The Moral Imagination

This is a talk I gave at an Acton Institute conference in Rome on the Human Person, AI, and the Digital Revolution in December 2025. The talk focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence and the digital revolution on the human person and and specifically how we understand ourselves. Photo Credit: Chat GPT — Prompt - MMM While there are many benefits to digital technology, artificial intelligence is amplifying many of the negatives impacts on how we understand the person. It has led to a mechanistic vision of the human person and reductive vision of reason, freedom, emotions and more. Some of the problems I address include: * Understanding ourselves through the computer * Digital Bureaucratization * Denigration of the Body * Commodification of Persons* Surveillance* Behavior Modification * Transhumanism — AI, CRISPR, and designer babiesI conclude with a response of philosophy of the person that is not filtered through computer analogies, but grounded in the vision that being is good, matter is good, our bodies are good - not accidents - but constituent of who we are, and with richer concept of reason, intelligence, emotions, and our social nature, and with agency and grace. A key element of digital revolution is Claude Shannon’s work on information theory in which he discusses Noise and Signal: The Gospel and Christian vision of the person is the signal in the midst of so many distortions about the nature and destiny of the human person.Outline and ThemesThe Nature of the Digital Revolution* The Digital Revolution is not a single phenomenon; we are still in its early stages, and it is hard to predict what will happen.* It has produced:* Increases in productivity* Medicine* Education* New industries and faster, broader globalization* Mobile and satellite telephony, bypassing landlines, especially impactful in the developing world* De-materialization (“10 things to one phone”)* There are many positives but there are also trade-offs – “with the invention of the car, comes the car crash”Key DistinctionsDistinction 1: Technology vs. the Technological Society /The “Technological Paradigm” — Pope Francis)Technology is what human beings create. We are called to complete creation.Technological Paradigm is a Worldview* Whatever can be done is permissible* All problems are technical problemsMany dominant technology platforms are infused with secular, materialist, and transhumanist values, producing addictive products and harmful behaviors, often despite known negative effects.As noted in Pope Francis Encyclical Laudato Si’, technological power has not been matched by growth in responsibility, values, and conscience. (Guardini)Distinction 2: Critiquing technology ≠ rejecting technology or innovation, penicillin or hospitals; nuance is required. Technology is not neutral and shapes us for good or ill.Distinction 3: There are some who worry about apocalyptic scenarios – “If anyone builds it, everyone dies.” Others reject these outright. Since no one can successfully predict we can talk about positives and negatives without affirming either position.How AI and Digital Technology Shape our Self-UnderstandingDistortion of the Person (Starting with Consciousness)* AI exacerbates the problem of understanding ourselves through the analogy of our creation: we see ourselves through the machine.* This is not new: in the Industrial Revolution, mechanistic ways of understanding the person, the family, the economy, and society fueled the idea that everything could be planned and social engineered.* In many discussions of AI, the human person is approached beginning with consciousness—not reason, freedom, embodiment, social nature, or the image of God—so we interpret the person through the lens of the computer: man through machine.Contrast this to Catholic philosophy of the person which begins with the person as:* “an individual substance of a rational nature, created in the image of God,” with reason seeking the good, true, and beautiful; free will; embodied and “made out of the dust”; born into families and cultures—our bodies are not an accident of our personhood.* We are not simply consciousness driving around in a body; as St. Thomas Aquinas says: “I am not my soul.”* Only a small part of brain activity is actually conscious; yet AI discourse often equates consciousness with personhood and reduces reason to discursive ratio, ignoring intellectus.Reductionism in Thinking and “Intelligence”* Artificial Intelligence is a certain way of “thinking”: discursive and explicit, fast processing, but not thinking properly understood.* It resembles what Iain McGilchrist describes as a Left Hemisphere dominated approach: reductionist, explicit, mechanistic.Parallel between the ratio and the intellectus in Saint Thomas Aquinas – See for example Antiqua et NovaRelated to Benedict XVI Regensburg Address and the problem of limiting reason to the empirical.This can further solidify the mechanistic “technological society” (Del Noce) / “technocratic paradigm” (Pope Francis).McGilchrist’s analogy (The Master and his Emissary):* The master has a holistic vision and knows purpose and meaning; the emissary is skilled at tasks but cannot see the whole.* AI is an emissary: immense computational power, but it cannot grasp deeper meaning. Reliance upon AI has the great possibility of leading us astray.Digital Bureaucratization and Abdication of Judgment* Pope Leo has expressed worry that we may decrease our competence by becoming overly reliant on AI.* There is danger of abdicating decision making to algorithms. Standardization and efficiency can be good, but algorithmic rigidity can undermine prudence and create injustice.Denigration of the Body* A recurring theme in history—especially in post-Christian societies—is gnostic rejection of the body.* The body is treated as accidental; this distorts relationships, sexuality, marriage, children, and self-understanding.* This is not just AI; it is part of the broader technological paradigm.Alignment: We Already Have an Alignment Problem* Debate about AGI and super-intelligence includes fears that “if anybody builds it everyone dies,” yet even rejecting machine consciousness, there are serious alignment concerns.Loss of Privacy, Surveillance, and Social Credit* We already face loss of privacy and “surveillance capitalism.” With “free services,” “you are not the customer, you are the product.”* AI exacerbates this: more data can be collected and analyzed, including the potential for social credit systems.Behavior Modification * One of the most dangerous aspects is behavior modification: targeted ads and content influence you.* You are not just seeing a billboard; you’ve entered a “Skinner Box” of operant conditioning.* Jaron Lanier: “We’re being tracked and measured constantly… We’re all lab animals now.”Commodification of Persons* Surveillance and behavior modification are part of a larger commodification of persons: our hopes, dreams, conversations, and relationships become raw material—“we are the raw material.”Relationships, Entertainment, and AI Companions* Constant entertainment and algorithmic content can decrease sensitivity to evil* Digital media correlates with depression, anxiety, loneliness, and less life satisfaction; it forms “small souls unprepared for real relationships.”* As AI grows, more people turn to AI for friendship and love; AI chatbots can be sycophantic, mirror desires, detach users from real relationships, and there are cases of chatbots encouraging self-harm and suicide.Transhumanism and AI + Genetic EngineeringUnderlying much AI development is transhumanism: combining biology and technology to create a new type of man, the next step in evolution.* AI combined with genetic engineering (CRISPR + computing power) raises profound threats, including “designer babies” (e.g., the engineered embryos of twin girls to resist HIV).This creates deep confusion about God, creation, and who we are – Ratzinger on Golem – See Anthropology and CultureResponses Innovations in Law, Commerce, and Technology• Rule of law• Build digital technology that servse the person and family and church• Build commerce that serves families and communities• Build de—centralized technology• Digital subsidiarityUltimately, we are in an anthropological struggle What does it mean to be a human person? And a debate about metaphysics and eschatology.For this there is no technical solution. The solution to the crisis of our times is not found in the technical world.Key Response: We must escape the technological paradigm and present the gospel of Jesus Christ the good news about the human person.· We are embodied, embedded persons endowed with freedom and reason – with a social nature directed to deep loving relationships.Ultimately: we are in an anthropological struggle over what it means to be a human person—there is no technical solution.* The answer is to reaffirm the the Good News of the Incarnation, and the Good News about the human person—made in the image of God, endowed with reason and freedom, made for relationships and love.* Matter is good; marriage, sex, children are good; our bodies are not an accident —“In my flesh I shall see God”* Technology cannot be a substitute for in-person relationships with other people in families in friendship in religious communities.* We must escape the hall of mirrors of the technological paradigm and re-present the Gospel: the real work is done in friendship, families, relationships, and the Church* Liturgy and worship where we commune with our creator — it is only here that we worship God with minds, hearts, voices, and bodies. Here the goodness and unique and unrepeatability of the person is affirmed* Neither Optimist nor Pessimist – Realism and Hope* Agency and Grace. Behavior Modification is very powerful, but we have reason and freedom and a community.A key element of digital revolution is Claude Shannon’s Information Theory which includes the idea of Noise and Signal: The Gospel and Christian vision of the person is the signal amidst the noiseSELECTED READING LISTJohn Paul II: Redemptor Hominis Benedict XVI – all encyclicals especially Deus Caritas Est, Spe Salvi, Regensburg AddressJoseph Ratzinger - Values in a Time of Upheaval, Joseph Ratzinger in Communio – Anthropology and CulturePope Francis Laudato Si -- especially on the Technocratic ParadigmPope Leo homilies and messages on AIAntiqua et Nova - Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence Dicastery for Doctrine of the Faith / Dicastery for Culture and EducationAugusto Del Noce, The Crisis of Modernity, The Problem of Atheism, The Age of SecularizationIain McGilchrist, The Master and its Emissary, The Matter with Things, Ways of AttendingFred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture, Stanford University PressJaron Lanier: 10 Arguments to Delete your Social Media Right Now§ C.S. Lewiso The Abolition of Man (Short)o Mere Christianity (Medium Length)o “The Poison of Subjectivism” (Essay)Bill Drexel: “The AI Genetics Revolution is Coming” https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-ai-genetics-revolution-is-coming§ Dietrich von Hildebrando The Hearto Nature of Love§ Robert Spaemann* Love and the Dignity of Human Life (Short)Bishop Eric Varden:* The Shattering of Loneliness * Chastity: Reconciliation of the SensesVideography of public lecture provided by the the Gregorian and the Acton Institute Images used in powerpoint for educational lecture various sourcesAdditional Photo Credit of surveillance cameras added to cover video: Jasper Garratt on UnsplashPhoto Credit on Player: Peter Bruegel the Elder: Tower of BabelKallos Media LLC Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

Pope Benedict XVI / Joseph Ratzinger passed away on December 31 at the age of 95 years old. His writing and teaching have been a major influence on my thinking. So in honor of his memory and gratitude for his example, this episode is a talk I gave on Pope Benedict XVI on Five Crises of Culture and the Intellectual sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization. I go through five intellectual themes/crises that Benedict identifies in the West “where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization." Truth and the Dictatorship of Relativism Reason Progress Freedom Beauty I examine how he describes and explains the challenges of our age; how he addresses each of them on their own terms, and the proposes a Gospel response. One element of the crisis of faith is grounded in intellectual sources. We think, and too often live, like secularists and adopt often without thinking a secular framework. But secularism is not neutral. As Benedict argues, “We must develop and adult faith.” An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” In this talk I provide a lot of quotes and references. You can find show notes, links, and outline of the talk at www.themoralimagination.com Resources See the outline / handout of the talk below. Also see Amazon links to books I refer to in the talk below. I also provide Amazon link to the encyclicals, but you can get all the encyclicals for free at vatican.va There a lot of books listed and if you are unsure where to start I would suggest you begin with the following: Books: Jesus of Nazareth Vol 1, Milestones, and Last Testament Collection of more complex essays: Values in a Time of Upheaval Encyclicals Spe Salvi and Deus Caritas Est Short Readings: Here are some links Homily before the Conclave — “Dictatorship of Relativsm” Regensberg Address — on the crisis of reason in the west Cardinal Ratzinger on Europe’s Crisis of Culture at Subiaco Benedict XVI Paris Lecture Meeting with Representatives from the World of Culture Additional Links mentioned in talk Roger Scruton: Beauty and Desecration Roger Scruton: Kitsch and the Modern Predicament I Grateful to Authenticum and Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish for the invitation to speak and for recording and providing me with the audio of this lecture. You can learn more about the Authenticum Lecture Series OUTLINE/HANDOUT Benedict XVI—Five Crises of Culture and the Intellectual sources of Secularism and the New Evangelization Michael Matheson Miller The New Evangelization Re-Propose the Gospel "to those regions awaiting the first evangelization AND to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization." Benedict XVI Theme: Think Like Christians Focus on Intellectual roots of secularization and the crisis of faith and the work of Benedict XVI We must not approach the social and political order in a purely secular manner. Benedict is I think a model for new evangelization because he takes the situation of our current time on its own terms and then addresses it in light of reason and the Gospel. Paul VI: Evangelii Nuntiandi "The conditions of the society in which we live oblige all of us therefore to revise methods, to seek by every means to study how we can bring the Christian message to modern man. For it is only in the Christian message that modern man can find the answer to his questions and the energy for his commitment of human solidarity." John Paul II: Redemptoris Missio “I wish to invite the Church to renew her missionary commitment.” “…it is the primary service which the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity in the modern world, a world which has experienced marvelous achievements but which seems to have lost its sense of ultimate realities and of existence itself. "Christ the Redeemer," I wrote in my first encyclical, "fully reveals man to himself.... The person who wishes to understand himself thoroughly...must...draw near to Christ.... [The] Redemption that took place through the cross has definitively restored to man his dignity and given back meaning to his life in the world." Benedict XVI “Throughout the centuries, the Church has never ceased to proclaim the salvific mystery of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but today that same message needs renewed vigor to convince contemporary man, who is often distracted and insensitive… “For this reason, the new evangelization must try to find ways of making the proclamation of salvation more effective; a proclamation without which personal existence remains contradictory and deprived of what is essential. Even for those who remain tied to their Christian roots, but who live the difficult relationship with modernity, it is important to realize that being Christian is not a type of clothing to wear in private or on special occasions, but is something living and all-encompassing, able to contain all that is good in modern life.” BXVI to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization “We…have this mission: to encounter our contemporaries so as to make His love known to them. Not so much by teaching, never by judging, but by being travelling companions. Like the deacon Philip, who – the Acts of the Apostles tell us – stood up, set out, ran towards the Ethiopian people and, as a friend, sat down beside them, entering into dialogue with the man who had a great desire for God in the midst of many doubts” —Pope Francis: International Meeting for Academic Centers and Schools of New Evangelization Five Crises of Culture and Key Themes in the Thought of Bendict XVI 1. Truth and the Dictatorship of Relativism “How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true. “Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice After fall of Soviet Union relativism did not die but combined with desire for gratification to form a potent mix. (CF to Augusto Del Noce on the shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois) Is Relativism Coherent? Denial of Truth is self-refuting Truth exists and is knowable But this does not mean we know it Relativism can be nothing other than a dictatorship Relativism leads to ideology St. Thomas Aquinas: Truth is conforming the mind to reality Josef Pieper: Seeing the World as it is and acting accordingly Gospel Response - In the homily where he speaks the Dictatorship of Relativism Benedict does not stop at intellectual refutation. He responds with the person of Jesus. He says: “We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An "adult" faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceipt from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice 2. Reason Regensburg Address Crisis of Reason—which is a crisis of politics which is a crisis of humanity We have limited reason to the empirical This is incoherent on its own terms because one cannot verify this claim empirically Must expand reason beyond the empirical otherwise it is not rational The problem goes beyond incoherence. It leads to what C.S. Lewis has called “the abolition of man.” Empiricist rationality takes all the fundamental human experiences – love, beauty, goodness, hope, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and justice and relegates them outside the realm of reason. Love and justice then are no longer rational but pure emotion or chemical reactions. But this is false. In contrast we have what Lewis calls “reasonable emotions,” what Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) calls “spiritual emotions” and what Dietrich von Hildebrand calls “intelligible spiritual affectivity.” Love is not simply raw emotion or chemical reaction. It includes that because we are embodied persons, but it also is reasonable. This is why the tradition defines love as an “act of the will” that “seeks the good of the other.” “Critical Thinking” Exercise (Thanks to Professor Mark Roberts for this insight) __JS Bach was born in 1685 __JS Bach wrote beautiful music __Pope Pius XII was the Bishop of Rome __Pope Pius XII was a good Pope __Bell Bottoms were popular in the 1970s __Bell Bottoms are cool __ ____________________________________ __ Murder is Bad… And here we see the problems arise. First, the opposite of a fact is not an opinion. The opposite of a fact is a false proposition. Opinions are justified belief. Opinions could be classified as good or bad depending upon how reasonable they are. Opinions are true or false if they align with a true proposition. Second, as C.S. Lewis explains in The Abolition of Man, this type of exercise deforms our intellects and our moral sensibilities. He writes: It is not a theory they put into his mind, but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.” “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” Limiting reason to the empirical has disastrous impact on politics and justice. The end of politics is (or should be) justice – but justice is not empirical. As Ratzinger explains: “Politics is the realm of Reason, not of a merely technological, calculating reason, but of moral reason, since the goal of the state, and hence, the ultimate goal of politics, has a moral nature, namely peace and justice.” Limiting reason to the empirical relegates all questions about truth, beauty, goodness, justice, and morality to the realm of subjective opinion and emotion (Regensburg Address) Return to Plato’s Thrasymachus: Justice is merely the right of the stronger: Power equals truth—or in our situation it is power, efficiency or consensus equals truth. “…the majority cannot be an ultimate principle since there are values that no majority is entitled to annul. It can never be right to kill innocent persons, and no power can make this legitimate. Here too, what is ultimately at stake is the defense of reason. Reason—that is moral reason—is above the majority.” “Political Visions and Political Praxis” Gospel Response: Faith purifies and heals reason. Reason must be expanded and additionally purified by Faith and the Church’s teaching Faith can contribute to correct politics. It can “illuminate and heal” reason. In the last century…it was the testimony of the martyrs that limited the excess of power, thus making a decisive contribution to the convalescence of reason” Joseph Ratzinger: To Change or to Preserve? Political Visions and Political Praxis “Reason only becomes truly human when it is open to the saving forces of faith and if it looks beyond itself.” Spe Salvi 23 Progress and Eschatology Myth of Progress—the kingdom of heaven on earth. o Progress is good – we are called to complete creation. But we cannot be saved by progress o The problem is a “faith in progress” and a kingdom of man, not the kingdom of God. o Progress will lead, through new vision of reason, to total freedom. o Eric Voegelin: “Immanentization of the Eschaton” Trying to create heaven on earth o Real error is found in misunderstanding of nature of man. o Politics built on false concept of progress are illusory and ultimately deny human freedom and man himself o Progress unhinged from morality and the truth about man is dangerous. o No longer about what I ought to do, but simply what I can do o Modern concepts of Progress derive from limitation of reason and “new correlation between science and praxis.” “Now this “redemption”, the restoration of the lost “Paradise” is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope. Thus hope too, in Bacon, acquires a new form. Now it is called: faith in progress. For Bacon, it is clear that the recent spate of discoveries and inventions is just the beginning; through the interplay of science and praxis, totally new discoveries will follow, a totally new world will emerge, the kingdom of man[16]. He even put forward a vision of foreseeable inventions—including the aeroplane and the submarine. As the ideology of progress developed further, joy at visible advances in human potential remained a continuing confirmation of faith in progress as such.” Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi paragraph 17 Response: Hope Tempers and Orders Progress Reflect on the Last Things 1. Politics is the realm of reason—and it is concerned with the present, not the future. 2. But man is not merely oriented to the present—man is destined for eternal life with God—beyond politics. 3. As Christians we must keep the last things in our view. Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell are real and death escapes no man. True Hope: In place of the myth of progress which enslaves we need a true understanding of Christian Hope--True hope can only be found in God Spe Salvi # 27 A Proper Eschatology helps us avoid Utopianism o “A definitely ideal society presupposes the end of freedom” o The only person who could actually do this is God—and even he doesn’t do that: God takes us seriously cf Light of the World “Within this human history of ours the absolutely ideal situation will never exist and a perfected ordering of freedom will never be achieved… the myth of the liberated world of the future in which everything is different and everything will be good is false We can only ever construct relative social orders which can only ever be relatively right and just. Yet this very same closest possible approach to true right and justice is what we must strive to attain. Everything else, every eschatological promise within history fails to liberate us, rather it disappoints and therefore enslaves us. Joseph Ratzinger: Truth and Tolerance “The right state of human affairs, the moral well-being of the world can never be guaranteed simply through structure alone, however good they may be. What this means that every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right to order human affairs; this task is never simply completed.” Spe Salvi Politics has a place but as Christians we must remember that Politics is not the answer to our problems. 4. Freedom Truth and Tolerance: Freedom is the dominant theme of modernity. o “Everybody wants to talk about freedom, but no one wants to talk about truth” o If we can question truth – we should be able to question freedom Dominant idea: Nominalist concept of freedom severed from reason and truth. “Diabolical Freedom” “An irrational will is not a free will” Freedom must be re-united to reason and oriented to truth Response: Freedom is for Love The purpose and end of freedom is love – to seek the good of the other in self-donation Logos and Love Christian Hope leads us to Love in the person of Christ—Logos and Agape The purpose of Politics is peace and justice—and allowing the space for individuals and families to live out their freedom and responsibilities. Man is not redeemed by science or progress. Man is redeemed by love. Two themes have always accompanied me in my life…the theme of Christ and the living, present God, the God who loves us and heals us through suffering, and on the other hand, the theme of love…the key to Christianity. Light of the World “Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable” Deus Caritas Est 5. Beauty When Beauty is reduced merely to the subjective—merely in the eye of the beholder this undermines objective beauty. This has profound effect on morality, politics, and liturgy. It also takes the sublime insight that each person is unique and un-repeatable and has unique insight into a piece of art or a beautiful landscape and takes this sublime truth and turns it into the banal that everybody has his own opinion. Beauty is separated from reason and truth and reduced to subjective opinion and expression The crisis of beauty has led to the proliferation of ugliness, crassness, obscenity, pornography, violence, and disregard for children, women, and life itself. In response Benedict offers a Catholic understanding of beauty instantiated in the liturgy and sacraments. “The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which as grown in her womb. Better witness is born to the Lord by the splendor of holiness and art…than by clever excuses which apologetics has come up with to justify the dark sides which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church’s human history. If the Church is to continue to transform and humanize the world, how can she dispense with the beauty in her liturgies, that beauty which is so closely linked with the radiance of the resurrection? No. Christians must not be too satisfied. They must make their Church into a place where beauty—and hence truth—is at home. Without this the world will become the first circle of Hell.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Truth - Jesus Christ Reason - Faith Progress - Hope Freedom - Love Beauty - Worship and Liturgy Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with Jonathan Bi about the ideas of Rene Girard, social pressure, authentic and false desires, victims and scapegoats, persecution, and Girardian theories on imitation and violence. We also discuss how Girard’s work sheds light on woke capitalism, right and left totalitarianism, Max Scheler, Hannah Arendt, Alexis de Tocqueville, and more. We discuss many themes including: Christianity and Girard’s theory and the secularization and falsification of Christian values such as how humanitarianism and pacificism replace charity and peace and justice and more. Evangelical Counsels and The Rule of St. Benedict as a response to metaphysical desire Different views of the problem of evil: Hegel, Rousseau, Ratzinger, Solzhenitsyn, Girard Human Perfectibility and Utopianism Hope and Progress Benedict XVI Spe Salvi On the goodness of being in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and St. Augustine. There is no technical solution to the problems of evil, suffering, of death Embedded complexity, the dignity of labor, linear time, and how we live in a Christian civilization Girard’s explanation of how scapegoating others for their behavior reveals that we too would be guilty — and why it is folly to think with confidence that we would not go along with the crowd if we lived under the Nazis or a slaveholding society We begin a discussion on the atonement, Girard’s views and how to think about sacrifice — that we’ll have to finish in more detail We also have a discussion about Christianity and Buddhism and religious belief. I hope you enjoy. Biography Jonathan Bi is an entrepreneur working on a startup in FinTech and a philosopher focusing on Buddhist philosophy, Continental philosophy, and specifically the work of Rene Girard. Among his many projects he and David Perell have created a seven session video course on the ideas of Rene Girard. Originally from China, Jonathan also grew up in Canada, and studied computer science at Columbia. https://johnathanbi.com/ Resources Jonathan Bi and David Perell Lectures on Girard On the Atonement — we just got into this briefly, but didn’t have enough time or preparation to address it sufficiently. I am going to have another episode on the atonement, and also on Girard and the atonement, but here are two links to Catholic resources view of the atonement New Advent Catholic Catechism Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

peak with Bill Rivers about this novel, Last Summer Boys. The novel is about a rural Pennsylvania family and the adventures of three boys and a cousin and set in the tumultuous summer of 1968 with the Vietnam war, the assignations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. “Summer 1968. When thirteen-year-old Jack Elliot overhears the barbershop men grousing, he devises a secret plan to keep his oldest brother, Pete, from the draft. If famous boys don’t go to war, he’ll make his brother their small town’s biggest celebrity. Jack gets unexpected help when his book-smart cousin Frankie arrives in their rural Pennsylvania town for the summer. Together, they convince Jack’s brothers to lead an expedition to find a fighter jet that crashed many winters ago―the perfect adventure to make Pete a hero.” We discuss a number of themes including Family Justice Honor Civil Society Principle of Subsidiarity Anger Tensions between economic progress and family and social stability Tensions between rural and urban communities Writing and story development Moral imagination 1968 Cultural and Sexual Revolutions Alexis de Tocqueville Robert Nisbet Louis L’amour Property Crony capitalism, eminent domain and more Resources Bill Rivers on Instagram Bill Rivers on Twitter Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal Related Podcasts Mary Eberstadt: Who are You? Conversation on the sexual revolution, family and her book Primal Screams Carlo Lancelotti on Augusto Del Noce —Shift from Christian Bourgeois to Pure Bourgeois Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode of The Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Deion Kathawa about his essays at Public Discourse Technology and Dignity. We discuss a number of topics including digital technology social media biotech genetic engineering CRISPR post and trans-humanism transgenderism technology and power how tech effects the rich and the poor and middle class Kathawa argues that the new digital and biotechnology threaten our human in explicit and implicit ways from distraction to liquidation to degradation and that we need not only better law, but authentic religious practice, liturgy, and human friendship to resist these threats. We discuss the religious and philosophical sources of transhumanism from materialism to gnosticism, and human perfectibility and various thinkers including C.S. Lewis and Robert P. George. We also discuss the difference between transhumanist / transgender philosophy which sees the body as either malleable that needs perfection or the body and sexuality as something to escape from in contrast to the Christian view of the being and the body as good and part of who we are as embodied, embedded persons. Biography Deion Kathawa is a law clerk at the Michigan Supreme court he has a law degree from the University Of Notre Dame and an undergraduate degree from the university of Michigan. He writes for numerous outlets including The American Mind, Public Discourse, and his Substack Sed Kontra Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In this episode, I speak with Jeremy Tate, the founder of the Classic Learning Test about school testing, curriculum, and the classical versus industrial models of education. Jeremy argues that the current testing regime of the SAT and ACT have a tremendous influence on the curriculum taught in public and private schools. They promote a utilitarian vision of learning and drive students away from the classical Western tradition and serious reflection on what makes a good life. In response, Jeremy and his team developed the Classic Learning Test not only to be a better, more rigorous test, but to positively influence the curriculum toward more serious reading, and introduce students to the classic texts of the Western Tradition and those which shaped the founding of the United States, By ignoring these texts, the current testing and curricula regimes exclude students from engagement with the tradition. One of Tate’s colleagues noted that she could go from Kindergarten through a Ph.D. without reading Homer, Plato, or Shakespeare. This unfamiliarity with the tradition makes people unaware of history and complexity, unable to make distinctions, and thus more susceptible to propaganda and manipulation. It excludes the poor from opportunity and indoctrinates the elites into utilitarian and progressive ideas that they think are simply facts. As C.S. Lewis described, “10 years hence” we can find ourselves on the side of the philosophical controversy that we didn’t even know was up for debate. We discuss a number of themes including The revival of classical education Whether you should go to college or not? Education and virtue Human Formation C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man Eustace Scrubb and the Chronicles of Narnia Elite students focus on test scores rather than on learning Scientists with no sense of history or complexity The problems with critical thinking The false dichotomy of Facts vs. Opinions How moral and value judgments are reduced to opinions and more. Biography Jeremy Tate is the founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test. Jeremy is also the host of the Anchored Podcast, CLT's top 2% global podcast that features discussions at the intersection of education and culture. Prior to founding CLT, Jeremy served as Director of College Counseling at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from Louisiana State University and a Masters in Religious Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary. Jeremy and his wife Erin reside in Annapolis, Maryland with their six children. You can find Jeremy on Twitter @JeremyTate41. Resources Classic Learning Test For more on C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man - See my interview with Michael Ward For more on classical education see my interview with Heidi White and the importance of reading good books, my interview with Elizabeth Corey Jeremy Tate: Not Another Test, The Right Test Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In the episode I speak with Mary Eberstadt about her latest book Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. She argues that the revolutionary changes to family structure across the western world: fatherlessness, divorce, abortion, single parent homes, the shrinking of the family –have caused deep hurt in people and that many of the social problems we face today are manifestations of a “primal scream” for belonging. Eberstadt explains that the breakdown of the family has resulted in a widespread subtraction: we have a much smaller protective infrastructure around us than our ancestors did. While many people connect family decline to individual things like loneliness or educational achievement, it also has large macro impacts. She argues that primary cause of political rage, identity politics, gender confusion, and more is rooted in the breakdownof the family and people’s struggle to answer the question “Who am I?” Primal Screams is a very important book that combines an empirical examination with a real empathy for people who suffer from the impact of the sexual revolution and the break down of the family. We discuss a number of issues including: Loneliness in the elderly and the young The rise in psychiatric problems among Generation Z and Millennials What we can learn from animal behavior and family structure How the sexual revolution harms women and children and only benefits predatory men. Transgenderism The #MeToo Movement The role of abuse and sexual dysphoria The lack of siblings and the problem of social learning The Myth of the Lone Wolf The Trend of Incels The Great Resignation How Feminism creates problems for both girls and boys Masculinity and Decline of Males Declines in Fertility Contraception Critiques and replies to her argument by Mark Lilla, Peter Thiel, and Rod Dreher Biography Mary Eberstadt holds the Panula Chair at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute. Her latest book is Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics, with commentaries by Rod Dreher, Mark Lilla, and Peter Thiel. Her other books include It's Dangerous to Believe; How the West Really Lost God; and Adam and Eve after the Pill. Mrs. Eberstadt’s writing has appeared in many magazines and journals. [Her 2010 novel The Loser Letters, about a young woman in rehab struggling with atheism, was adapted for stage and premiered at Catholic University in fall 2017. Seton Hall University awarded her an honorary doctorate in humane letters in 2014. During the Reagan administration, she was a speechwriter to Secretary of State George Shultz and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the United Nations. Updates about her work can be found on her website, maryeberstadt.com Resources Mary Eberstadt Website: maryeberstadt.com Podcast interview with Carrie Gress on Feminism Podcast Interview with Noelle Mering on Awake Not Woke My lecture on Robert Nisbet and the decline and quest for community Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe

In the episode, I speak with Professor Margarita Mooney about her time in Nicaragua and how these experiences shaped her scholarly work and teaching at the intersection of sociology and philosophy. Margarita tells a story of her time in Nicaragua and how a weekend trip to a political rally in a small community where she almost was kidnapped challenged her assumptions about elite education in the United States. Margarita explains how her engagement with poor women farmers and micro-entrepreneurs helped her realize the power of small acts of love and solidarity to help alleviate the problems of violence from the bottom up – and how these things are neither taught nor accounted for at elite universities where a technocratic approach reigns. Margarita discusses how sociology does not address the problem of evil but rather sees it as a social or structural problem, but this does not align with ethnographic studies and the real work of talking to people about their experiences of war and violence. Margarita talks about her founding of the Scala Foundation to address questions of meaning, beauty, and wisdom because she was worried that many Ivy League and other universities are creating a culture of resentment and anger for people who are genuinely concerned about justice but don’t have a framework to understand justice, subsidiarity, solidarity, truth, and law outside of power and politics. As she explains in her essay “Why Choose Mystery over Ideology” “The void left by the denigration of beauty and a classical liberal arts education is directing more and more people to “woke” social justice activism or alt-right movements because those movements offer them meaning, purpose, and hope, as well as community and a sense of belonging. Others burn out psychologically or resort to social isolation because trust and intimacy are hard to experience. Yet others resort to drugs, pornography, or another temporary pleasure to fill the void. Still, others pursue ambitious and demanding careers without reflecting on how they should live or why they exist to begin with. The result is skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Educational institutions have not succeeded in addressing these problems, leading many people to seek alternatives to feed their minds and souls.” Any conversation with Margarita Mooney is interesting and wide-ranging and we discuss a number of broad themes and thinkers including: Subsidiarity and Solidarity Fascination with Violence Rene Girard Jacques Maritain Participation as a remedy to alienation The Nicaraguan Civil War -- Contras and Sandinista Haiti St. Thomas Aquinas on just war, violence, and pacifism Solidarity as a means to inclusion Solidarity Structures, institutions, property rights, law, exchange, are required to serve families Family as a place of moral formation The proper role of government The Bruderhof Communities and Plough Magazine Edmund Burke’s ideas about society as a “partnership” among the living, dead, and yet to be born Commutative Justice — exchange John Paul II on participation The documentary, Poverty, Inc. Rwandan Genocide and Rwandan reconciliation Integration of the Virtues Moral Formation Sin and Redemption Law and Justice Beauty Ideology and the closed systems that close of access to the transcendent Hopelessness Critique of utilitarianism that reduces the value to the economic value The dangers of cultural imperialism Virtues –Cardinal Virtues, Daughters of Virtues and Vices Augusto Del Noce Luigi Giussani on Education Karl Stern –poetic knowledge in The Flight from Woman Biography Margarita Mooney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. She teaches courses on the philosophy of social science, Christianity and the liberal arts tradition, aesthetics, research methods for congregational leaders, and sociology of religion. Margarita founded Scala Foundation in 2016 and continues to serve as Scala’s Executive Director. Scala’s mission is to infuse meaning and purpose into American education by restoring a classical liberal arts education. At Scala’s conferences, reading groups, seminars, webinars, student trips, intellectual retreats, and intensive summer program, Scala equips students, writers, artists, intellectuals and teachers with the ideas and networks needed to revitalize culture. Margarita’s most recent book with Cluny Media, The Love of Learning: Seven Dialogues on the Liberal Arts (2021), grew out of her decades of experience as a teacher and scholar. Her book Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora (University of California Press, 2009) demonstrated how religious communities support the successful adaptation of Haitian immigrants in the U.S., Canada and France, and she’s the co-author (with Camille Z. Charles, Mary S. Fischer, and Douglas S. Massey) of Taming the River: Negotiating the Academic, Financial, and Social Currents in Selective Colleges and Universities (Princeton University Press, 2009). Margarita received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and her M.A and Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. She has also been on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale University, Princeton University, and Pepperdine University. https://www.bruderhof.com/ https://www.povertyinc.org/ https://www.themoralimagination.com/episodes/carlo-lancell Get full access to The Moral Imagination - Michael Matheson Miller at www.themoralimagination.com/subscribe