This was a great convo. I don’t know how you get your guests to go to these deep, vulnerable places but you have a talent for it. I’ve never really read Dreher outside of a couple articles here and there so I don’t have the baggage others seem to have when it comes to him, but at least in this conversation he was a very compelling voice.
Another thing that came to mind while listening was Tao Lin's recent essay in Granta called "My Spiritual Evolution." Touches on many of the same points re: materialism, depression, health, Western values. If you haven't read it do check it out: https://granta.com/my-spiritual-evolution/
Read it. Loved it. Was also listening to Phil Klay and Jake Siegel's interview, on their podcast, of Ross Douthat, who has a new book coming out about why it's rational to believe in God (or something in that vicinity). It's definitely in the air.
OMG, this guy sounds so smug, in that self-deprecating way of True Believers. ((And this just on paper--haven't listened.)
Sure the world's been "disenchanted"--cf. Nietzsche, Weber, the Frankfurt boys--but going back to a creator deity isn't doing it for most folks in the rich countries (even the US and Israel, arguably). To be really filled with wonder, evolution's where it's at, IMO. Eukaryogenesis--the best answer to the Fermi paradox. Check this out: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2149
As for Alistair MacIntyre's account of the "disintegration of the West" (no Aristotelean teleology, hence no community, etc.)--MacIntyre's solution to the crisis at the end of After Virtue is really lame: something about retreating to (Catholic, of course) communes, I guess something like Dreher's Benedictine monk model. No, thanks.
I see he trots out that "only a god can save us" from Heidegger's last interview. Heidegger was definitely not referring to the mono-God of Dreher's faith, who is just a blip in the road to fundamental ontology. To parse it you would have to go to H.'s "fourfold," but that's too much to get into here.
This was a great convo. I don’t know how you get your guests to go to these deep, vulnerable places but you have a talent for it. I’ve never really read Dreher outside of a couple articles here and there so I don’t have the baggage others seem to have when it comes to him, but at least in this conversation he was a very compelling voice.
Thanks! I'm working on it. It probably helps that my wife is a therapist. Maybe I'm picking up some good habits.
And yeah, Dreher is a very open person, in a one on one context. It's very compelling.
Another thing that came to mind while listening was Tao Lin's recent essay in Granta called "My Spiritual Evolution." Touches on many of the same points re: materialism, depression, health, Western values. If you haven't read it do check it out: https://granta.com/my-spiritual-evolution/
Read it. Loved it. Was also listening to Phil Klay and Jake Siegel's interview, on their podcast, of Ross Douthat, who has a new book coming out about why it's rational to believe in God (or something in that vicinity). It's definitely in the air.
Curious man(in both senses), good meeting in the conversation.
OMG, this guy sounds so smug, in that self-deprecating way of True Believers. ((And this just on paper--haven't listened.)
Sure the world's been "disenchanted"--cf. Nietzsche, Weber, the Frankfurt boys--but going back to a creator deity isn't doing it for most folks in the rich countries (even the US and Israel, arguably). To be really filled with wonder, evolution's where it's at, IMO. Eukaryogenesis--the best answer to the Fermi paradox. Check this out: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2149
As for Alistair MacIntyre's account of the "disintegration of the West" (no Aristotelean teleology, hence no community, etc.)--MacIntyre's solution to the crisis at the end of After Virtue is really lame: something about retreating to (Catholic, of course) communes, I guess something like Dreher's Benedictine monk model. No, thanks.
I see he trots out that "only a god can save us" from Heidegger's last interview. Heidegger was definitely not referring to the mono-God of Dreher's faith, who is just a blip in the road to fundamental ontology. To parse it you would have to go to H.'s "fourfold," but that's too much to get into here.