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On today’s episode, the pugs engage the question: have contemporary Christian forms of spirituality made Christians more or less susceptible to secular, technological formation and manipulation? Tom introduces the topic by discussing Lori Branch’s significant work: Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth. From that introduction, the pugs then delve into a wide range of topics around this theme.     Learn more about the Theology Pugcast and contact us: https://www.theologypugcast.com/   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Effective Altruism (EA) is the guiding ethical approach in much of the tech world and especially among A.I. gurus and the ostensibly independent body that is overseeing the A.I. companies. In this episode, the Pugs discuss what EA is and the problems with it, most importantly, its superficial concept of the Good and its efforts to quantify everything. If you want to know what our A.I. overlords think they’re doing and why we shouldn’t go along with it, tune in to this week’s show.     Learn more about the Theology Pugcast and contact us: https://www.theologypugcast.com/   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode, we welcome Tara Thieke on the show to talk about her two-part article on the rising popularity of witchcraft. The conversation touches on why witchcraft is growing, witchcraft as the female parallel to transhumanism, its connection to critical theory, Lindsey Clancy, the collapse of secularism, and the church’s failure to recognize the cultural drift toward the occult. We finish with how to respond to witches who are our neighbors. Join us for an illuminating discussion of a dark subject in our culture today.     Substack Articles: https://substack.com/home/post/p-211290389 https://substack.com/home/post/p-213995701     Learn more about the Theology Pugcast and contact us: https://www.theologypugcast.com/   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

The Pugs respond to a book review by Robert Bellah of Harold Bloom’s, The American Religion, from all the way back in 1992. Bloom contended that beneath the surface of an ostensible Christianity lurked an American version of Gnosticism. Bloom rejoiced, many people at the time objected, but has Bloom been proven right 30 years later? Tune in and find out what the Pugs have to say.     Article: https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/book-review-the-looming-triumph-of-gnosticism/?shem=aimgspe       Learn more about the Theology Pugcast and contact us: https://www.theologypugcast.com/   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode, the Pugs welcome back Dr. Natalie Atwell to discuss her new book, Humanity Under Siege. After more than twenty years as a licensed clinical mental health therapist, Dr. Atwell noticed that the cases were becoming stranger. This led her on a quest to figure out why, and she concluded that there was a spiritual dimension that counseling had largely ignored. She then worked on diagnostic tools that could determine whether “other influences” were causing mental health problems in patients. This book is the result. The Pugs have an engaging conversation with her about her work and a range of related topics surrounding the spiritual dimensions of mental health therapy.   Order Humanity Under Siege: The Unseen Realm and the Spiritual War Against the Mind: https://a.co/d/06M3hOF3     Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

This week’s podcast looks at the important book by Tobias Rose-Stockwell: Outrage Machine: how tech amplifies discontent, disrupts democracy, and what we can do about it. The pugs engaged the book, recognizing that the author is correct to note how social media and contemporary technology serve as environments of spiritual and moral formation. But what is being formed is something that actually makes worse the passions, such as an anger, rather than fosters virtue. This is where classic Christian moral psychology and spiritual formation become key ingredients in a proper solution to the vice producing machine. The pugs also engage the question of how a concern for solidarity first prior to any concern for democracy is key to a Christian spiritual formation.   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode, Glenn leads off the discussion by citing recent claims by scientists that we need to reduce global population by more than half by 2200 for the sake of the planet. The guys note the failed predictions of Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book The Population Bomb that have led to disastrous things like China’s one child policy and constant calls for reducing population even as we’re facing a birth dearth. They also bring in other failed predictions of imminent ecological disaster and note the importance of human creativity in solving problems, such as reducing the rate of severe poverty despite dramatically increasing population since Ehrlich’s book.   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today the Pugs reflect on an essay from Matthew B. Crawford’s Substack entitled, The Fate of Liberty in the American Experiment. One feature of the essay is a reflection on the understanding of virtue assumed by the American Founders, does it have more in common with the classical understanding or is it modern in character. If the latter, is the experiment doomed? If the former, is there any hope that we can recover it? Tune in and judge for yourself!   Substack Article: https://mcrawford.substack.com/p/the-fate-of-liberty-in-the-american?r=1gxyb8&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

This week’s episode looks at a variety of social and ethical visions that aim for the perfect society or state of being through, especially in the West. These visions, some of which have religious and even Christian roots, end up bracketing out a full Christian view of transcendence and replace it with one or another type of reality immanent in nature or the human or in human invention alone. The result has been anything but utopia!   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

On today's show the Pugs respond to a variety of questions submitted by Patreon patrons. Tune in for a wide ranging conversation!   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

The Pugsters welcome Fr. Dwight Longenecker to the show to discuss his new book, Bloodshed and Blessing. The book discusses blood sacrifice as a component of all traditional religions until those sacrifices find their fulfillment and ending in Christ. The conversation ranges over the “why” of sacrifice, its significance in the Eucharist today, and even the Sword of St. Michael, a set of seven churches dedicated to St. Michael in a straight line from the Holy Land to Ireland. It’s an interesting and provocative conversation about topics not often discussed in the Reformed and Evangelical worlds.   Order Bloodshed and Blessing: Stories of Sacrifice from Ancient Altars to the Holy Mass: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/bloodshed-and-blessing/?srsltid=AfmBOooAjf-YmuSCmPpqTOjVku8xgbDY_DiNBdFoEhhVRy5Bg36FFank   Fr. Dwight Longenecker on Substack: https://dwightlongenecker918309.substack.com/   Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s Website: https://dwightlongenecker.com/   ANGEL QUEST: In Search of St. Michael's Sword https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnfkN3OFnvo   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today the Pugs come down to earth to talk about the writing life. What time of day do they write? What tools do they use? Eating first or writing on an empty stomach; does it even matter? All this and more is on the table for discussion. Tune in learn about what Tom, Glenn, and Chris have in common and what distinguishes their approaches to writing!   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Chris & Chris Talk Business Podcast: https://youtube.com/@chrisandchristalkbusiness?si=Wr-27dGavsGQSH5P   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

In this episode, the Pugsters look at the role of imagination in finding truth. Starting with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s definition of imagination, the conversation explores the role of the Logos in creating and sustaining the world. For Coleridge, it is our primary imagination that sees and understands the words of the Logos in creation; the secondary imagination works from the primary imagination to create poems and other imaginative works. The guys move on from there to talk about the limits of reason and alternate ways of approaching knowledge beyond those accepted by modernity.   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Chris & Chris Talk Business Podcast: https://youtube.com/@chrisandchristalkbusiness?si=Wr-27dGavsGQSH5P   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

This week the pugs discuss the theologically profound and philosophically astute nineteenth century fiction writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Interacting with key aspects of this Russian Christians challenging life and intense suffering, they place his writings and their profound engagement with the human condition, looking at the idolatrous and soul destroying paths on many modernist ideologies, and highlighting the riches of Christian wisdom and grace for truly transfiguring that broken human condition from despair and enslavement to genuine freedom in God’s life through Christ.   Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Order Manmade: Saint Anthony's Guide to Surviving the AI Apocalypse: https://a.co/d/0brd2TR7   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Once again, Chris is manning the fort while Tom and Glenn travel the world. The good news is Chris is joined by his friend Jake Dell, Pastor of The First Congressional Church of Woodbury, Connecticut (founded in 1659). Jake reflects on institutional capture and how to win back institutions that have been lost to theological liberalism, and worse.   By What Authority: https://firstthings.com/by-what-authority-2/   Experimental Sermons Substack: https://jwdell.substack.com/   Pre-Order Exile and Return: https://payhip.com/b/Hc6up       Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8   Learn more about First Pres. Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/   Follow Glenn Sunshine on Substack: https://substack.com/@glennsunshine   Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/