The Weight of Glory
The Weight of Glory
The transformation of Christian hope in the modern age
In today's episode, my friend Kale and I reflect on paragraphs 16 through 23 of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical letter on hope, which asks the question: how has the concept of Christian hope been transformed in the modern age? More specifically, how has modernity reappropriated the concepts of faith and hope in the service of secular goals?
Hello and welcome to The Weight of Glory. This is your host, Clayton Emmer.
In this podcast, we explore themes present in The Weight of Glory, an essay by C.S. Lewis.
In today's episode, my friend Kale and I reflect on paragraphs 16 through 23 of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical letter on hope, which asks the question: how has the concept of Christian hope been transformed in the modern age? More specifically, how has modernity reappropriated the concepts of faith and hope in the service of secular goals?
Perhaps the modern ode to faith in secular progress is best revealed in the lyrics of a Tracy Chapman song entitled, "Heaven's Here On Earth."
As C.S. Lewis observed in The Weight of Glory:
"Almost all our modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth. And yet it is a remarkable thing that such philosophies of Progress or Creative Evolution themselves bear reluctant witness to the truth that our real goal is elsewhere. When they want to convince you that earth is your home, notice how they set about it. They begin by trying to persuade you that earth can be made into heaven, thus giving a sop to your sense of exile in earth as it is. Next, they tell you that this fortunate event is still a good way off in the future, thus giving a sop to your knowledge that the fatherland is not here and now. Finally, lest your longing for the transtemporal should awake and spoil the whole affair, they use any rhetoric that comes to hand to keep out of your mind the recollection that even if all the happiness they promised could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death, including the last generation of all, and the whole story would be nothing, not even a story, for ever and ever. "
So without further delay, here is my conversation with Kale on the transformation of faith & hope in the modern age.
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Francis Bacon, Novum Organum
The Tower of Babel, Genesis 11 (RSVCE)
G.W.F. Hegel's dialectical method of argument
Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a University, Discourse 3: Bearing of Theology on other Branches of Knowledge
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Weight of Glory. The music in the introduction and close of this podcast is provided by Dennis Crommett. Learn more about his music over at DennisCrommett.Bandcamp.com or in the show notes.
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Until next time, be well and God bless.