Eric Metaxas and Carl Trueman: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity
About this episode
Eric Metaxas and Carl Trueman discuss the implications of rejecting God on humanity's understanding of itself.
In this Socrates in the Studio conversation, host Eric Metaxas is joined by author and professor Carl Trueman to discuss his newest book “The Desecration of Man” exploring the modern crisis of meaning through the lenses of philosophy, theology, art, and culture—tracing humanity’s journey from enchantment to disenchantment, from sacred order to nihilism. Drawing on figures like Thomas Aquinas and the great philosophers of the Western tradition, they examine how religious symbolism, artistic expression, and moral imagination once shaped a vision of what it meant to be human—and how that vision has eroded in the wake of Darwinian materialism, technological obsession, and the decline of transcendent belief. From the haunting symbolism of the Belfast Cathedral’s stained glass to the ideological architecture of the European Parliament, the conversation probes the rise of herd mentality, the loss of spiritual sight, and the phenomenon of “Promethean shame”: the growing suspicion that humanity sees itself as flawed, obsolete, or inferior to its own machines. As transhumanism promises a redesigned future beyond the limits of the human person, the discussion asks a deeper…
People in this episode
Host: Eric Metaxas
Guest: Carl Trueman
Topics covered
- modern crisis of meaning
- philosophy
- theology
- art
- culture
- transhumanism
- spirituality
Keywords
- nihilism
- Darwinian materialism
- technological obsession
- moral imagination
- Promethean shame
- herd mentality
- spiritual sight
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: European Parliament
Books & works: The Desecration of Man
Places: Belfast Cathedral
More episodes of Socrates in the City
- Freya India and Mary Harrington: Are Women Becoming Objects?
- Eric Metaxas and Margarita Mooney Clayton: Surprising Encounters with the Mother of God
- Lionel Shriver and Mary Harrington: Is the “Better Life” Dream Collapsing?
- Eric Metaxas and Peter Giersch: Are Heaven and Hell Real?
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