On this episode, Chris is joined by thinker and writer Jack Gist (ft. on Ep. 25, Disputatio and the 1619 Project) to discuss a new essay from Jack, “Individualism, relativism, and the most extreme form of idolatry.” Jack unpacks the thought of Nietzsche and Duns Scotus, and helps us understand the “both/and” of the amazing beauty of being an individual, uniquely unrepeatable as a creation of God, while at the same time being made for participation in a “higher unity”, that is, the whole of mankind made for communion with God. Contemporary movements tend to skew one way or the other, either suppressing the individual to emphasize a group, or obscuring the whole for the sake of the individual. Jack highlights the deeply Christian sensibility of the founders in seeking to safeguard an individualism rightly understood, in right relation to the whole.
Faith & Politics
F&P Episode 115: South Dakota’s Pivotal Moment on Abortion
South Dakota’s 2023 legislative session marked the first time that state lawmakers had gathered since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its June 24, 2022 decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and restored to the states the ability to set their own public policy on abortion. Host Michael Pauley is joined by Dale Bartscher, the Executive Director of South Dakota Right to Life, for a discussion on how state lawmakers responded to the Dobbs decision, and how South Dakota’s pro-life community is responding to a citizen-initiated amendment that proposes to create an unlimited right to abortion in the state constitution.