Here’s what I’ve been listening to so far:
A good discussion of religion and politics from a Reformed Christian perspective. It avoids the “Republican = God’s Own Party” assumption that a lot of American Christians seem to make, but the contributors all seem to take a strong “Two Kingdoms” line, which keeps the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world very separate.
I agree with them to a point – church and state are separate institutions, and it causes big problems to confuse the two. But their position ends up with a split between sacred and secular, public and private. Part of the mission of the church is to announce (but not enforce) the Lordship of Christ over all of creation, including the political sphere. Church and state should be institutionally separate, but both ought, in their respective spheres, govern according to God’s principles of peace, justice, and goodness.
A potted summary of Nietzsche’s view of Art and Truth, particularly focusing on his first book, The Birth of Tragedy.
Apparently, Nietzsche saw art as a way of masking the fundamental chaos and meaninglessness of life (the Dionysian aspect), a way of imposing some apparent order on events (the Apollonian aspect), but it could also reveal something of the truth of the pain and disorder of reality in a way that is bearable. He saw Greek tragedy as doing this, until Socrates came along and spoiled everything with the illusion of the world being comprehensible and meaningful, which was continued by Christianity. But with the decline of Christianity, he saw the possibility of the revival of this kind of tragedy.
Nietzsche was very perceptive on seeing the consequences of life without God. From a Christian perspective, atheistic philosophy often has an element of truth, in that it shows what life is like when God is rejected, when sin separates us from God, when we are under the curse. Postmodernism, for example, is partially true, true to the extent that sin disrupts our ability to know and to communicate, and true to the extent that these are the consequences if we reject God. But the effect of sin is not total, though it touches everything – God’s grace and providence is still evident in creation, we still bear something of the image of God, and most importantly, healing and restoration is possible in Jesus Christ.
Mark Driscoll’s sermons are generally very good, and having looked at the subject of spiritual warfare on this year’s Contagious and been very challenged by what the Bible has to say on the subject, I thought I’d listen to these sermons as a “refresher course”.
Driscoll is clear and Biblically balanced: we have a battle against the world, the flesh and the devil; the devil and demons are real, and we should take these spiritual realities seriously but without becoming morbidly obsessed with them, and always remember that God is sovereign and triumphant over them.
I’ve just started on this one, but should be a good debate! Dan Barker used to be a Christian pastor and evangelist, before becoming an atheist. He’s now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Doug Wilson is a pastor, and a faculty member at New St Andrews College, who’s an eloquent writer and speaker who’s also debated Christopher Hitchens on whether Christianity is good for the world.
I’ve also got some Doctor Who podcasts to listen to such as WhoCast and Tin Dog Podcast, some talks by Peter Kreeft, a couple of L’Abri lectures, a few programmes from the BBC, and some sermons by John Piper, Mark Driscoll and Pete Woodcock. Plenty to keep me busy!