Addenda
A monthly e-mail newsletter from MARS HILL AUDIO
November 15, 2006 v Number 33
"The story the church is commissioned to tell, if it is true, is bound to call into question
any plausibility structure which is founded on other assumptions. . . . The reasonableness
of Christianity will be demonstrated (in so far as it can be) not by adjusting its claims
to the requirements of a pre-existing structure of thought but by showing
how it can provide an alternative foundation for a different structure."
-- Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence: Faith,
Doubt and Certainty in Christian Discipleship (1995)
New on our desks
"The Critical Distinction Between Science and Religion"
In 2002 Oxford University Press published Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine, and the Distortion of Christianity, in which [Joel James] Shuman and his co-author, Keith G. Meador, study how religion is misrepresented when it is used to measure health benefits, how faith, approached as a servant of better health, is robbed of its true meaning. For a recent article-length recognition of this idea of faith being reduced to something other than what it is, see Richard P. Sloan's "The Critical Distinction Between Science and Religion" in the November 3 issue of The Chronicle Review. [Read more on Science and Religion]
Alasdair MacIntyre and Education
Alasdair MacIntyre of Notre Dame joins the chorus of observers who decry the fragmentation and bankruptcy of the modern university education system, in "The End of Education: The Fragmentation of the American University" in Commonweal; and asks if Catholic universities should do better. [Read more on MacIntyre and Education]
Digitally Yours
It's been a few months since we began offering subscriptions to the Journal (as well as other recordings) in a downloadable MP3 format. We are still in the earliest stages of learning how to deliver this service most smoothly, but so far, the response from our listeners has been very positive. The enthusiastic iPod owners are the easiest to win over. But a number of people who don't own MP3 players have also taken advantage of this less expensive and more versatile form of receiving our material. We know that most of our listeners hear our material while driving, and that most of them have CD players in their cars. So we've made it easy for the MP3 products to be burned to CDs, and have included instructions for burning as well as materials to print your own labels with every purchase. If you're toying with the idea of making this switch (and saving up to $18 a year on your subscription), you may want to experiment by purchasing one of our new Audio Reprints, which are now available in this downloadable format. Right now, we have six of these available, with more in production, and they only cost $3 or $4. You may look at the descriptions of these readings at http://www.marshillaudio.org/catalog/reprints.asp, and if the experience is rewarding, please consider converting your subscription to this new format. We'll adjust the number of issues coming your way to reward you for the difference in costs. And you'll help us reduce our costs, since we are bracing ourselves for an announcement from the US Postal Service about a major increase in shipping costs. If you'd like to take us up on this, e-mail us at our quaintly anachronistic address, tapes@marshillaudio.org, and if you have further questions, send us a note at the more contemporary, relevant, and culturally hip mp3@marshillaudio.org.
17 Reasons to Renew Your Subscription (or to Buy a Christmas Gift Subscription)
Over the next year, subscribers to the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal will be introduced to the ideas and personality (or at least, the voice) of dozens of thoughtful writers, scholars, and critics. In the interest of encouraging you to extend your commitment to being one of our listeners, we thought you might like to hear the names of the people who are already on our guest list.
Dick Keyes, who works with the L'Abri community in Massachusetts, has a new book called Seeing through Cynicism, which looks at the causes and cures of the corrosive suspicion which postmodern irony all too often encourages. . . . And speaking of cynicism, if you recently saw Brian de Palma's The Black Dahlia on the big screen, or bought the newly released DVD of Billy Wilder's 1944 classic Double Indemnity, you'll want to hear film critic Barrett Fisher discussing the origins and obsessions of film noir. . . . Theologians have, for thousands of years, been discussing what the "image of God" means for human identity, but they have been relatively silent on the cultural debates about human identity; theologian Rick Lints and a number of his colleagues offer some relief from that silence in the recent anthology Personal Identity in Theological Perspective. . . . The nature of human identity is at the center of the prominent cultural debate concerning the meaning of marriage, and three of our guests will share some of their thoughtful discussion of some of the questions at issue in the coming months. Ethicist James Turner Johnson, best known for his work on the just war tradition, teaches a class every year on sexual ethics, and has done extensive research into the thought of the Puritans in recognizing the covenantal structure of marriage. Theologian Michael Lawler complements Johnson's work in a recent essay called "Marriage As Covenant in the Catholic Tradition," and sociologist Steven Nock discusses the idea of covenant marriage in recent legislation in Louisiana and elsewhere. . . . Among many American Evangelicals, art historian H. R. Rookmaaker is associated with Francis Schaeffer's interest in 20th century cultural history. Rookmaaker is the subject of a recent book called Art and the Christian Mind, written by his friend and co-laborer in advancing Evangelical cultural engagement, Laurel Gasque. . . . While we're speaking of Dutch thinkers, it's worth some time reflecting on the contribution to Christian thinking about and activity concerning law and politics made by Abraham Kuyper, who is the subject of a conversation with philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff. . . . Kuyper's work in the late 19th century was in many ways a response to the radical changes effected during and after the French Revolution, which are the starting point for Michael Burleigh's magisterial book, Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War, and his forthcoming sequel, Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from the European Dictators to Al Qaeda, which promises to be a formidable attack on secularism. . . . Secularization (secularism's cousin) and how it affects different societies in different ways has long been an interest of sociologist David Martin, whose latest book is On Secularization: Towards a Revised General Theory. . . . The pressures and challenges of secularization for contemporary Christians were wisely perceived by Lesslie Newgibin, whose work has helped many Christians resist cultural captivity. A wonderful anthology of Newbigin's work (from the mid-1930s to the late 1990s) has been assembled by Paul Weston, tutor in missions and homiletics at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. . . . Another new anthology of writings by a significant 20th century Christian, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, has been assembled by Edward Ericson, who has spent a lifetime studying, translating, and editing Solzhenitsyn's work. . . . On one of the early issues of our Journal (then called the "Mars Hill Tapes"), we heard from psychiatrist Paul McHugh. He returns to our microphones soon (and, we hope, your speakers or headphones) to discuss a collection of his perceptive essays called The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry. . . . Also returning, after a much shorter absence, is historian Christopher Shannon, whose early book Conspicuous Criticism: Tradition, the Individual, and Culture in Modern American Social Thought has been released in a new edition. . . . Higher education has been a regular subject for discussion with our guests; coming soon are two conversations, one with Harvard professor and former Dean of Harvard College Harry Lewis (Excellence without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education) and historian C. John Sommerville (The Decline of the Secular University). . . . And closing on a more festive note, we'll hear very soon from organist, musicologist, and conductor Paul Walker about Renaissance Christmas music.
Our headline is misleading. There are, indeed, 17 guests listed above, but there are countless reasons to want to hear, learn, and inwardly digest what they have to say. Please keep all this in mind as you continue to make your Christmas lists (and remember that if you buy a gift subscription for someone else, you can reward yourself for your discerning generosity by renewing your own subscription at a discount; see http://www.marshillaudio.org/xmas/ for details).
Subscriber Update
Volume 82 (Sept./Oct. 2006) of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal is in the mail. This issue's guestlist comprises: Stephen Gardner discussing modern culture and religion; Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn discussing Tom Wolfe and Philip Rieff; Wilfred McClay also discussing Rieff; David Wells on culture, human nature, and God; James K. A. Smith on experience and interpretation; and Robert Littlejohn on education, wisdom, and eloquence.
Various Details, Disclaimers, Etc.
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MARS HILL AUDIO
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