimensions 34:44 – 49:22 * The body and transcendence in technology * “The Beast and the Lamb” — AI’s moral implications drawn from the Book of Revelation * Transhumanism and its quest to redefine humanity * Eschatological aspect of transhumanism * The human intellect: how we understand knowledge and love * Theological reflections on identity and agency Section 5: Commodification of Persons & the Convenience Trap 56:27 – 01:05:22 * The risk of the self being commodified through convenience * The Prodigal Son as a parable about substance and value — what we give away and what we lose * Behavior modification as a key tool of technocratic control, especially for vulnerable populations Section 6: Data, Decentralization & Soft Digital Power 01:05:22 – 01:15:39 * AI and its limitations in replicating human interaction * The dangers of centralizing data * On soft digital power — control exercised without overt force: * Decentralization as a practical and principled response Section 7: The Anthropological Battle & Carving Out Space 01:18:26 – 01:22:43 * AI and technology represent an anthropological battle — a contest over what it means to be human * The alignment problem as both a technical and moral challenge * The need to carve out intentional space for humanity within a technological world Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| "It is Good that You Are" The Human Person in the Age of AI and The Digital Revolution | 20 mai 2026 | 00:36:20 | |
This is a talk I gave at an Acton Institute conference in Rome on the Human Person, AI, and the Digital Revolution in December 2025. The talk focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence and the digital revolution on the human person and and specifically how we understand ourselves. Photo Credit: Chat GPT — Prompt - MMM While there are many benefits to digital technology, artificial intelligence is amplifying many of the negatives impacts on how we understand the person. It has led to a mechanistic vision of the human person and reductive vision of reason, freedom, emotions and more. Some of the problems I address include: * Understanding ourselves through the computer * Digital Bureaucratization * Denigration of the Body * Commodification of Persons * Surveillance * Behavior Modification * Transhumanism — AI, CRISPR, and designer babies I conclude with a response of philosophy of the person that is not filtered through computer analogies, but grounded in the vision that being is good, matter is good, our bodies are good - not accidents - but constituent of who we are, and with richer concept of reason, intelligence, emotions, and our social nature, and with agency and grace. A key element of digital revolution is Claude Shannon’s work on information theory in which he discusses Noise and Signal: The Gospel and Christian vision of the person is the signal in the midst of so many distortions about the nature and destiny of the human person. Outline and Themes The Nature of the Digital Revolution * The Digital Revolution is not a single phenomenon; we are still in its early stages, and it is hard to predict what will happen. * It has produced: * Increases in productivity * Medicine * Education * New industries and faster, broader globalization * Mobile and satellite telephony, bypassing landlines, especially impactful in the developing world * De-materialization (“10 things to one phone”) * There are many positives but there are also trade-offs – “with the invention of the car, comes the car crash” Key Distinctions Distinction 1: Technology vs. the Technological Society /The “Technological Paradigm” — Pope Francis) Technology is what human beings create. We are called to complete creation. Technological Paradigm is a Worldview * Whatever can be done is permissible * All problems are technical problems Many dominant technology platforms are infused with secular, materialist, and transhumanist values, producing addictive products and harmful behaviors, often despite known negative effects. As noted in Pope Francis Encyclical Laudato Si’, technological power has not been matched by growth in responsibility, values, and conscience. (Guardini) Distinction 2: Critiquing technology ≠ rejecting technology or innovation, penicillin or hospitals; nuance is required. Technology is not neutral and shapes us for good or ill. Distinction 3: There are some who worry about apocalyptic scenarios – “If anyone builds it, everyone dies.” Others reject these outright. Since no one can successfully predict we can talk about positives and negatives without affirming either position. How AI and Digital Technology Shape our Self-Understanding Distortion of the Person (Starting with Consciousness) * AI exacerbates the problem of understanding ourselves through the analogy of our creation: we see ourselves through the machine. * This is not new: in the Industrial Revolution, mechanistic ways of understanding the person, the family, the economy, and society fueled the idea that everything could be planned and social engineered. * In many discussions of AI, the human person is approached beginning with consciousness—not reason, freedom, embodiment, social nature, or the image of God—so we interpret the person through the lens of the computer: man through machine. Contrast this to Catholic philosophy of the person which begins with the person as: * “an individual substance of a rational nature, created in the image of God,” with reason seeking the good, true, and beautiful; free will; embodied and “made out of the dust”; born into families and cultures—our bodies are not an accident of our personhood. * We are not simply consciousness driving around in a body; as St. Thomas Aquinas says: “I am not my soul.” * Only a small part of brain activity is actually conscious; yet AI discourse often equates consciousness with personhood and reduces reason to discursive ratio, ignoring intellectus. Reductionism in Thinking and “Intelligence” * Artificial Intelligence is a certain way of “thinking”: discursive and explicit, fast processing, but not thinking properly understood. * It resembles what Iain McGilchrist describes as a Left Hemisphere dominated approach: reductionist, explicit, mechanistic. Parallel between the ratio and the intellectus in Saint Thomas Aquinas – See for example Antiqua et Nova Related to Benedict XVI Regensburg Address and the problem of limiting reason to the empirical. This can further solidify the mechanistic “technological society” (Del Noce) / “technocratic paradigm” (Pope Francis). McGilchrist’s analogy (The Master and his Emissary): * The master has a holistic vision and knows purpose and meaning; the emissary is skilled at tasks but cannot see the whole. * AI is an emissary: immense computational power, but it cannot grasp deeper meaning. Reliance upon AI has the great possibility of leading us astray. Digital Bureaucratization and Abdication of Judgment * Pope Leo has expressed worry that we may decrease our competence by becoming overly reliant on AI. * There is danger of abdicating decision making to algorithms. Standardization and efficiency can be good, but algorithmic rigidity can undermine prudence and create injustice. Denigration of the Body * A recurring theme in history—especially in post-Christian societies—is gnostic rejection of the body. * The body is treated as accidental; this distorts relationships, sexuality, marriage, children, and self-understanding. * This is not just AI; it is part of the broader technological paradigm. Alignment: We Already Have an Alignment Problem * Debate about AGI and super-intelligence includes fears that “if anybody builds it everyone dies,” yet even rejecting machine consciousness, there are serious alignment concerns. Loss of Privacy, Surveillance, and Social Credit * We already face loss of privacy and “surveillance capitalism.” With “free services,” “you are not the customer, you are the product.” * AI exacerbates this: more data can be collected and analyzed, including the potential for social credit systems. Behavior Modification * One of the most dangerous aspects is behavior modification: targeted ads and content influence you. * You are not just seeing a billboard; you’ve entered a “Skinner Box” of operant conditioning. * Jaron Lanier: “We’re being tracked and measured constantly… We’re all lab animals now.” Commodification of Persons * Surveillance and behavior modification are part of a larger commodification of persons: our hopes, dreams, conversations, and relationships become raw material—“we are the raw material.” Relationships, Entertainment, and AI Companions * Constant entertainment and algorithmic content can decrease sensitivity to evil * Digital media correlates with depression, anxiety, loneliness, and less life satisfaction; it forms “small souls unprepared for real relationships.” * As AI grows, more people turn to AI for friendship and love; AI chatbots can be sycophantic, mirror desires, detach users from real relationships, and there are cases of chatbots encouraging self-harm and suicide. Transhumanism and AI + Genetic Engineering Underlying much AI development is transhumanism: combining biology and technology to create a new type of man, the next step in evolution. * AI combined with genetic engineering (CRISPR + computing power) raises profound threats, including “designer babies” (e.g., the engineered embryos of twin girls to resist HIV). This creates deep confusion about God, creation, and who we are – Ratzinger on Golem – See Anthropology and Culture Responses Innovations in Law, Commerce, and Technology • Rule of law • Build digital technology that servse the person and family and church • Build commerce that serves families and communities • Build de—centralized technology • Digital subsidiarity Ultimately, we are in an anthropological struggle What does it mean to be a human person? And a debate about metaphysics and eschatology. For this there is no technical solution. The solution to the crisis of our times is not found in the technical world. Key Response: We must escape the technological paradigm and present the gospel of Jesus Christ the good news about the human person. · We are embodied, embedded persons endowed with freedom and reason – with a social nature directed to deep loving relationships. Ultimately: we are in an anthropological struggle over what it means to be a human person—there is no technical solution. * The answer is to reaffirm the the Good News of the Incarnation, and the Good News about the human person—made in the image of God, endowed with reason and freedom, made for relationships and love. * Matter is good; marriage, sex, children are good; our bodies are not an accident —“In my flesh I shall see God” * Technology cannot be a substitute for in-person relationships with other people in families in friendship in religious communities. * We must escape the hall of mirrors of the technological paradigm and re-present the Gospel: the real work is done in friendship, families, relationships, and the Church * Liturgy and worship where we commune with our creator — it is only here that we worship God with minds, hearts, voices, and bodies. Here the goodness and unique and unrepeatability of the person is affirmed * Neither Optimist nor Pessimist – Realism and Hope * Agency and Grace. Behavior Modification is very powerful, but we have reason and freedom and a community. A key element of digital revolution is Claude Shannon’s Information Theory which includes the idea of Noise and Signal: The Gospel and Christian vision of the person is the signal amidst the noise SELECTED READING LIST John Paul II: Redemptor Hominis Benedict XVI – all encyclicals especially Deus Caritas Est, Spe Salvi, Regensburg Address Joseph Ratzinger - Values in a Time of Upheaval, Joseph Ratzinger in Communio – Anthropology and Culture Pope Francis Laudato Si -- especially on the Technocratic Paradigm Pope Leo homilies and messages on AI Antiqua et Nova - Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence Dicastery for Doctrine of the Faith / Dicastery for Culture and Education Augusto Del Noce, The Crisis of Modernity, The Problem of Atheism, The Age of Secularization Iain McGilchrist, The Master and its Emissary, The Matter with Things, Ways of Attending Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture, Stanford University Press Jaron Lanier: 10 Arguments to Delete your Social Media Right Now § C.S. Lewis o The Abolition of Man (Short) o Mere Christianity (Medium Length) o “The Poison of Subjectivism” (Essay) Bill Drexel: “The AI Genetics Revolution is Coming” https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-ai-genetics-revolution-is-coming § Dietrich von Hildebrand o The Heart o Nature of Love § Robert Spaemann * Love and the Dignity of Human Life (Short) Bishop Eric Varden: * The Shattering of Loneliness * Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses Videography of public lecture provided by the the Gregorian and the Acton Institute Images used in powerpoint for educational lecture various sources Additional Photo Credit of surveillance cameras added to cover video: Jasper Garratt on Unsplash Photo Credit on Player: Peter Bruegel the Elder: Tower of Babel Kallos Media LLC Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Episode 61: Magatte Wade on Rethinking Poverty, Prosperity, and What Africa needs to Flourish | 21 déc. 2025 | 02:52:00 | |
In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Magatte Wade about her book, The Heart of Cheetah, her personal journey, entrepreneurial ventures, and her vision for a free and prosperous Africa. Magatte was key voice and important influence in the film I directed, Poverty, Inc. She is a force for promoting freedom, the dignity of the person, and entrepreneurial solutions to poverty in Africa and throughout the world. I’ve know Magatte for many years and am delighted to have her on the podcast. We discuss the misconceptions surrounding African poverty and the need for economic freedom and institutions of justice – private property, rule of law, and ability to participate in the formal economy - for fostering opportunity and human flourishing for the poor. At the end of our conversation we also talk about poverty in America, the American dream from the perspective of an immigrant, emphasizing the need for a balance between material prosperity and moral values. Magatte emphasizes that Africa will only thrive through entrepreneurship, political and economic freedom, and a commitment to rule of law and human dignity. Biography Magatte Wade is founder of SkinIsSkin, and Senior Fellow at Atlas Network, the leading organization of African free-market think tanks. She was listed as a Forbes “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa,” a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and a TED Global Africa Fellow. You can learn more about her work at MagatteWade.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Magat Wade and Her Work 12:47 The Path to Prosperity: Entrepreneurs and Free Markets 39:52 The Reality of Poverty in Africa 45:02 Devotion to Prosperity in Africa 50:50 Cultural Identity and Entrepreneurship 57:54 The Complexity of Labor Laws 01:08:24 The Informal Economy and Its Consequences 01:15:12 The Aha Moment: Economic Freedom and Wealth Creation 01:25:09 The Correlation Between Property Rights and Prosperity 01:30:09 The Anthropological Error of Socialism 01:36:30 The Threshold of Flourishing 01:45:48 Virtue, Character, and Economic Freedom 01:54:12 The Teaching Power of Law 02:06:11 Creating Conditions for Prosperity 02:11:21 Misdiagnosis of Poverty and Its Consequences 02:19:00 The Cheetah vs. Hippo Generations: A Call to Action 02:29:08 Flourishing vs. Prosperity: A New Paradigm Resources Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Episode 60: Augustine Wetta, O.S.B. St. Benedict's 12-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem | 27 mars 2025 | 01:00:00 | |
In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Fr. J. Augustine Wetta about his book Humility Rules: Saint Benedict's Twelve-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem. The world teaches us to assert ourselves, to follow our passions, to speak up, talk back, “get yours,” don’t let anyone stand in your way. But it doesn’t really work. As Tyler Durden proclaims in Fight Club: “We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact.” In contrast to the world’s and Fight Club’s response (which we won’t talk about), Fr. Augustine looks at the Rule of St. Benedict and his ladder of humility as a guide for real happiness and true self-esteem, which comes not from self-assertion, but from self-denial, selflessness, serving others, and not being a slave to one’s own will and desires. We discuss Fr. Augustine journey from a lifeguard, surfer, and rugby player to a Benedictine monk, and some of his stories teaching high school students, and throwing himself into a rosebush. In his Rule for monks, St. Benedict explains that any progress toward holiness, happiness, and relationship with God and others must be grounded in humility. He describes humility as a ladder – with one side as the soul and the other as the body. …if we want to reach the highest summit of humility, if we desire to attain speedily that exaltation in heaven to which we climb by the humility of this present life, then by our ascending actions we must set up that ladder on which Jacob in a dream saw angels descending and ascending (Gen 28:12). Without doubt, this descent and ascent can signify only that we descend by exaltation and ascend by humility. Now the ladder erected is our life on earth, and if we humble our hearts the Lord will raise it to heaven. We may call our body and soul the sides of this ladder, into which our divine vocation has fitted the various steps of humility and discipline as we ascend. (St. John’s Abbey) Fr. Augustine goes through each of the steps on the ladder of humility * Fear of God * Self-Denial * Obedience * Perseverance * Repentance * Serenity * Self-Abasement * Prudence * Silence * Dignity * Discration * Reverence The book is excellent. It is morally and spiritually serious and entertaining. I laughed out loud several times. Fr. Augustine offers apparently outlandish advice to to people struggling with anxiety, worry, and broken relationships * Don’t speak up * Be someone’s doormat * Don’t follow your dreams * Put your worst foot forward And gives “homework” to practice each of the steps including: * Make no excuses next time you are reprimanded * Clean a toilet * Say thank you next time someone tells you something you already know * The next time you see something not done your way - leave it be if it works In addition to Humility Rules we discuss a number of topics including: · His book on decision making called , Pray, Think, Act: Make Better Decisions with the Desert Father · Joy cannot be grasped, but is the fruit of love and self-denial. · St. John Cassian and his writings on the eight vices – including the vice of self-esteem, and why focusing on ourselves prevents us from building good relationships and finding happiness. · Challenges of modern life, particularly the impact of digital distractions on mental health and spiritual well-being · The difference between contemporary meditation practices with traditional Catholic contemplative prayer. · The importance of cultivating an attitude of reverence and gratitude · The role of obedience in spiritual growth – and why it’s probably not a good idea to throw oneself into a rosebush. · How chastity requires us to see others as persons and subjects, not objects for use · St. Benedict’s rule on Silence, how silence increases mental clarity and attention to others, and the magnificent quote from Dom Paul Delatte OSB Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict “The fundamental purpose of silence is to free the soul, to give it strength and leisure to adhere to God. It delivers us from the low tendencies of our nature and of fixing us in the good.“ Biography Augustine Wetta is a monk of Saint Louis Abbey in Saint Louis Missouri. He has two degrees in Theology from Oxford University, a BA in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations from Rice University, and an MA in English from Middlebury College. For twenty years, he has taught English, Classics, and Theology at the Priory School, in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he also coached rugby and served as Director of Chaplaincy. In 2019, he was named a Portsmouth Institute Senior Fellow. He writes for Our Sunday Visitor, and hosts a blog entitled "Disagreement" with Islamic social activist Umar Lee, and frequently appears on EWTN and Saint Joseph Radio.In 2014, he was awarded the Judson Jerome Poetry Award and the Bill Baker Award for Fiction at the Antioch Writers Workshop (the first author in the history of the conference to win both). In 2015, he was awarded the Taliaferro Award for Memoir Writers at the San Francisco Writers Conference, where he was also a finalist for the Emerging Writer Award.He is the author of several books: * Pray, Think, Act a book on decision-making based on the sayings of the Desert Fathers * The Eighth Arrow, a fantasy prison-break set in Dante’s Inferno * Saving Grace, an illustrated children’s book about a three-legged turtle. * Humility Rules: A 12 Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem which has sold over 100,000 copies and has been translated into five languagesThe son of an artist (Jean Carruthers Wetta) and a historian (Frank Wetta), Father Augustine was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1971, but grew up in Galveston, Texas. There he learned to surf and developed an enormous ego as a lifeguard on the Galveston Sheriff Department Beach Patrol. During this time, he also worked as a professional juggler (“The Flying Fettuccinne Brothers”) and as an archaeologist (at the Agora in Athens). He remains an avid surfer. In fact, if you Google “surfing monk” his is the first name that comes up—along with a news report about how he was nearly eaten by a shark. Themes/Chapters of the Interview * 00:00 Introduction to Father Augustin Weta * 03:07 Exploring Humility and Self-Esteem * 05:55 St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility * 09:13 Fr. Wetta’s Journey to Monastic Life * 12:03 The Role of Self-Denial * 14:52 The Importance of Silence * 18:11 Art, Beauty, and Truth * 21:04 Fear of God and Genuine Self-Esteem * 30:06 The Struggle with Digital Distractions * 34:12 The Importance of Silence in Modern Life * 37:29 Meditation vs. Contemplation: A Spiritual Perspective * 41:39 Understanding Lust and Chastity * 49:00 The Role of Reverence in Spiritual Life Resources J Augustine Wetta: Humility Rules: St. Benedict’s 12-Step Guide to Genuine Self-Esteem J Augustine Wetta: Pray, Think, Act: Make Better Decisions with the Desert Fathers Philokalia Volume 1 - This is an amazing collection and it includes St. John Cassian on the Eight Vices Other Books related to the rule of St. Benedict Dom Paul Delatte, OSB —his Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict is long and detailed but incredibly impressive and deep. Honestly it is probably not worth it unless you Here is the quote on silence from Dom Delatte that I refer to in the episode and I use a lot - especially in thinking about cultivating silence, but also in our age of over-information. I also recommend a visit to a Benedictine Abbey if you can. I have not visited St. Louis Abbey, but I have visited Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma several times. You can learn more about them here and get CDs of their chanting if you are interested. Photo Credit: Courtesy Augustine Wetta OSB Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Episode 59: Catherine Pakaluk, Ph.D - A Life Marathon: On having a large family in a consumerist culture amidst declining marriage and birth rates | 25 juil. 2024 | 02:25:36 | |
In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Catherine Pakaluk about her book Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth Over the last 200 years, we have seen a decline in birth rates in the United States and abroad, especially in Western countries. Most European countries are no longer at replacement rates and face serious population decline. Reuters reported that Japan’s population will decline by a staggering 30% in the next fifty years. In the United States, in the year 1800, the typical woman would have about 7 or 8 children. By 1900 that number was cut in half to 4. By 2000 the number cut in half again to about 2 children, which is just about replacement rate. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the the record-low birthrate in the US, and how increasing numbers of people plan to have no children. In the midst of declining marriages, childlessness, and low birthrates, Pakaluk studied the increasing minority of women in the Western world who have chosen to have five or more children — the top 5% of childbearing. Her book is a mix of ethnography, sociology, and economics, and includes a critique of the dominant model of social and economic research. One thing that stands out with many of the women she interviews is how at some point a shift took place in their attitude — from seeing children as a choice, like a consumer good among other choices, to a different attitude of receptivity and openness to having another child, and then another. She talks about the many forces that promote small families — the cost of children, overpopulation propaganda, education, feminism, environmentalism, consumerism and more. But Pakaluk emphasizes that encouraging women to have more children cannot be addressed simply by implementing pro-family policies like some countries have tried to do. Good policy is not insignificant — for example in most US states parents who want to send their children to religious schools have to pay twice for school through tax and tuition. But she argues that the real problems go much deeper. They are religious, spiritual, and metaphysical: a vision of life that sees being as good, children as a blessing, and family as essential for a good life. Pakaluk compares having a large family to running a marathon—except longer, harder, and more fulfilling. Government family policy would be like giving everyone a pair of good running shoes for the marathon. That could help, but it won’t get most people to run. There must be a deeper motivation, and this almost always comes from religious belief and the virtues of faith, hope, the goodness of being, and the value of generosity and sacrifice that come from it. Themes and Topics we discuss include: * Demographics and Population Decline * Family policies * Feminism * Education * Career vs Family and Children * Conflicting Desires * Difficulties and Advantages of a Large Family * The Role of Religious Schools * Community * Plausibility Structures * Consumerism * Individualism * Social Pressure * Religious Freedom * Fortitude, Patience * Boys and Girls Sports * Novak Djokovic and Kobe Bryant * Voting Patterns * Climate * Creation and the Goodness of Being * and more Biography Catherine Ruth Pakaluk (Ph.D, 2010) joined the faculty at the Busch School in the summer of 2016, and is the founder of the Social Research academic area, where she is an Associate Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought. Formerly, she was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Economics Department at Ave Maria University. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy. Dr. Pakaluk is the 2015 recipient of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, a prize given for “significant contributions to the study of the relationship between religion and economic liberty.”Pakaluk did her doctoral work at Harvard University under Caroline Hoxby, David Cutler, and 2016 Nobel-laureate Oliver Hart. Her dissertation, “Essays in Applied Microeconomics”, examined the relationship between religious ‘fit' and educational outcomes, the role of parental effort in observed peer effects and school quality, and theoretical aspects of the contraceptive revolution as regards twentieth century demographic trends. Beyond her formal training in economics, Dr. Pakaluk studied Catholic social thought under the mentorship of F. Russell Hittinger, and various aspects of Thomistic thought with Steven A. Long. She is a widely-admired writer and sought-after speaker on matters of culture, gender, social science, the vocation of women, and the work of Edith Stein. She lives in Maryland with her husband Michael Pakaluk and eight children. Resources Joseph Ratzinger: Homilies on Genesis On the Jewish - Christian Idea of the Goodness of Being Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 58 William Easterly Ph.D. : Poverty, Technocracy, and the Tyranny of Experts | 25 avr. 2024 | 01:34:19 | |
Photo Credit: Tyler Follon - Wingman Visuals In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast, I speak with Professor William Easterly of New York University about his work in development economics, and the problems of technocracy and social engineering of the poor. Easterly worked at the World Bank from 1985-2001 and began to be troubled by a number of things, including how aid is given without much concern about how it is distributed and managed thus subsidizing bad governance and harming the poor. We discuss Peter Bauer’s critique of how foreign aid politicizes development and delayed the development of business in Africa, and Bauer’s paradox of aid: * The countries that need aid — aid will not be effective * The countries where aid will be effective — do not need aid But the key problem with the dominant model of development is not simply a lack of efficiency, but the failure to respect the rights and agency of poor people. Easterly explains that development projects often result in people being deprived of their property, political rights, and participation and consent in the very projects that are supposed to help them. He discussed the tendency to to trivialize problems in the developing world, and the lack of feedback and market tests in development policy. We discuss how the developing world can often become a a lab for experiments for technocrats and social engineers. We also talk about Hayek’s Knowledge Problem, a response to Marianna Mazucatto idea of moonshots, and what I call “embedded'“ economics. We discuss a number of issues including * “The Debate that Never Happened” - Gunnar Myrdal vs. Friedrich Hayek on development economics * Social Engineering * Technocracy and the Hubris of the Technocrat * Spontaneous Order * Edmund Burke and Friedrich Hayek * Soviet 5-year central planning as model for economic development * Limited Horizons of Humanitarianism— a secular, hollowed out version of Christian love the focuses on material at the expense of personal agency. * Lack of Accountability * Material vs. Non-material Needs * Materialist visions of the human person * People have a right to consent to their own progress * Harry Potter novels vs. Mosquito Nets * Marianna Mazucatto’s ideas of Moonshots * vs. accidental discovery * vs opportunity costs * vs failed social engineering projects * and the complexity of economics and markets embedded in deep historical, cultural, norms, institutions, and religious foundations. * How to think about foreign aid and public goods like healthcare, infrastructure, education * Aid for emergencies vs. aid as answer to chronic poverty * Institutions of Justice including clear title to land, access to justice in the courts, ability to participate in the formal economy, and free exchange. * The impact of globalization on manufacturing in the US * Trade-offs and economic volatility * The moral rules that are needed for progress to beneficial * Consent, Self-Determination, Moral Equality * Attempts to develop Native Americans, US intervention in Philippines etc. * Material progress is never enough to justify intervention Biography William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute, which won the 2009 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge in Development Cooperation Award. He is the author of three books: The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (March 2014), The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006), which won the FA Hayek Award from the Manhattan Institute, and The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (2001). He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed academic articles, and has written columns and reviews for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, and Washington Post. He has served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Development Economics and as Director of the blog Aid Watch. He is a Research Associate of NBER, and senior fellow at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). Foreign Policy Magazine named him among the Top 100 Global Public Intellectuals in 2008 and 2009, and Thomson Reuters listed him as one of Highly Cited Researchers of 2014. He is also the 11th most famous native of Bowling Green, Ohio. Resources Essay: Friedrich Hayek: “The Use of Knowledge in Society” Uganda Farmer Story in New York Times Recommended Reading Tyranny of Experts William Easterly The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little GoodBuy on Amazon, William Easterly The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, Easterly, William R. Target Africa: Ideological Neocolonialism in the Twenty-First Century by Obianuju Ekeocha Seeing Like a State, James C. Scott Peter Bauer, Equality, The Third World, and Economic Delusion Angus Deaton The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep.57 The Decline of Christianity, the Rise of the “Nones” and Philosophies of the Person that Shape Unbelief | 26 févr. 2024 | 00:42:42 | |
This episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast is a talk I gave at AmPhil’s Center for Civil Society conference in November, 2023 on the “Rise of the Nones.” According to Pew Research, those who declare no religious affiliation - None - are now the largest religious category in the United States. In this talk I address several overarching reasons for the decline of Christianity and address how five dominant visions of the human person including person as a cog or scourge, transhumanism & transgenderism, plastic anthropology, and the person as a commodity — also play a key role not only in despair and anxiety, but contribute both to the decline of Christian belief and the rise of secularism and pantheism/new paganism. This talk is a thematic overview and distillation of two longer lectures I give on five false anthropologies and 10 reasons for unbelief and the decline of Christianity. Some of the topics I address include
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| Ep.56 Ambassador Eduard Habsburg: Building a Family Legacy — The Habsburg Way: 7 Tools for Turbulent Times | 14 févr. 2024 | 01:01:24 | |
In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta, Ambassador Eduard Habsburg, about his book The Habsburg Way: Seven Rules for Turbulent Times. We discuss a number of themes including some history of the Habsburg Dynasty, the life and death of Blessed Charles of Austria, the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, including the remarkable tradition of the funeral for Habsburg emperors. We also discuss themes of marriage, children, religion, technology, liturgy, and especially the importance of family and tradition to provide rootedness in a time of individualism and “liquid modernity.” Other themes and topics include:
Ambassador Eduard Habsburg is the Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta. He is the author of The Habsburg Way. 7 Rules for Turbulent Times from Sophia Press and Dubbie: The Double-Headed Eagle. Full Quiver Publishing, 2020. You can connect and follow him on Twitter at @EduardHabsburg X (formerly Twitter) Eduard Habsburg (@EduardHabsburg) on X Ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta. Book: THE HABSBURG WAY https://t.co/vMufBgoJGE Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep.55 Seth Kapan on Fragile Neighborhoods — Relationships and Place-Based Solutions to Social and Material Poverty | 01 févr. 2024 | 01:17:41 | |
In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Seth Kaplan about his book Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society One Zip Code at a Time. Seth has spent his career working in fragile states around the world — countries that are unstable and prone to violence, war, and political problems. About 10 years ago Seth was increasingly asked if the US was becoming fragile. As he turned his attention to studying the United States, he concluded was that while the US is not fragile as a country, there are many areas and neighborhoods throughout the country that are very fragile — where poverty rates are high, there is crime, and instability, and social capital, family stability, and economic and educational opportunities are low. Seth explains that depending on the neighborhood where you live in the United States it can mean a shorter lifespan of over 20 years. Kaplan speaks about two faces of poverty, material and social, and how they are both a problem of broken relationships. He argues: “I think the real question you have to ask about the United States we have many things going very well in our country but something has gotten worse in the last couple of generations: the politics, the trust, the social breakdown, the deaths of despair, the health crisis the depression, and the rise of suicides. The big question that we have to ask ourselves is what has changed in our relationships that lead us to have so many social and political problems?” Themes and Topics we discuss include:
Chris Arnade Podcast on his book Dignity Communio — Communio is a nonprofit that trains and equips churches to evangelize through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep.54 Cajetan Cuddy O.P on The Psychology of St. Thomas Aquinas | 10 août 2023 | 01:24:06 | |
In this episode I speak with Fr. Cajetan Cuddy O.P. about Thomistic Psychology: A Philosophic Analysis of the Nature of Man, by Fr. Robert Edward Brennan, O.P., edited and with an introduction by Fr. Cuddy.
Aristotle wrote that “to attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.” We often read psychology because we want to understand ourselves and our behavior- and the behavior of others. While we don’t normally think of St. Thomas Aquinas as a psychologist, as a serious philosopher, theologian, and student of the human person, St. Thomas gives us deep insight into human psychology — the study of the psyche or soul — our intellect, memory, will, emotions, and our embodied, embedded existence. Fr. Brennan’s book on Thomistic Psychology provides a good accessible introduction to Aquinas’ reflections on psychology. As. Fr. Cuddy notes, some of the science in Thomistic Psychology is a bit out of date, but the key principles and ideas are still applicable and provide an important contribution, especially in a time when so many struggle with anxiety, depression, sadness and other mental health challenges. These have many causes to be sure, but the impact of modern theories of materialism, spiritualism and other reductionist visions of the person makes people even more confused about who they are and how to live well. One of the ideas central to the work of St. Thomas and Fr. Brennan is the idea of truth — conforming the mind to reality — and how taking truth seriously combined with a solid, non-reductionist philosophy of the person can have practical, positive impact on our mental and psychological health. Thomistic Psychology presents an integrated vision of the person that helps us the better to understand ourselves and others, and provides clear models and practical advice on addressing our problems, how to fight bad habits and build good ones, how to address our emotions, disappointments, and successes, and a roadmap on how to live well. St. Thomas’ philosophy and pyschology are also very important because he takes our embodiement seriously. We are not souls in a body or driving around in our body like we drive around in a car. Nor are we simply material beings determined by our neurobiology or genetics. Rather we are embodied persons our physical, moral, spiritual, emotional, and psychological life are intertwined. What we do and happens to us physically impacts our emotional and mental life and vice versa. St. Thomas’ suggested remedy for sadness is a perfect of example of his taking our physical and spiritual nature seriously. We discuss a broad range of topics including:
Find show notes and links to books we discuss at www.themoralimagination.com Biography: Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., is a priest of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph. He serves as the general editor of the Thomist Tradition Series, and he is co-author of Thomas and the Thomists: The Achievement of St. Thomas Aquinas and His Interpreters. Fr. Cuddy has a B.A. from Franciscan University, a M.Div./S.T.B., The Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, a S.T.L., The Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception and his doctorate, a S.T.D. from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He writes and lectures extensively on the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomist Tradition. Some of his selected publications can be found here. Fr. Cuddy also lectures for the Thomistic Institute. For an excellent introduction to the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas I recommend the Thomistic Institutenstitute.org/ and their series Aquinas 101 The late Fr. Robert Edward Brennan, O.P. was a Dominican Friar, professor, and the author of numerous books and articles including Thomistic Psychology and The History of Psychology: A Thomistic Reading, both published recently by Cluny Media.
Cluny Media Cluny Media
The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square.
aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org Aquinas 101 is a video course project of the Thomistic Institute, located in Washington, DC. The Thomistic Institute exists to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Vigen Guroian: Fairy Tales, Classical Learning, and The Moral Imagination | 05 avr. 2023 | 01:08:23 | |
In this episode I speak with Professor Vigen Gurioan about the revised and expanded edition of his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Imagination. We discuss the power of stories, how they help can us develop self-knowledge, and how fairy tales and classic stories are essential for education and moral formation for children — and for adults. Fairy tales and classic stories can impress upon us profound philosophical and often theological insights about life and death, the good and beautiful, the value of courage and nobility, and importance of self-sacrifice for love. Stories, themes, and thinkers we we discuss include
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| Ep. 52 Philip Ovadia MD Metabolic Health, Diet, Cholesterol, Heart Disease, and Modern Medicine | 16 févr. 2023 | 01:36:35 | |
In this episode I speak with heart surgeon, Dr. Philip Ovadia MD, about metabolic health, diet, science, cholesterol, insulin resistance, the US government food pyramid, Ancel Keys and the cholesterol - saturated fat -heart disease hypothesis. We discuss medical education, health insurance, scientism, and some of the obstacles doctors and scientists face with “group think.” Dr Ovadia tells his story of how lost 100 pounds changed everything he learned about fat and food. He explains that while half of the patients who have heart attacks or heart surgery have normal levels of cholesterol, over 90% have insulin resistance. He argues that metabolic health is not only important for heart health, but for mental health, and plays a key role in preventing cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We discuss a number of themes including
This episode and podcast is for informational purposes and does not provide medical advice. BiographyDr. Philip Ovadia MD is a board certified cardiac surgeon and founder of Ovadia Heart Health. He grew up in New York and graduated from the accelerated Pre-Med/Med progra at the Pennsylvannia State University and Jefferson Medical College. This was followed by residency in General Surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey and a fellowship in Cardio-thoracic Surgery at Tufts-New England Medical School. Learn more about Dr. Ovadia at www.ovadiahearthealth.com ResourcesSee books below Podcast with Jay Richards on Fasting and the Ketogenic Diet Podcast with Diana Rodgers on Food, Meat and Health Podcast with James Madden on Embodied, Embedded Persons Podcast with Joel Salatin on Food and Farming Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 51 Titus Techera: Dune and Bladerunner Science Fiction, Dystopia and Humanity in American Life | 01 févr. 2023 | 02:01:55 | |
In this episode I speak with Titus Techera about Dune, Bladerunner, science fiction, dystopian film, technocratic view of humanity, and the formative power of science fiction on the imagination. We discuss contemporary technological society, social breakdown, loneliness, men and women and decline in marriage, technology and trans-humanism/ transgenderism, and the predictive power of dystopian film. We talk about what it means to be human and the relationship between digital technology and humanity. Titus argues that much of sport, military, modern manliness and excellence has been reduced to science and creatures of technology. He argues that one of the “catalysts for science fiction stories is disappointment with the world. The dead hand of the past is too powerful. People are always a problem; tradition gets in the way of radical innovation. Science fiction is aware of the problem of our decadence, but technical daring can solve it.” And yet in the science fiction societies like Bladerunner there is a wealthy technical class amidst brutality, societal decline where everyone has lost their humanity. He writes As with all science fiction set in the near future, Blade Runner is an attempt to make us look at ourselves as though we were strangers to ourselves, allowing for the possibility that serious changes can come suddenly and overcome our beliefs or preferences. Could we end up like Deckard, Harrison Ford’s character, a bounty hunter, or “blade runner?” We need not embrace this kind of despair, but only need understand its appeal. The social landscape of Blade Runner seems plausible enough. The film presents American cities overrun by crime and poverty while technological corporations become immensely wealthy… A suitably dramatic expression of something we see around us quite often; indeed, perhaps exaggeration is necessary, since we have an excusable, but unfortunate tendency to ignore the misery of American cities. Themes we discuss include
Titus Techera is the executive director of the American Cinema Foundation, host of the ACF podcasts, a film critic for Law & Liberty and the Acton Institute, contributor to Modern Age, columnist for Return and European Conservative, and editor-in-chief of PostModern Conservative. Techera studied liberal arts at Bard College Berlin and political science at the University of Bucharest and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. ResourcesTitus Techera essay: The Tale of Two Dunes Titus Techera essay on Bladerunner Listen to the ACF Film Podcast
Titus Techera on Novak Djokovic, Excellence, and Covid Rules Caveats: These science fiction books and films because they deal with dystopian futures and social decadence have material that is not suitable for children. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep.50 On Benedict XVI -Reason, Freedom, Beauty, and the Intellectual Sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization | 06 janv. 2023 | 00:56:45 | |
Pope Benedict XVI / Joseph Ratzinger passed away on December 31 at the age of 95 years old. His writing and teaching have been a major influence on my thinking. So in honor of his memory and gratitude for his example, this episode is a talk I gave on Pope Benedict XVI on Five Crises of Culture and the Intellectual sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization. I go through five intellectual themes/crises that Benedict identifies in the West “where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization."
I examine how he describes and explains the challenges of our age; how he addresses each of them on their own terms, and the proposes a Gospel response. One element of the crisis of faith is grounded in intellectual sources. We think, and too often live, like secularists and adopt often without thinking a secular framework. But secularism is not neutral. As Benedict argues, “We must develop and adult faith.” An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” In this talk I provide a lot of quotes and references. You can find show notes, links, and outline of the talk at www.themoralimagination.com ResourcesSee the outline / handout of the talk below. Also see Amazon links to books I refer to in the talk below. I also provide Amazon link to the encyclicals, but you can get all the encyclicals for free at vatican.va There a lot of books listed and if you are unsure where to start I would suggest you begin with the following:
Homily before the Conclave — “Dictatorship of Relativsm” Regensberg Address — on the crisis of reason in the west Cardinal Ratzinger on Europe’s Crisis of Culture at Subiaco
Benedict XVI Paris Lecture Meeting with Representatives from the World of Culture
Additional Links mentioned in talk Roger Scruton: Beauty and Desecration Roger Scruton: Kitsch and the Modern Predicament I Grateful to Authenticum and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish for the invitation to speak and for recording and providing me with the audio of this lecture. You can learn more about the Authenticum Lecture Series OUTLINE/HANDOUT Benedict XVI—Five Crises of Culture and the Intellectual sources of Secularism and the New EvangelizationMichael Matheson Miller The New Evangelization Re-Propose the Gospel "to those regions awaiting the first evangelization AND to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization." Benedict XVI
Theme: Think Like Christians Focus on Intellectual roots of secularization and the crisis of faith and the work of Benedict XVI We must not approach the social and political order in a purely secular manner. Benedict is I think a model for new evangelization because he takes the situation of our current time on its own terms and then addresses it in light of reason and the Gospel. Paul VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi "The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity."
John Paul II: Redemptoris Missio “I wish to invite the Church to renew her missionary commitment.” “…it is the primary service which the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity in the modern world, a world which has experienced marvelous achievements but which seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself. "Christ the Redeemer," I wrote in my first encyclical, "fully reveals man to himself.... The person who wishes to understand himself thoroughly...must...draw near to Christ.... [The] Redemption that took place through the cross has definitively restored to man his dignity and given back meaning to his life in the world."
Benedict XVI “Throughout the centuries, the Church has never ceased to proclaim the salvific mystery of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but today that same message needs renewed vigor to convince contemporary man, who is often distracted and insensitive… “For this reason, the new evangelization must try to find ways of making the proclamation of salvation more effective; a proclamation without which personal existence remains contradictory and deprived of what is essential. Even for those who remain tied to their Christian roots, but who live the difficult relationship with modernity, it is important to realize that being Christian is not a type of clothing to wear in private or on special occasions, but is something living and all-encompassing, able to contain all that is good in modern life.” BXVI to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization
“We…have this mission: to encounter our contemporaries so as to make His love known to them. Not so much by teaching, never by judging, but by being travelling companions. Like the deacon Philip, who – the Acts of the Apostles tell us – stood up, set out, ran towards the Ethiopian people and, as a friend, sat down beside them, entering into dialogue with the man who had a great desire for God in the midst of many doubts” —Pope Francis: International Meeting for Academic Centers and Schools of New Evangelization Five Crises of Culture and Key Themes in the Thought of Bendict XVI 1. Truth and the Dictatorship of Relativism “How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true. “Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice After fall of Soviet Union relativism did not die but combined with desire for gratification to form a potent mix. (CF to Augusto Del Noce on the shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois) Is Relativism Coherent?
Gospel Response - In the homily where he speaks the Dictatorship of Relativism Benedict does not stop at intellectual refutation. He responds with the person of Jesus. He says: “We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceipt from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice 2. Reason
The problem goes beyond incoherence. It leads to what C.S. Lewis has called “the abolition of man.” Empiricist rationality takes all the fundamental human experiences – love, beauty, goodness, hope, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and justice and relegates them outside the realm of reason. Love and justice then are no longer rational but pure emotion or chemical reactions. But this is false. In contrast we have what Lewis calls “reasonable emotions,” what Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) calls “spiritual emotions” and what Dietrich von Hildebrand calls “intelligible spiritual affectivity.” Love is not simply raw emotion or chemical reaction. It includes that because we are embodied persons, but it also is reasonable. This is why the tradition defines love as an “act of the will” that “seeks the good of the other.”
“Critical Thinking” Exercise (Thanks to Professor Mark Roberts for this insight) __JS Bach was born in 1685 __JS Bach wrote beautiful music __Pope Pius XII was the Bishop of Rome __Pope Pius XII was a good Pope __Bell Bottoms were popular in the 1970s __Bell Bottoms are cool __ ____________________________________ __ Murder is Bad… And here we see the problems arise. It is not a theory they put into his mind, but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.” “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” Limiting reason to the empirical has disastrous impact on politics and justice. The end of politics is (or should be) justice – but justice is not empirical. As Ratzinger explains: “Politics is the realm of Reason, not of a merely technological, calculating reason, but of moral reason, since the goal of the state, and hence, the ultimate goal of politics, has a moral nature, namely peace and justice.”
“…the majority cannot be an ultimate principle since there are values that no majority is entitled to annul. It can never be right to kill innocent persons, and no power can make this legitimate. Here too, what is ultimately at stake is the defense of reason. Reason—that is moral reason—is above the majority.” “Political Visions and Political Praxis”
Gospel Response: Faith purifies and heals reason. Reason must be expanded and additionally purified by Faith and the Church’s teaching Faith can contribute to correct politics. It can “illuminate and heal” reason. In the last century…it was the testimony of the martyrs that limited the excess of power, thus making a decisive contribution to the convalescence of reason” Joseph Ratzinger: To Change or to Preserve? Political Visions and Political Praxis
“Reason only becomes truly human when it is open to the saving forces of faith and if it looks beyond itself.” Spe Salvi 23 Progress and Eschatology
o Progress is good – we are called to complete creation. But we cannot be saved by progress o The problem is a “faith in progress” and a kingdom of man, not the kingdom of God. o Progress will lead, through new vision of reason, to total freedom. o Eric Voegelin: “Immanentization of the Eschaton” Trying to create heaven on earth o Real error is found in misunderstanding of nature of man. o Politics built on false concept of progress are illusory and ultimately deny human freedom and man himself o Progress unhinged from morality and the truth about man is dangerous. o No longer about what I ought to do, but simply what I can do o Modern concepts of Progress derive from limitation of reason and “new correlation between science and praxis.”
“Now this “redemption”, the restoration of the lost “Paradise” is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope. Thus hope too, in Bacon, acquires a new form. Now it is called: faith in progress. For Bacon, it is clear that the recent spate of discoveries and inventions is just the beginning; through the interplay of science and praxis, totally new discoveries will follow, a totally new world will emerge, the kingdom of man[16]. He even put forward a vision of foreseeable inventions—including the aeroplane and the submarine. As the ideology of progress developed further, joy at visible advances in human potential remained a continuing confirmation of faith in progress as such.” Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi paragraph 17
Response: Hope Tempers and Orders Progress
Reflect on the Last Things 1. Politics is the realm of reason—and it is concerned with the present, not the future. 2. But man is not merely oriented to the present—man is destined for eternal life with God—beyond politics. 3. As Christians we must keep the last things in our view. Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell are real and death escapes no man.
True Hope: In place of the myth of progress which enslaves we need a true understanding of Christian Hope--True hope can only be found in God Spe Salvi # 27
A Proper Eschatology helps us avoid Utopianism o “A definitely ideal society presupposes the end of freedom” o The only person who could actually do this is God—and even he doesn’t do that: God takes us seriously cf Light of the World “Within this human history of ours the absolutely ideal situation will never exist and a perfected ordering of freedom will never be achieved… the myth of the liberated world of the future in which everything is different and everything will be good is false We can only ever construct relative social orders which can only ever be relatively right and just. Yet this very same closest possible approach to true right and justice is what we must strive to attain. Everything else, every eschatological promise within history fails to liberate us, rather it disappoints and therefore enslaves us. Joseph Ratzinger: Truth and Tolerance
“The right state of human affairs, the moral well-being of the world can never be guaranteed simply through structure alone, however good they may be. What this means that every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed.” Spe Salvi Politics has a place but as Christians we must remember that Politics is not the answer to our problems. 4. Freedom
Response: Freedom is for Love The purpose and end of freedom is love – to seek the good of the other in self-donation Logos and Love
Two themes have always accompanied me in my life…the theme of Christ and the living, present God, the God who loves us and heals us through suffering, and on the other hand, the theme of love…the key to Christianity. Light of the World
“Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable” Deus Caritas Est 5. BeautyWhen Beauty is reduced merely to the subjective—merely in the eye of the beholder this undermines objective beauty. This has profound effect on morality, politics, and liturgy. It also takes the sublime insight that each person is unique and un-repeatable and has unique insight into a piece of art or a beautiful landscape and takes this sublime truth and turns it into the banal that everybody has his own opinion.
“The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which as grown in her womb. Better witness is born to the Lord by the splendor of holiness and art…than by clever excuses which apologetics has come up with to justify the dark sides which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church’s human history. If the Church is to continue to transform and humanize the world, how can she dispense with the beauty in her liturgies, that beauty which is so closely linked with the radiance of the resurrection? No. Christians must not be too satisfied. They must make their Church into a place where beauty—and hence truth—is at home. Without this the world will become the first circle of Hell.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Truth - Jesus Christ Reason - Faith Progress - Hope Freedom - Love Beauty - Worship and Liturgy Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 49 Flagg Taylor, Ph.D: The Parallel Polis | 22 déc. 2022 | 01:43:46 | |
In this episode I speak with Flagg Taylor about the life and writing of Vaclav Benda, and his idea of the parallel polis, decentralization, and creating space in society for culture, the family, charity, education, and human flourishing. Though he was writing under communist regimes, Benda’s writings are very relevant today in light democratic pressures to conformity, de-platforming, and especially as a new ontology of the person is being written into law — and dignity is used as weapon against religious and cultural liberty. Benda’s idea of the parallel polis was not a siege mentality, nor so much a reform existing structures that had ossified or were corrupted, but a call to build new, innovative, and better structures and social institutions that would activate people’s participation in civil, cultural, and commercial life, and give people a sense of purpose and agency. Examples today include decentralized technologies or classical education - which is not running away, but creating better alternatives to mediocre state run schools. We discuss Benda’s ideas in the context of Czech communism and also in contemporary America, especially the overlap with Alexis de Tocqueville’s warnings about individualism, centralization, and soft-despotism. We examine his engagement with various thinkers including Roger Scruton and J.R.R. Tolkien, and talk about contemporary movements towards decentralization including The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan and its relation to the idea of a parallel polis. We discuss the need for social and commercial alternatives built on a rich understanding of the human person and the family including healthcare, mutual aid societies, banking, payment, insurance and more. Benda’s idea of the parallel polis demonstrates that the solution to totalitarianism and centralization is not more centralization or another totalitarianism, but de-centralization and humanization. We discuss a number of Benda essays including: The Parallel Polis, The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis, The Family and Totalitarianism, A Critique of the Idea of a Christian State, and his personal reflections that illustrate the constant social pressure of living under communist totalitarianism. Themes and Topics include Albert Hirshman: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Peter Berger on Plausibility Structures Vaclav Havel: Power of the Powerless Greengrocers of the World Unite! Aristotle’s Moral and Intellectual Virtues Vaclav Havel Living in Truth Benda focus on resisting the lies of totalitarianism by inhabiting a social spaces and plausibility structures that make living in truth possible. MMM Lecture How to Build a Moral Imagination — new and better ways of live are actually plausible Provide space for dissidents and their children who were excluded by the official social spaces Balaji - The Network State - Network Union - Network Archipelago — cloud first, then land
New Ontology of the Person Dignity as a weapon against religious liberty Testing the Limits in Communism vs Testing the Limits in Modern Democracy De-platforming Cancel Culture Underground Seminars led by Roger Scruton Roger Scruton and Jan Hus Foundation Ortega y Gassett: The Spoiled Child of History Second Culture Charter 77 Essay at Foreign Policy Magazine
VONS Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted Religious practice in Slovakia vs Czech Republic vs. Poland Church Persecution by Communists in the 40s - 70s Communist infiltration of Church and official Church collaboration with Communists 70s and 80s. Critique of the Christian idea of a state How politicalization of religion can lead to unbelief Benda compared to contemporary Catholic integralists / post liberal thinkers
Secularism is not neutral J.R.R Tolkien —Benda on the Lord of the Rings as as an analysis of totalitarianism The Scouring of the Shire — See Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt The Hobbit Party link in Resources The family is always a thorn to totalitarian states Marriage and family as essential The Family as the source of 3 fundamental gifts that a person can receive
Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) and George Orwell on tenderness as a resistance to totalitarianism Family as a space for freedom, failures, learning How rebellion against parents is modern fashion that the totalitarian or centralizing state desires Authority and Hierarchy Hannah Arendt on Authority and Education (see link in resources) BiographyDr. F. Flagg Taylor IV is an Associate Professor of government at Skidmore College serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Fordham University and a B.A. from Kenyon College. Taylor’s specialty is in the history of political thought and American government, especially the question of executive power. He is the co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, author of numerous articles, and editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism and The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977-1989. Resources Flagg Taylor Website
The Enduring Interest Podcast on Apple Flagg Taylor Podcast at Podbean MMM talk at Catholic Crypto Conference: Building a Parallel Polis: Social and Technological Decentralization Peter Fiala Flagg Taylor podcast interview on Hannah Arendt Key QuotesFrom “The Meaning Context Legacy of the Parallel Polis” There is, however, a fundamental difference between the natural resistance of life to totalitarianism and the deliberate expansion of the space in which the parallel polis can exist. The former is a cluster of flowers that has grown into place accidentally sheltered from the killing winds of totalitarianism and easily destroyed when those winds change direction. The latter is a trench whose elimination depends strictly on a calculated move by the state power to destroy it. Given the time and means available only a certain number of trenches can be eliminated. If, at the same time, the parallel polis is able to produce more such trenches than it loses ,a situation arises that is morally dangerous for the regime; it is a blow at the very heart of its power — that is, the possibility of intervening anywhere without limitation. The mission of the parallel polis is to constantly conquer new territory to make its parallelness constantly more substantial and more present. Benda p. 233 From “The Family and Totalitarianism” I consider marriage and the family to be so essential that I am unwilling to accept the regular clichés about liberation from these obligations. So, in the Christian version as we know it, which for centuries dominated the western world, the family was, as well as many other good things, a visible embodiment of the three most fundamental gifts or dignity is that a person could receive… Benda lists three gifts:
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| Ep. 48 Jonathan Bi: Rene Girard - Social Pressure, True and False Desires, Sacrifice, and Belief | 16 déc. 2022 | 01:59:23 | |
In this episode I speak with Jonathan Bi about the ideas of Rene Girard, social pressure, authentic and false desires, victims and scapegoats, persecution, and Girardian theories on imitation and violence. We also discuss how Girard’s work sheds light on woke capitalism, right and left totalitarianism, Max Scheler, Hannah Arendt, Alexis de Tocqueville, and more. We discuss many themes including:
We begin a discussion on the atonement, Girard’s views and how to think about sacrifice — that we’ll have to finish in more detail We also have a discussion about Christianity and Buddhism and religious belief. I hope you enjoy. BiographyJonathan Bi is an entrepreneur working on a startup in FinTech and a philosopher focusing on Buddhist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and specifically the work of Rene Girard. Among his many projects he and David Perell have created a seven session video course on the ideas of Rene Girard. Originally from China, Jonathan also grew up in Canada, and studied computer science at Columbia.
Resources Jonathan Bi and David Perell Lectures on Girard On the Atonement — we just got into this briefly, but didn’t have enough time or preparation to address it sufficiently. I am going to have another episode on the atonement, and also on Girard and the atonement, but here are two links to Catholic resources view of the atonement
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| Ep. 47 Rachel Ferguson, Ph.D: Exclusion & Opportunity - Black Liberation Through the Marketplace | 28 oct. 2022 | 01:24:26 | |
In this episode I speak with Rachel Ferguson about her book Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America, co-authored with Marcus Witcher. The book address issues of social justice, exclusion, opportunity, race and discrimination, classical liberalism, and the economic history of African Americans since the civil war. Themes we discuss include
We discuss a number of writers including
Rachel Ferguson, Ph.D. is an economic philosopher and Director of the Free Enterprise Center at Concordia University, Chicago. She has published in Discourse, The Journal of Markets and Morality, and the Library of Economics and Liberty. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from St. Louis University. She is actively involved in community building and empowering marginalized entrepreneurs through LOVEtheLOU and Gateway to Flourishing
https://www.rachelfergusononline.com/ Resources We mention a lot of books during the podcast. See below for links. Other things discussed include: Rachel Ferguson Essay: Let’s do Philanthropy that Actually Works Robert Woodson and the Woodson Center
Podcast with Anthony Bradley on Over-criminalization Russell Hittinger on Technology and Contraception Podcast with Mary Eberstadt on the Sexual Revolution Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 46 Bill Rivers: Last Summer Boys A Novel about Family, Honor, and the Power of Community | 20 oct. 2022 | 01:11:21 | |
peak with Bill Rivers about this novel, Last Summer Boys. The novel is about a rural Pennsylvania family and the adventures of three boys and a cousin and set in the tumultuous summer of 1968 with the Vietnam war, the assignations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. “Summer 1968. When thirteen-year-old Jack Elliot overhears the barbershop men grousing, he devises a secret plan to keep his oldest brother, Pete, from the draft. If famous boys don’t go to war, he’ll make his brother their small town’s biggest celebrity. Jack gets unexpected help when his book-smart cousin Frankie arrives in their rural Pennsylvania town for the summer. Together, they convince Jack’s brothers to lead an expedition to find a fighter jet that crashed many winters ago―the perfect adventure to make Pete a hero.” We discuss a number of themes including
Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal Related Podcasts Carlo Lancelotti on Augusto Del Noce —Shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 45 Paul McLaughlin PsyD, Mark R. McMinn PhD: Can Wisdom be Cultivated? | 21 sept. 2022 | 02:00:17 | |
In this episode I speak with two psychologists, Paul McLaughlin PsyD and Mark R. McMinn PhD, about their book A Time for Wisdom. The provide a unique perspective by examining wisdom from a psychological viewpoint. They divide it into 4 categories, both to explain and provide a guide to develop wisdom in our lives. Knowledge
Detachment
Tranquility
Transcendence
We discuss a number of themes including:
Related Podcasts James Madden Podcast, Embodied and Embedded Persons James Poulos: Digital Politics and Spiritual War Carlo Lancellotti: Augusto Del Noce and the shift to pure bourgeois Jaron Lanier on Technology and Behavior Modification Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Rene Girard, and commercial society Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 44 Deion Kathawa: Technology, Religion, and Humanity in a Post-Human Age | 19 août 2022 | 01:45:32 | |
In this episode of The Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Deion Kathawa about his essays at Public Discourse Technology and Dignity. We discuss a number of topics including
We discuss the religious and philosophical sources of transhumanism from materialism to gnosticism, and human perfectibility and various thinkers including C.S. Lewis and Robert P. George. We also discuss the difference between transhumanist / transgender philosophy which sees the body as either malleable that needs perfection or the body and sexuality as something to escape from in contrast to the Christian view of the being and the body as good and part of who we are as embodied, embedded persons. Biography Deion Kathawa is a law clerk at the Michigan Supreme court he has a law degree from the University Of Notre Dame and an undergraduate degree from the university of Michigan. He writes for numerous outlets including The American Mind, Public Discourse, and his Substack Sed Kontra Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 43: Orthodox Judaism, Leo Strauss, and Baruch Spinoza’s Critique of Religion | 19 juil. 2022 | 01:45:17 | |
In this episode I speak with Jeffrey Bloom and Rabbi Jeremy Kagan about the book Spinoza, Strauss, and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith published by Kodesh Press . The book is a collection of essays edited by Jeffrey Bloom, Alec Goldstein, and Gil Student. Jeffrey Bloom grew up secular, Jewish family and the idea of actually practicing Orthodox Judaism was outside of the realm of possibility. He studied at University of Chicago where he took a class with Professor Leon Kass on Genesis. (see book link below) This was the first time that he took religion seriously. He notes that as a child of divorce— he wanted stronger family life, and he was attracted to Orthodox Judaism, but still questioned whether it was reasonable. This led him to read Strauss critique of Spinoza’s critique of religious belief. The Enlightenment philosopher, Baruch Spinoza argued that religious belief was irrational. But in his book, Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, Leo Strauss argued that while the enlightenment with Spinoza and his heirs claimed to refuted orthodox belief, they in fact did not. Strauss claimed that as long as orthodoxy is willing to make the concession that they can’t “know” and only “believe” the tenets of Judaism, then it is plausible and no weaker a position that rationalism because that is precisely what Spinoza is doing—when pressed, Enlightenment rationalism, like religion, rests on acts of “faith” in tenets that it cannot prove. Strauss’ argument opened up questions about reason, belief, truth, access to reality and more, and what it did for Bloom was make orthodox Judaism rationally and intellectually plausible. As Rabbi Jeremy Kagan puts it, “carved out a space for the Torah” and religion belief and practice. Yet Bloom had another question—Strauss opened the door to religious belief, but what did Orthodox Jews think about the arguments of both Spinoza critique of religion, and Strauss’ critique of Spinoza? Bloom gathered a group of Orthodox believers, Rabbis, computer scientists, philosophers, to address the question: Is the argument of Strauss any good? Are there better replies to the critique of religion than Strauss provides? This book is relevant for many reasons— There is a sense that the Enlightenment and science and empiricism has proved that orthodox religion, Judaism and Christianity, is intellectually unserious and untenable, and many people hold this to be the case. Secular thinkers and atheists often critiques religion for its faith but they don’t realize they that rely on a host of non-empirical assumptions that uphold their beliefs. For example, why is reason is better than non - reason and how can one prove it in empirical means? We discuss several essays including those by Jeffrey Bloom, Rabbi Kagan, Rabbi Shalom Carmy who argues that Strauss’ arguments are not compelling, and Moshe Koppel’s essay, “Why Revelation and not Orbiting Teapots” which makes the distinction between orthodox belief and superstition and more. This is a complex discussion that addresses some of the big underlying questions about faith and science, reason and belief, different forms of knowledge, the value of religious observance, and some of the main themes of the Moral Imagination Podcast. I hope you enjoy. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 42: Jeremy Tate: Whoever Owns the Test Owns the Curriculum: Classic Learning v. Industrial Model | 01 juil. 2022 | 01:11:56 | |
In this episode, I speak with Jeremy Tate, the founder of the Classic Learning Test about school testing, curriculum, and the classical versus industrial models of education. Jeremy argues that the current testing regime of the SAT and ACT have a tremendous influence on the curriculum taught in public and private schools. They promote a utilitarian vision of learning and drive students away from the classical Western tradition and serious reflection on what makes a good life. In response, Jeremy and his team developed the Classic Learning Test not only to be a better, more rigorous test, but to positively influence the curriculum toward more serious reading, and introduce students to the classic texts of the Western Tradition and those which shaped the founding of the United States, By ignoring these texts, the current testing and curricula regimes exclude students from engagement with the tradition. One of Tate’s colleagues noted that she could go from Kindergarten through a Ph.D. without reading Homer, Plato, or Shakespeare. This unfamiliarity with the tradition makes people unaware of history and complexity, unable to make distinctions, and thus more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. It excludes the poor from opportunity and indoctrinates the elites into utilitarian and progressive ideas that they think are simply facts. As C.S. Lewis described, “10 years hence” we can find ourselves on the side of the philosophical controversy that we didn’t even know was up for debate. We discuss a number of themes including
Biography Jeremy Tate is the founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test. Jeremy is also the host of the Anchored Podcast, CLT's top 2% global podcast that features discussions at the intersection of education and culture. Prior to founding CLT, Jeremy served as Director of College Counseling at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Religious Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary. Jeremy and his wife Erin reside in Annapolis, Maryland with their six children. You can find Jeremy on Twitter @JeremyTate41. ResourcesFor more on C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man - See my interview with Michael Ward
For more on classical education see my interview with Heidi White and the importance of reading good books, my interview with Elizabeth Corey Jeremy Tate: Not Another Test, The Right Test Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Podcast Episode 41: Michael Ward: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man | 07 juin 2022 | 01:09:44 | |
In this episode, I speak with Michael Ward about his book, After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man. I think The Abolition of Man is of the most important books in the twentieth century. It addresses important issues that are relevant today — from what it means to be human, reason, passion, and the emotions, to how to think about technology, power, and beauty. It’s a short book but can be a bit difficult to understand at times, and Michael Ward does a great service by going through the book line by line and explaining and providing context to make the book easier to follow. We discuss key themes of The Abolition of Man:
We also discuss the relationship between the Abolition of Man, Eustace Scrubb, and Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and the space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. Word on Fire Special Offer: After Humanity + Abolition of Man Biography Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis (Cambridge University Press). Though based at Oxford in his native England, Dr Ward is also employed as Professor of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, Texas, teaching one course per semester as part of the online MA program in Christian Apologetics. On the fiftieth anniversary of Lewis’s death (22 November 2013), Professor Ward unveiled a permanent national memorial to him in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. He is the co-editor of a volume of commemorative essays marking the anniversary, entitled C.S. Lewis at Poets’ Corner. Michael Ward presented the BBC television documentary, The Narnia Code, directed and produced by BAFTA-winning filmmaker, Norman Stone. He authored an accompanying book entitled The Narnia Code: C.S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens. Michael was resident Warden of The Kilns, Lewis’s Oxford home, from 1996 to 1999. He studied English at Oxford, Theology at Cambridge, and has a Ph.D. in Divinity from St Andrews. He was Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford (2012-2021). He has been awarded honorary doctorates in Humane Letters (Hillsdale College, Michigan, 2015) and Sacred Theology (Thorneloe University, Ontario, 2021). Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/ward for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Podcast Ep. 40 Mary Eberstadt: Who are You? Family, Politics, and the Hunger for Identity | 14 mai 2022 | 01:29:52 | |
In the episode I speak with Mary Eberstadt about her latest book Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. She argues that the revolutionary changes to family structure across the western world: fatherlessness, divorce, abortion, single parent homes, the shrinking of the family –have caused deep hurt in people and that many of the social problems we face today are manifestations of a “primal scream” for belonging. Eberstadt explains that the breakdown of the family has resulted in a widespread subtraction: we have a much smaller protective infrastructure around us than our ancestors did. While many people connect family decline to individual things like loneliness or educational achievement, it also has large macro impacts. She argues that primary cause of political rage, identity politics, gender confusion, and more is rooted in the breakdownof the family and people’s struggle to answer the question “Who am I?” Primal Screams is a very important book that combines an empirical examination with a real empathy for people who suffer from the impact of the sexual revolution and the break down of the family. We discuss a number of issues including:
Mary Eberstadt holds the Panula Chair at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute. Her latest book is Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics, with commentaries by Rod Dreher, Mark Lilla, and Peter Thiel. Her other books include It's Dangerous to Believe; How the West Really Lost God; and Adam and Eve after the Pill. Mrs. Eberstadt’s writing has appeared in many magazines and journals. [Her 2010 novel The Loser Letters, about a young woman in rehab struggling with atheism, was adapted for stage and premiered at Catholic University in fall 2017. Seton Hall University awarded her an honorary doctorate in humane letters in 2014. During the Reagan administration, she was a speechwriter to Secretary of State George Shultz and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the United Nations. Updates about her work can be found on her website, maryeberstadt.com Resources Mary Eberstadt Website: maryeberstadt.com Podcast interview with Carrie Gress on Feminism Podcast Interview with Noelle Mering on Awake Not Woke My lecture on Robert Nisbet and the decline and quest for community Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 39 Marcel Guarnizo: What is Justice | 13 avr. 2022 | 01:54:38 | |
What is Justice? What do we owe to each other? The theme of justice is core issue of all human societies and pervades myth and philosophy. Plato’s Republic and Gorgias are reflections on justice and the right ordering of the soul and society. So is Aristotle’s Politics. The Hebrew Bible, the Tao Te Ching, the Analects of Confucius, the writings of Buddhism, and the Stoics all contain reflections on justice. C.S. Lewis notes in his appendix to the Abolition of Man that in every land and every culture there is a “Tao,” a way of being in the world that affirms what is good and condemns what is bad. Despite the universal hungering for justice, injustice seems to be the way of man. Against Plato stands Thrasymachus and Callicles, the tyrant and the sophist who want to reduce justice to power. In this episode I speak with Marcel Gaurnizo about the nature of justice. We discuss the definition of justice — giving each what is due. We discuss how justice is not simply a social or political condition but a human virtue that requires a consistent act of the will. Marcel explains how the shift from metaphysical view of justice to political justice opens the door to the dictatorship and tyranny of the majority or injustice through procedural methods. We discuss the Plato’s story of the ring of Gyges which makes the wearer invisible just like Bilbo and Frodo in the Lord of the Rings — and thus free from any punishment. Would we have strength to do the right thing even if we would never get in trouble for doing what is wrong? As Marcel notes, the ring of Gyges is all around us. There are many things that are legal—that we will not be punished for — but which are evil and unjust. Marcel also walks us through different species of justice — commutative (exchange) and distributive. He explains how many of the errors we make about legal, economic, and social justice —both on the right and the left — often come from a misunderstanding of the difference between commutative and distributive justice, e.g. we apply commutative justice to the family. Marcel argues that one of the problems we have today on the right and left is that we are not formed in correct thinking about justice is that In this conversation there are some detailed discussions, but in a time where there the word “justice” is used so frequently and where there is so much confusion, I think it is very worthwhile. Some of the themes and thinkers we discuss include:
Marcel Gaurnizo is a philosopher and theologian. He spent many years in Europe and has founded a number of institutions including an academy in Austria to teach philosophy, ethics, and politics, and was president of Aid to the Church in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. ResourcesWhittaker Chambers: Big Sister is Watching You The Second Coming, Poem by William Butler Yeats Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 38: Dr. Margarita Mooney Nicaraguan Journey: From Technocracy to Solidarity through Small Acts of Love | 23 mars 2022 | 01:05:36 | |
In the episode, I speak with Professor Margarita Mooney about her time in Nicaragua and how these experiences shaped her scholarly work and teaching at the intersection of sociology and philosophy. Margarita tells a story of her time in Nicaragua and how a weekend trip to a political rally in a small community where she almost was kidnapped challenged her assumptions about elite education in the United States. Margarita explains how her engagement with poor women farmers and micro-entrepreneurs helped her realize the power of small acts of love and solidarity to help alleviate the problems of violence from the bottom up – and how these things are neither taught nor accounted for at elite universities where a technocratic approach reigns. Margarita discusses how sociology does not address the problem of evil but rather sees it as a social or structural problem, but this does not align with ethnographic studies and the real work of talking to people about their experiences of war and violence.
Margarita talks about her founding of the Scala Foundation to address questions of meaning, beauty, and wisdom because she was worried that many Ivy League and other universities are creating a culture of resentment and anger for people who are genuinely concerned about justice but don’t have a framework to understand justice, subsidiarity, solidarity, truth, and law outside of power and politics.
As she explains in her essay “Why Choose Mystery over Ideology”
“The void left by the denigration of beauty and a classical liberal arts education is directing more and more people to “woke” social justice activism or alt-right movements because those movements offer them meaning, purpose, and hope, as well as community and a sense of belonging. Others burn out psychologically or resort to social isolation because trust and intimacy are hard to experience. Yet others resort to drugs, pornography, or another temporary pleasure to fill the void. Still, others pursue ambitious and demanding careers without reflecting on how they should live or why they exist to begin with. The result is skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Educational institutions have not succeeded in addressing these problems, leading many people to seek alternatives to feed their minds and souls.” Any conversation with Margarita Mooney is interesting and wide-ranging and we discuss a number of broad themes and thinkers including:
Biography Margarita Mooney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. She teaches courses on the philosophy of social science, Christianity and the liberal arts tradition, aesthetics, research methods for congregational leaders, and sociology of religion. Margarita founded Scala Foundation in 2016 and continues to serve as Scala’s Executive Director. Scala’s mission is to infuse meaning and purpose into American education by restoring a classical liberal arts education. At Scala’s conferences, reading groups, seminars, webinars, student trips, intellectual retreats, and intensive summer program, Scala equips students, writers, artists, intellectuals and teachers with the ideas and networks needed to revitalize culture. Margarita’s most recent book with Cluny Media, The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts (2021), grew out of her decades of experience as a teacher and scholar. Her book Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009) demonstrated how religious communities support the successful adaptation of Haitian immigrants in the U.S., Canada and France, and she’s the co-author (with Camille Z. Charles, Mary S. Fischer, and Douglas S. Massey) of Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities (Princeton University Press, 2009). Margarita received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and her M.A and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. She has also been on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale University, Princeton University, and Pepperdine University. https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/carlo-lancell
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| Ep. 37: James Poulos: Digital Politics & Spiritual War | 11 mars 2022 | 00:55:11 | |
In this episode, I speak with James Poulos about his book, Human, Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War. We discuss a wide variety of themes including technology, human memory, what it means to be an embodied person. James argues that instead of worrying about an impending crisis, we need to realize that it has already happened — Digital entities have taken over. We need to recognize this, figure out what has happened, and orient our senses and sensibilities around what technology does, how it changes us, and how we can work with and use technology to affirm our humanity. Part of this includes using technology better which is one of the reasons he argues for the importance of Bitcoin. Poulos argues that we are at Generation Zero— the first generation of the digital age. This brings with it a heightened responsibility for fatherhood, memory, ancestry, knowing who we are and where we come from. Understanding our humanity, our embodiment, the value of suffering, and that human memory is distinct and essential to our human identity can help us become resistant and not succumb to digital devices, but put technology at the service of our humanity. We discuss a number of themes and thinkers including
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| Ep. 36: Carter Snead: Law, Power, and Bioethics: What it Means to Be Human, | 01 sept. 2021 | 01:52:57 | |
In this episode, I speak with Professor Carter Snead about his book, What it Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics. We discuss how the dominant view of the human person forgets the body and ignores our social nature, and how this plays out in law which further shapes our moral lives and cultural attitudes. Snead argues that contemporary law in bioethics around issues like abortion, euthanasia, and IVF is actually applied philosophy of the person that favors the strong over the vulnerable and dependent. We discuss how the dominant anthropology today — what Alasdair MacIntyre called expressive individualism — represents only a part of what we are as human beings. It fails to address our embedded-ness in families and society and our mutual indebtedness and dependence on others. We talk about how a richer philosophy of the person that is more aligned with the reality of our lived experience is needed to make better law. We also discuss Alasdair MacIntyre's work on the the person and friendship and the ideas of un-calculated giving and receiving. We also discuss some of the virtues and habits that are needed to build a society where this richer view of the person can be lived. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/snead for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 35: Jessica Hooten Wilson, Ph.D.: Literature and Totalitarianism | 23 août 2021 | 01:07:08 | |
In this episode, I speak with Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson about her writing and research on literature and totalitarianism. We discuss how both violence and entertainment and distraction are used a tools of state control. We discuss Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, some of the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Julia Alvarez's novel, In the Time of Butterflies, about life under the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. We also discuss Victor Frankl, Josef Pieper, Michael O'Brien, Tocqueville's idea of "soft despotism", and Neil Postman's argument in In Amusing Ourselves to Death about Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984. Wilson notes that these novelists take evil seriously, but are also careful not simply villainize the opposition so as to increase our understanding and self-awareness, and help prevent us from falling into the trap of another ideology. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/jessica-hooten-wilson-phd for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 34: Heidi White: What is Classical Education? | 04 août 2021 | 01:31:05 | |
What is education for? In the episode, I speak with Heidi White about classical education and human flourishing. We discuss why classical education is important to pass down a cultural memory and why reading good literature and classic texts matters on multiple levels. We discuss the difference between a modern, contemporary education and a classical vision of education, the relationship between classical education and religious education, and how STEM and classical education can relate together. We talk about literature, poetry, science, and the idea of poetic knowledge. We also discuss some of the critiques, challenges, and weaknesses of classical education, and how classical education can provide an exit from the contemporary, utilitarian, ideological, and propagandist model that is dominant today. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/heidi-white for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 33: Elizabeth Corey, Ph.D.: Life Beyond Politics | 21 juil. 2021 | 01:44:51 | |
In this episode, I speak with Elizabeth Corey about life beyond politics, friendship, learning, and the work of Michael Oakeshott. We discuss a wide range of issues, including rationalism and politics, the value of the reading of classic texts, and Oakeshott's idea of different modes of engaging with the world: the practical, scientific, historical, and poetic. We discuss Eric Voegelin, Russell Kirk, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Rod Dreher, what it means to be a conservative, and some recent developments in the conservative political movement. We talk about the importance of carving out spaces outside the political sphere, including building functional, decentralized civil associations, and practicing the things we defend: reading good books, playing music, conversation, and trying to live a good life. We also discuss whether in 2021 it is really possible today to escape the intrusion of politics into so many spheres of life. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/elizabeth-corey-phd for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 32: James Madden, Ph.D.: The Recovery of the Self: Embodied and Embedded Persons | 14 juil. 2021 | 01:39:18 | |
In this episode, I speak with James Madden about his book, "Mind, Matter, and Nature", about philosophy of mind, and what it means to be an embodied and an embedded person. We discuss how the loss of a sense of ourselves as embodied and embedded leads to a loss of contact with the world and ultimately to nihilism. We discuss competing visions of the person—materialism, dualism and Aristotle's and St. Thomas Aquinas' idea of Hylomorphism—a union of form and matter—and what it means for a person to lead a good life. We talk about a number of issues including trans-humanism, the idea of uploading ourselves, neuroscience, Aristotle's four causes, Bob the Chameleon, Heidegger's critique of Technology, and Aristotle's ethics as a response to Sophocles Oedipus cycle. If you are interested in what it means to be a person, you will enjoy this wide ranging episode with James Madden. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/james-madden-phd for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 31: Titus Techera and Flagg Taylor: Communism and Film: Deceit, Privacy, Art, and the Effects of Tyranny on the Soul | 29 mars 2021 | 02:14:57 | |
In this episode, I speak with Titus Techera and Flagg Taylor about several films that address communism and the effects of tyranny and deceit on the human soul. We discuss themes of courage, freedom, privacy, shame, the purpose and role of art, and how we can become comprised over time by assenting to falsehood. We discuss how these films portray the challenges for regular people and how the experience of living under communism has lessons for us today. We also discuss the question of art and its relation to beauty, truth, and morality. Films we discuss include Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "The Lives of Others", about the spying of East German Stasi, and "Never Look Away", about Nazi and Communist totalitarianism, eugenics, truth, and the role of art. We also discuss the brilliant Polish film by Andrzej Wajda, "Katyn", about the Soviet murder of 12,000 Polish army officers, "Mr. Jones", about the Ukrainian Genocide by the Soviet Union, and more. These films are morally serious and very important for many reasons, not only because they clearly present the evils of communism, but because they powerfully reveal the challenges of living under totalitarianism and make us wrestle with our own weaknesses and corruption. They don't let us off the hook easily or simplify the difficulties. They also challenge us to self-introspection. As a character in "Katyn" says, "What does it matter that you think differently, if you don't act or live differently?" Warning: these films are not for children. They have some disturbing scenes, and I discuss some of my critiques in the podcast. Visit https://themoralimagination.com/episodes/titus-techera-amp-flagg-taylor for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 30: Jay Richards: Fasting, Prayer, and Ketosis: How Modern Science and Ancient Christian Tradition Support a Fasting Lifestyle & Help Us Put Food in its Proper Place | 18 mars 2021 | 01:30:36 | |
In this episode, I speak with Jay Richards about his book "Eat, Fast, Feast: Heal Your Body While Feeding your Soul". We discuss how modern science and ancient Christian tradition support a fasting lifestyle for healthy living and help us put food in its proper place. We discuss a number of issues including fasting, prayer, the ketogenic diet, and metabolic flexibility. We discuss the benefits of fat, meat, whole foods, and why we need to avoid processed foods, sugar, and how this all relates both our physical and spiritual health. Jay notes that while fasting is a sacrifice that is supposed to be difficult, it should not be torture. The problem is that most of us eat in a way that makes fasting much more difficult than it needs to be. Jay explains how using a ketogenic diet can help prepare our bodies for fasting and for prayer. We also discuss the important role of feasting and how a proper feast is essential to a human and liturgical life and very different from a "cheat" day on a diet. We also talk about liturgical, vocal, and mental prayer and the philosophical issues including hylomorphism and what it means to be an embodied person, and how food and eating connect to the theme of the moral imagination and the problem of hyper-rationalism, and an overly technocratic view of the world. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/jay-richards for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 29: Noelle Mering: Awake Not Woke: A Personalist Alternative to Thinking About Social Justice | 06 mars 2021 | 01:51:38 | |
In this episode, I speak with Noelle Mering about her new book, Awake Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology. Noelle analyzes the concept of "woke" and identifies four characteristics of the contemporary social justice movement and how they influence the way we think about justice and society: 1. Group over Person We discuss the intellectual history of the social justice movement from Hegel and Marx, Frankfurt School thinkers like Adorno and Marcuse, and contemporary proponents. We discuss how the sexual revolution connects to progressive social justice, which leads to deep incoherence and more injustice against women and children. Noelle has a chapter on victims and contagion and the work of Rene Girard, so we discuss that as well. Mering does not deny that there exist real injustices in the world that need to be addressed, but she argues that the contemporary social justice movement is the wrong way to address the problems of injustice and has often made them worse. She instead offers a personalist approach that stresses the importance of being known and in relationship with others as an alternative of how to think about and address justice and injustice. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/noelle-mering for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 28: George Gilder: Crypto vs Google: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Decentralized Computing, and Life After Google and Big Data | 25 févr. 2021 | 01:20:16 | |
In this episode, I talk with George Gilder about "Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data & The Rise of the Blockchain Economy" and his newest book on Gaming AI. We discuss blockchain technologies, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and decentralized computing. We also discuss artificial intelligence, information theory, neuroscience, and the problems of materialism and closed systems. Gilder argues that the Google system of the world with its focus on free services, centralized servers, and big data will be replaced by blockchain and decentralized computing that takes security, money, and privacy seriously. We discuss the philosophical underpinnings of the Google System of the world, its materialist presuppositions, and its adherence to the Burning Man principles, and how these ideas influence Google's visions of computing, economics, and artificial intelligence. We also talk about neuroscience and its relationship to computer science and the circular error of envisioning the human mind as a computer and then thinking about computers based on this reductionist vision of the mind. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/george-gilder for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 27: Decentralization, Localism, and Mutual Aid: The Thought of Robert Nisbet | 19 févr. 2021 | 01:01:20 | |
This episode features a lecture of mine from 2011 on the thought of Robert Nisbet. Nisbet is an important figure and his thought is very relevant to our time. I discuss the main themes of his work on community, authority, social change, and more. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/michael-matheson-miller-2-nisbet for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 26: David Deavel Ph.D: What Happiness are We Pursuing? Solzhenitsyn and American Culture | 05 févr. 2021 | 01:32:32 | |
A British journalist asked Alexander Solzhenitsyn: can free people desire to be slaves? He answered Yes. The West is "full of such people". In this episode, I speak with David Deavel about the book he co-edited with Jessica Hooten Wilson, "Solzhensityn and American Culture: The Russian soul in the West". We discuss how some of the key themes of Solzhenitsyn apply to our contemporary life, including a critique of materialism, the attraction to modern stoicism, and how it can become infected with utilitarianism and narcissism. We discuss the affirmation of being and how this relates to suffering and redemption. We discuss Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address, Templeton Prize Address, and several essays in the book including the role of Russian literature and how the Russian experience relates to contemporary American politics, including the tension between globalism nationalism, consumerism, cultural critiques of capitalism, trade-offs, and costs of globalization. We also discuss the issue of atheism and morality, and the problem Solzhenitsyn identified: that we are often embarrassed to talk about truth or good and evil as somehow archaic concepts, but if we want to take injustice and political and social evil seriously, we have to deal with conscience and good and evil in the human heart. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/david-deavel for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 25: David Clayton: Beauty and the Cosmos | 28 janv. 2021 | 01:43:55 | |
What is beauty? Does it have an objective character, or is it merely subjective and in the eye of the beholder? How do we experience beauty, and how do we communicate it to others. In this episode, I discuss the nature of beauty with David Clayton, a painter, iconographer, and author. We discuss the role of consensus and tradition, classical art, contemporary gallery art, popular and folk art, and sacred liturgy. We discuss key characteristics of beauty including integrity, harmony, proportion, and clarity and the connection to mathematics and the cosmos. David explains musical octaves and ratios and how these relate to architecture and in sacred liturgy. We talk about relationship between art and morality, good and bad art, and how to learn and create art that speaks to our times. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/david-clayton for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 24: Andreas Widmer: Principled Entrepreneurship: Why Business is Always Personal | 22 janv. 2021 | 01:20:36 | |
In the episode, I speak with Andreas Widmer about his work on principled entrepreneurship. Andreas argues that many of the challenges we are seeing in business and commerce today can be addressed by seeing business and entrepreneurship as a moral enterprise focused on the human person. We discuss Widmer's five principles for how businesses should be run, as well as a path to become not just successful, but socially beneficial. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/andreas-widmer for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 23: Flagg Taylor Ph.D: Living in Truth: Vaclav Havel on Existential Dissent & the Re-discovery of Conscience | 14 janv. 2021 | 01:50:35 | |
In this episode, I speak with Flagg Taylor about the writing and life of Vaclav Havel. We discuss his essays, plays, and other works. We also discuss Havel's idea of dissent as living in the truth. Dissent for Havel is not primarily political, but existential dissent from ideology, politicization of life, and consumerism. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/flagg-taylor for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 22: Luke Sheahan: Suppressing Dissent: Why Freedom of Association and Decentralization Matter for Liberty, Community, Innovation, and Human Flourishing | 06 janv. 2021 | 01:24:28 | |
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that the tyrant doesn't care if you love him, as long as you don't love one another. In this episode, I speak with Luke Sheahan about his book, "Why Associations Matter: The case for First Amendment Pluralism". Free associations are essential for political liberty, human flourishing, and for genuine community; but Sheahan argues that recent judicial decisions are increasingly subsuming freedom of association and assembly into speech rights. Free speech is essential for political liberty, but it's not sufficient -- It works in tandem with the right of association and assembly to strengthen and create venues for free speech. But the right of association goes beyond that. So, Luke and I discuss a number of things including the philosophy of Pluralism, Tocqueville's concern that individualism leads to centralization, Robert Nisbet's work on community, decentralization and the need to revitalize associations, and some of the arguments for free association from Aristotle, Aquinas, Magna Carta, the American founders, and more. We also discuss some of the problems with bad communities, racism, and the limits of association. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/luke-sheahan for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 21: Luke Burgis: The Economy of Desire: Rene Girard on Commerce and our Everyday Life | 17 déc. 2020 | 01:12:50 | |
In this episode, I speak with Luke Burgis about Rene Girard, the mimetic cycle, imitation, desire, and scapegoating, and how these things play out in business, commerce and everyday life. We discuss his forthcoming book, Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. Themes include how are desires our shaped by others, the leveling of desire through social media, the problem of scapegoating including not only scapegoating of the innocent, but how the the guilty be scapegoated to distract attention from other guilty parties. We also discuss positive and negative mimesis, and a number of writers and entrepreneurs including Max Scheler, Alexis De Tocqueville, Peter Thiel, Nassim Taleb, and why Rene Girard’s insights have much to say about commerce, our contemporary political economy, and our everyday life. We did this interview earlier this year while he was in the midst of writing, but the book is now finished and will be out in Spring of 2021. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/luke-burgis for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 20: What is the Moral Imagination? + 15 Ways to Build it and Recover Our Humanity | 10 déc. 2020 | 01:02:38 | |
What is the moral imagination? Why is it important? In this episode, I discuss the concept of the moral imagination and 15 ways to develop it. I discuss the origin of the term in Edmund Burke's critique of the French Revolution and his worry that the reductionist Enlightenment view of reason would lead to what C.S. Lewis called "the abolition of man." It would diminish our fundamental human experiences--love, joy, hope, friendship, justice, compassion, mercy, grief, and forgiveness--and undermine the dignity of the person. I discuss a number of thinkers, including Gertrude Himmelfarb on tradition, Russell Kirk, Joseph Pieper, Mary Douglas on condensed symbols, Joseph Ratzinger on reason and beauty, Iain Mc Gilchrist on neuroscience, Peter Berger on plausibility structures, and more. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/michael-matheson-miller-1 for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 19: Carrie Gress, Ph.D: Theology of Home: Family, Motherhood and the Alternative to Dominant Feminism | 04 déc. 2020 | 00:56:40 | |
In this episode, I speak with the Carrie Gress about her book "Theology of Home". We discuss themes of the value of homemaking, the hearth, family, motherhood, and some of her critiques of dominant feminism. Carrie is a philosopher, an entrepreneur, a prolific writer, and the mother of five children that she homeschools. She is the online editor of the woman's magazine "Theology of Home". She has appeared on Fox, BBC, and EWTN. She has lived and worked professionally in Washington, DC and Rome, Italy, and her work has been translated into nine languages. Carrie is the author of a number of books, has a PhD in philosophy from the Catholic university of America, and wrote her doctoral dissertation on human rights in the thought of Jacques Martain and Alistair MacIntyre. In addition to her writing and intellectual work, Carrie and her husband started an online store featuring lifestyle products for the home. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/carrie-gress for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 18: Chris Arnade: Dignity, Poverty, Faith, & Seeking Respect in Back Row America | 25 nov. 2020 | 01:40:38 | |
In this episode, I speak with Chris Arnade about his book "Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America". We discuss themes from his book including poverty, addiction, racism, and the value of home and place, the role of faith, and the role of McDonalds as a respite and community center. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/chris-arnade for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 17: Obianuju Ekeocha: Ideological Colonialism and Resisting the Cultural Annexation of Africa | 19 nov. 2020 | 00:49:14 | |
In this episode, I speak with Obianuju Ekeocha about the problem of ideological colonialism in Africa in the 21st Century. We discuss how Western governments, international aid agencies, and NGOs impose western, secularist ideas about life, family, and marriage on Africa. Obianuju argues that what we are seeing is a type of cultural annexation of Africa by Western elites that is a new type of colonialism. She argues that just like with 20th century colonialism Western elites collude with African leaders and go against the will of the population. Obianuju (Uju for short) Ekeocha is the author of "Target Africa", the writer and producer of the documentary film, "Strings Attached", and the founder and president of Culture of Life Africa, an initiative dedicated to the promotion and defense of the African values of the sanctity of life, beauty of marriage, blessings of motherhood and the dignity of family life. Culture of Life Africa answers the assaults on these values with African women's voices. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/obianujo-ekeocha for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 16: Dr. Michael Egnor: Does Neuroscience Refute Free Will? | 12 nov. 2020 | 01:22:06 | |
Does neuroscience prove there is no free will? Is consciousness reducible to a neural network? Are we determined by our brains? In this episode, I speak again with neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Egnor. We discuss Sam Harris arguments against free will, and examine not only the philosophical problems with Harris' argument, but Dr. Egnor also argues that Harris incorrectly interprets the work of Benjamin Libet on will and the readiness potential, and that Libet himself did not reject free will. We also discuss the complex question of consciousness and the materialist claims that consciousness can be reduced to a physical, neural process. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/michael-egnor-2 for show notes and resources. Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||
| Ep. 15: Gary Saul Morson Ph.D: Thinking Like Lenin | 04 nov. 2020 | 01:04:40 | |
In this episode, I speak with Professor Gary Saul Morson about the thought of Vladamir Lenin and how Lenin's ideas and way of seeing the world influences us today. We discuss his New Criterion essay, "Leninthink" and some of the key aspects of Lenin's thought, including Who-Whom: adherence to all politics and life as a win-lose, zero-sum game, the rejection of truth, Party-ness and ideological commitment over all, affirmation of violence, and philosophical materialism. We discuss moral relativism and the adherence to lying that many Western intellectuals failed to understand. Morson gives examples from Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Richard Wright's American Hunger, and G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. If "Leninthink" sounds a bit like the situation we are in today, it is because Lenin's ideas are alive and well. Visit https://www.themoralimagination.com for resources and show notes Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe | |||