About Mars Hill AudioWritings & Videos
Interviews with Ken Myers
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Ken Myers on Attentiveness, Deliberativeness, and Other Subversive Activities (March 2012)
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Ken Myers on Classical Education (October 2011)
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An interview with Ken Myers on whether "the culture" is really the problem. Published in The Christian Post in May 2012. Here is an excerpt:
True seekers are looking for something different, radically different. If people are just looking for a religious band-aid or spiritual Prozac, they are not seeking the redemption promised in the Gospel, which calls them to die to self and live (really live) to Christ. If I were drowning, the most relevant reality I could long for would be someone who was a really good swimmer. If my house were on fire, I would want a man with a hose, not a lighter. If my life were plunged into darkness, light would be the most relevant thing imaginable.
Read the whole interview here.
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A September 2009 interview in Comment magazine, published by Cardus, entitled "A student's guide to the 'whole big ecosystem' of culture." Here is an excerpt:
CM: 3. You believe individualism to be a corrosive, destructive force in the modern world. Do you have any suggestions for students who wonder how to live in way that is not individualistic in the context of today's college or university?
KM: .... One way of fighting the mentality of individualism is to put oneself in a position where one is an apprentice, where one receives something offered rather than "consumes" it. For example, find someone (in that church community you're a part of) who knows a lot about an ethnic food tradition and go to a restaurant with them, letting them choose the menu (and maybe you can even pay for their meal). Or find someone (a professor, even) who knows a lot about some artistic tradition that is foreign to you (German cinema, Renaissance choral music, English detective fiction) and apprentice yourself to them. You could do the same with master gardeners, cooks, bird watchers, woodworkers, motorcycle mechanics, even theologians. Yes, there is an initial act of individual choice, but submitting to someone else's authority and expertise over time is a great way to fight the temptation to assert our own sovereignty.
Read the whole interview here.
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A 2009 interview in byFaith magazine about the need for well-informed generalists. Here is an excerpt:
BF: Evangelicals today are often preoccupied with novelty: new strategies, new ministry models, new insights for successful Christian living. How do you assess this preoccupation?
KM: C.S. Lewis said one of the distinctive aspects of the modern mind is the assumption that newer things are always better. We’ve become preoccupied with things we don’t have, rather than the nurturing and stewarding the things we do have.
My favorite example of this is the shift since the 1970s toward informality in public. People used to wear coats and ties to go to a baseball game, and now they wear a ball cap at church. We’ve moved away from formality toward informality in almost every area—language, dance, food, worship, music—and I’m convinced that it’s largely a symptom of a suspicion of authority. You don't want to submit to a set of standards and proprieties that you didn’t freely choose yourself. So if the move toward informality expresses a widespread suspicion of authority, then why would that be a good, up-to-the-minute trend to endorse?
Read the whole interview here.
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Audio interview with Ken Myers on culture and classical education (December 2010)
Essays, Articles, & Monographs
All of the files below are in PDF format, and your computer will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed in order to read or print them. (A free download of this program is available if you don't already have it on your computer.)
| Author | Title | Format | |
| Clowney, Edmund | The Politics of the Kingdom | ||
| Gablik, Suzi | Julian Schnabel Paints a Portrait of God | ||
| Hart, D.G. | J. Gresham Machen and the Problem of Christian Civilization in America | HTML | |
| Hart, D.G. | Mars Hill Audio Turns Ten - A Tribute to Ken Myers | HTML | |
| Howard, Thomas | The Power of Wise Custom - On the Importance of Ritual and Ceremony in Expressing the Deep Significance of Events Such as Weddings, Funerals, and Births | ||
| Lundin, Roger | Postmodern Gnostics | ||
| Machen, J. Gresham | Christianity & Culture | HTML | |
| Meilaender, Gilbert | The First of Institutions - On Marriage and its Purposes | ||
| Myers, Ken | A Calling to Talk and Libraries | HTML | |
| Myers, Ken | How Would Jesus Call? | HTML | |
| Myers, Ken | Introductory essay to an Interview with Murray Milner, Jr. on Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids: American Teenagers, Schools, and the Culture of Consumption | HTML | |
| Myers, Ken | Same-Sex Marriage in Cultural Perspective - Introductory essay to an interview with Robert Gagnon | HTML | |
| Reinhardt, Jonathan | Language by Tolkien - On J. R. R. Tolkien’s Love for Words, Languages, and Storytelling | ||
| Reinhardt, Jonathan | Following the Thread of Unbelief - On the Strength and Enduring Appeal of the Novelist Sigrid Undset | ||
| Reinhardt, Jonathan | The Matter of Britain: An Introduction to Arthurian Legend | ||
Letters to our subscribers from Ken Myers
- 2012 Advent Letter - On two approaches to evangelism and contextualizing the Gospel in modern culture
- 2011 Gift Letter - On the temptation of practical deism
- 2011 Summer Letter - On cultural reformation according to G. K. Chesterton
- 2010 Advent Letter - On a faithful culture-making presence
- 2008 Gift Letter - On the renewing of our minds as servants of God
- 2008 Summer Letter - On Hannah Montana, the problem with celebrities, and the necessity of wholistic cultural discernment
- 2007 Advent Letter - On the radical earthly consequences of the Incarnation
- 2007 Summer Letter - On the differences between hope and optimism
- 2006 Christmas Letter - On the paradoxes of Christmas and of Christian faithfulness in the world
- Spring 2006 Fundraising Letter - On the importance of language and the need for a ramified Christianity
- 2005 Christmas Letter - On the difference between Christian faith and Christian consciousness, and the need to reorder our affections
- Fall 2005 Fundraising Letter - On the Church's posture toward creativity, beauty, and the arts
- Spring 2005 Fundraising Letter - On "Cultural apologetics" and the mission of Mars Hill Audio
- Fall 2004 Fundraising Letter - On the comprehensive and ramified consequences of Redemption
- 2004 Christmas Letter - On the quite, awe-inspiring paradox of the Incarnation
- Spring 2004 Fundraising Letter - On the inadequacy of a Gospel that is more therapeutic than cosmic
- Fall 2003 Fundraising Letter - On the influence of the dynamics of entertainment on Christian practice
- Spring 2003 Fundraising Letter - On the inability of political liberalism to respond substantively to the claims of Islam
- Fall 2002 Fundraising Letter - On how I ended up doing what I’m doing
- Spring 2001 Fundraising Letter - On Christian apologetics in an age of “whatever”
Other
- Travelogue of Byzantium (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 - all are in PDF format)
- Printable subscription form
- Printable contribution form