I have come across a new podcast, The Nathan Jacobs Podcast
(also on YouTube
here). For those of you who have
followed (and remain interested in) the discussion here regarding objective
truth, natural law, the Enlightenment, the limits of man’s reason without some
higher, controlling metaphysic, I think this podcast might be right down your
alley.
Some backstory: while I had heard of, and listened to,
Jacobs in the past, it was this recent discussion between him and Jonathan
Pageau that caught my attention: Embrace Realism: It's All
Mystical! From the video
description:
Dr. Nathan Jacobs is an academic,
artist, and filmmaker. In this conversation we discuss where reason,
rationality, and discernment fit into the mystical experience and how the
modern world has mistakenly divorced reason and mysticism.
Take a look at Jacobs’
personal website: the description of him as an academic, artist, and filmmaker,
is no exaggeration or overstatement.
Although beginning in Protestant (I think Reformed)
Christianity, he found aspects of this lacking in terms of explaining / understanding
God, God’s actions, etc. He has since
converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. What is
interesting about this, at least to me: he embraces the role that Plato and
Aristotle have played in the development of the understanding of God. He also speaks positively of the idea of a
natural law ethic.
Why do I find this interesting? I see both embrace of this and pushback on
this from Orthodox Christians. Especially
pushback on the idea of natural law (with one glaring and wonderful exception,
which I have written
about here).
I am about four podcasts in (out of fourteen at the time of
this writing). They appear to come out
about once a week, and almost all are between 1-2 hours long.
Why the title to my post?
In his first podcast, Jacobs describes the question of nominalism vs.
realism as the single most important question in our time!