How Do We Love Tradition? with Anne Carpenter

“What is history?” is the opening query of Anne Carpenter’s new book, Nothing Gained is Eternal: A Theology of Tradition. Anne’s answer: history is what humans do. The following chapters consider the consequences of this definition: that tradition must be renewed, not just preserved, and sins, from racism to colonialism, must be dealt with.

In this episode, the Genealogy and Tradition reading group join in conversation with Anne to discuss her recent work. In this question-and-answer session, the group asks Anne: How would you rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral? Are we justified in putting humans at the center of history? and, most importantly, How can we best love tradition, and can we love it too much?

Read more.

What is the Meaning of Work Today? With Jeffrey Hanson

Plato said that craft, or techne, “answers to a genuine human need and solves it.” Does our abstract, postindustrial work fulfill this criteria? Dr. Jeffrey Hanson, Anglican priest and senior philosopher at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, has dealt with these questions in his most recent book, Philosophies of Work in the Platonic Tradition: A History of Labor in Human Flourishing. 

In this episode, Jeffrey and Grant weigh the Platonic and postmodern ideas of work, asking: How do we find meaning in “meaningless” work? What is the proper place of work among the other values in our life? And, is work directed toward changing reality, or changing ourselves?

Read more.

Being a Christian 2.0 and Web 3.0 with Joanna Ng

What enables a being to create? Generative AI appears to approach human capabilities; is it only a matter of time until it surpasses them? Joanna Ng, formerly the head of research and the director of the Center for Advanced Studies at IBM Canada, knows these questions from the inside.

Joanna is not only a patented inventor and author, but a leader in the integration of Christianity and technology. In this episode, she and Gretchen ask: Why is it important to distinguish between AI and ASI? What does being a Christian 2.0 mean? What is Church? And, who is caring for the Christians in tech?

Read more.

The Image Is Always with Us with Matthew Milliner

The Genealogies of Modernity project is organizing a reading group around Thomas Pfau’s new book, Incomprehensible Certainty: Metaphysics and Hermeneutics of the Image. By way of advertisement, we are re-running this episode with art historian and theorist Matthew Milliner, where he talks about the book and the wider context of image theory. Milliner also recently published a review of Incomprehensible Certainty in “The Hedgehog Review.” His new book on Our Lady of Perpetual Help, discussed in the episode, is now available.

If this episode and that review entice you, join the reading group! It will begin meeting Thursday, February 23, 7-8:30 pm, in person in Pittsburgh as well as on Zoom, and it will run through much of the summer. If you are interested, send an email to admin@beatriceinstitute.org and we’ll put you in touch with the group organizers and get you on the mailing list.

For now, please enjoy Matthew and Ryan’s discussion on how the past can erupt into the present; why cultivating these temporal possibilities must be an ecumenical project; the way images reveal timeless truths that underlie our visible surroundings; and how the ideas of thinkers like Chesterton can converse with, and be informed by, ancient Indigenous mythology.

Read more.