Posts

THINGS HIDDEN 14: Memoirs of a Gaijin

  Dr. Paul Axton, theologian and host of the Forging Ploughshares podcast, sits down with David Gornoski to talk about his experience of living in Japan, the idea of shame in death, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and seeing Japanese culture through Christian eyes. While pointing out that Romans 7 is absolutely essential for understanding what it is to imitate […]

How Can Family Therapy, Rene Girard Inform Our Society?

How do we build and model our relationships in a Triune way as opposed to the way of scapegoating? Rich Bledsoe, chaplain at Boulder Community Hospital, calls in to answer this pressing question. Bledsoe likens the activity of the Trinity to a network of human beings. “The first corporation in the world,” Bledsoe says, “is […]

Did Neanderthals Dream?

Human beings are primarily storytelling creatures; and storytelling is crucial for us. Which story should our society bind itself around? Many, including Karl Marx, have tried to distort Jesus’ concern for victims, and each has failed to tell the non-violent, redemptive story of Christ. “The McWoke crowd intends to justify themselves by donning the god-mask […]

THINGS HIDDEN 13: The Return of Tom Holland

How has Christianity affected western civilization? Tom Holland, author of Dominion, starts by giving us a glimpse at what pre-Christian justice looked like; he then takes us through the transformation of criminal justice as Christianity was absorbed more and more into the culture by western civilization. Tom Holland also describes how Christianity, as preached by […]

Barouk Almaw Gari Gives an Ethiopian View on Identity Politics and Rene Girard

Barouk Almaw Gari, an Ethiopian entrepreneur and Rene Girard fan, joins David Gornoski to discuss his introduction to the works of Rene Girard, his perspective on Ethiopian politics and history, and how Christianity has shaped Ethiopia’s culture. How does the gospel effect each culture in their tribal and sacrificial customs? Barouk takes us through the […]

Our Vain Search for Scapegoats

Our fixation on identity politics, David Gornoski says, is driving our society towards blame games. “We need to continue to encourage people in thinking for themselves rather than groupthink.” David takes us through the idea of original sin–the concept that sin exists universally–and how filtering that idea through group identities is a recipe for conflict. […]

What Does the 4th of July Mean in 2020?

Host David Gornoski reflects on the founding of America. What can we learn from our nation’s history when we examine it through the lens of Jesus’ anthropology? David explains how civilizations are usually founded upon violence and how we often rely on violence to sustain our societies. The injection of Jesus’ non-violent, self-sacrificial spirit into […]

NT Wright on Caesar and Christ, the Pandemic, and Social Justice

  Esteemed New Testament scholar and Anglican bishop NT Wright joins David Gornoski to discuss the pandemic and Christ’s role in shaping governance and justice. The iconic theologian puts the pandemic into perspective from what Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, especially chapter 8 of that letter. Doctor Wright points to how the […]

David Gornoski on the Religiosity of the ‘Woke’ Movement

“Because we have Christian storytelling in our roots, we have to posture as dying, persecuted victims in our attempts to take power away from someone.” David Gornoski explains how the social justice movement has hijacked the Christian aesthetic of defending victims from violent mobs; he urges us to reject the mirroring of the mob and […]

Why Conservatives Keep Losing

Why do conservatives continue to lose both politically and culturally? The answer, David Gornoski says, is that the left has successfully monopolized the art of story-telling. “The right doesn’t have its story right.” David challenges the right to understand what ‘Holy Spirit’ means. Paul describes Satan in the New Testament as a system of government; […]