Episode 58: The Divided Soul and the Prodigal Pattern: Duty, Desire, and the Way Home
About this episode
Christopher Perrin and Heidi White discuss the inner conflict between duty and desire as explored in White's book, The Divided Soul.
Description Christopher Perrin welcomes author and speaker Heidi White to discuss her book The Divided Soul and the inner conflict so many people experience between duty and desire. Along the way, Perrin draws on his own work, The Good Teacher , to frame how educators can unite discipline and delight as they form students’ loves. White traces her path from homeschooling into classical education, then explains how a single remark from Andrew Kern —about the Prodigal Son —sparked a long meditation on the “two brothers” within the human heart. From Genesis to Augustine , and from Dante to Homer , they explore how disordered desire can lead either to indulgence (the prodigal) or to self-righteous suppression (the older brother). Perrin and White rehabilitate the language of desire—eros, longing, even the “stars” behind the word desire —as a force meant for joy and union when properly ordered. The conversation turns practical as White describes classroom habits, “much, not many,” and Socratic discussion as ways to unite discipline and delight in student learning. The episode closes with where to find White’s work, including The Divided Soul , her Substack , and The Close Reads…
People in this episode
Host: Christopher Perrin
Guest: Heidi White
Topics covered
- inner conflict
- duty and desire
- classical education
- student learning
- discipline and delight
- desire and joy
Keywords
- inner conflict
- duty
- desire
- classical education
- Socratic discussion
- student learning
- Prodigal Son
- disordered desire
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The Divided Soul, The Good Teacher, Genesis, Dante, Homer
More episodes of The Christopher Perrin Show
- Episode 61: Hildegard College: Restoring Polymathy and Redemptive Entrepreneurship
- Episode 59: American Education: What It Was and Can Be Again
- Episode 57: Remembering Well: Restoring History Through Sympathy, Story, and Place
- Episode 56: A Nice Definition of Classical Education: The Language, Metaphors, and Meaning Behind “Classical”
- Episode 55: From Fragmentation to Fellowship: The Intellectual Renewal Behind Classical Education
- Episode 54: The Festive School: Prayer, Feasts, and the Recovery of Wonder
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