#72: The Goodness, Truth, and Beauty of the Christian Story

Many are leaving the faith today, or not considering it in the first place, not always because they don’t believe it is true, but because they don’t believe it is good or beautiful. My guest in this episode wants to change this. Dr. Paul Gould has written Cultural Apologetics: Renewing the Christian Voice, Conscience, and Imagination in a Disenchanted World and A Primer on Cultural Apologetics: Conversations on Faith and Flourishing in a Disenchanted World to help others understand that the biblical worldview connects with the deepest longings of the human heart in our search for all that is truly good, valuable, and beautiful.

In this podcast we discuss:

• What “cultural apologetics” is
• Why apologetics is sometimes frowned upon in some circles, and what the corrective is
• How we flourish when we again see the world as “enchanted” by God’s presence
• How our longings can point us toward the God who can satisfy them
• The importance of imagination and desire in our quest for the Good, True, and Beautiful, and ultimately God
• How students can practice cultural apologetics on campus
• Errors Christians tend to make when engaging culture
• How technology, including AI, is increasingly having negative impacts on younger generations (as well as positive aspects)

Resources mentioned during our conversation:

• C.S. Lewis, “Talking about Bicycles” in his Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays (pp. 83-90)
• Peter Kreft, Back to Virtue: The Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern Moral Confusion
• Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
• Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
• Paul-Gould.com
• The Two Task Institutes
• The Eudo podcast