Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 136

PREVIEW

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Guests heard on Volume 136

Thomas Albert Howard, author of Remembering the Reformation: An Inquiry into the Meanings of Protestantism, on the history of commemorating the Reformation

Mark Noll, editor of Protestantism After 500 Years, on how the Reformers would want to be remembered

Andrew Pettegree, author of Brand Luther: 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation, on how Martin Luther transformed the printing industry

Peter J. Leithart, author of The End of Protestantism: Pursuing Unity in a Fragmented Church, on the biblical basis for the unity of the Church

Norm Klassen, author of The Fellowship of the Beatific Vision: Chaucer on Overcoming Tyranny and Becoming Ourselves, on the political theology implicit in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

James Litton, editor of Duty and Delight: Routley Remembered, on the life and work of hymnologist Erik Routley

Joseph O’Brien, on the neglected literary achievements of J. F. Powers

Related reading and listening

Lessons from Leviticus — The book of Leviticus may be assumed to be irrelevant for charting a way through the challenges of modernity. Theologian Peter J. Leithart disagrees. (22 minutes)
Noll, Mark — FROM THE GUEST PAGE: Mark Noll is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Notre Dame and Wheaton College. A prolific author, Noll’s publications cover a wide range of topics of interest to evangelicalism.
Howard, Thomas Albert — FROM THE GUEST PAGE: Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard is Professor of Humanities and History and holder of the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University.
In tune with the muses of Zion — Ken Myers on the Christmas music of Michael Praetorius
In dulci jubilo — Ken Myers introduces some of the music for the season composed by Michael Praetorius (1571–1621), best known for his settings of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (“Lo how a rose e’er blooming”) and In dulci jubilo. (18 minutes)
Christian scholars and the secularized academy — Mark Noll on why Christian intellectual vitality requires a vision for the universality of Christian truth
The future of Christian learning — Historian Mark Noll insists that for Christian intellectual life to flourish, a vision for comprehensive and universal social and cultural consequences of the Gospel has to be assumed. (18 minutes)
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Once there was no “secular” — Carlos Eire on the metaphysical assumptions championed in the sixteenth century
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The music and the notes are precious — Ken Myers encourages an understanding of the Church as a particular culture that should be nourished and sustained, and then describes the history of an Advent hymn written by St. Ambrose. (27 minutes)
Parsing the intellectual vocation — Norman Klassen and Jens Zimmermann demonstrate that some form of humanism has always been central to the purposes of higher education, and insist that the recovery of a rich, Christocentric Christian humanism is the only way for the university to recover a coherent purpose. (39 minutes)
“Christianity” is gnostic — Peter Leithart on why what the Church is and practices is not a “religion”
Stabat Mater dolorosa — Ken Myers offers some thoughts on the aesthetics of sympathy, and introduces some of the musical settings of the remarkable medieval poem known as “Stabat Mater dolorosa.” (23 minutes)
Passions before Bach — In preparation for Holy Week, Ken Myers presents a whirlwind music history lesson with musical examples from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. (22 minutes)
Beyond proof-texts — Mark Noll argues that the distinctly American practice of interpreting the Bible through proof-texting hampered the abolitionist movement’s effectiveness. (41 minutes)
Republican freedom — and ideological flexibility — Mark Noll on the novelty of America’s Christian republicanism
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Meditative music for Passiontide — At the start of Passiontide, Ken Myers introduces listeners to works by the Renaissance composer Orlande de Lassus which highlight the theme of lamentation. (18 minutes)
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The Mystery Sonatas of Heinrich Biber — Baroque violinist Fiona Hughes reflects on Heinrich Biber’s 15 “Mystery Sonatas,” each of which corresponds to one of the mysteries in the life of Jesus and Mary that focused meditative devotion. (14 minutes)
The public and political dimensions of gratitude — Peter Leithart and Mark Mitchell both assert that gratitude has a public and political concern, and that Christianity caused a significant shift in the understanding of gratitude. (19 minutes)
Deconstructing the Enlightenment — Peter Leithart discusses Johann Georg Hamann’s insights about the nature of language and his prophetic critique of the Enlightenment. (17 minutes)
The poetic power of hymnody — Leland Ryken argues for reading hymns as devotional poetry, that we might have constant access to their spiritual insights and that they might help nurture and shape us into disciples. (12 minutes)
Fr. Chad Hatfield and Peter J. Leithart on Alexander Schmemann — Alexander Schmemann’s book asks a set of questions about “Christianity and culture” that typically don’t get asked, questions that re-center our lives in gratitude and worship. (20 minutes)
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Martin Luther, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation — Historian Andrew Pettegree (Brand Luther: 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation) describes how Luther’s facility for writing in German and his intuitive business sense spread ideas and transformed the distribution model of the printing industry. (55 minutes)
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