Who Cut Us Off from the Good, the True, and the Beautiful?

If it is true that the average evangelical suffers from an anemic theology, then it is equally true that the average evangelical suffers from an anemic imagination. Too often Christians, particularly those burdened with a desire for more theological precision, think that reading classic works of literature is at best a waste of time and at worst an indulgent vice. In this episode, Dr. Matthew Barrett and Dr. Louis Markos discuss how this tendency may be coming less from Christian piety and more from unexamined modernist assumptions.

Louis Markos, Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities; his 18 books include From Achilles to Christ (IVP Academic, 2007), Literature: A Student’s Guide (Crossway, 2012), On the Shoulders of Hobbits (Moody, 2012), and Pressing Forward: Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the Victorian Age (Catholic University of America Press, 2002).

Matthew Barrett is Associate Professor of Christian Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. He is the author of several books, including Canon, Covenant and Christology: Rethinking Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel; None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God; 40 Questions About Salvation; God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture; Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary; Salvation by Grace, and Owen on the Christian Life. He is the host of the Credo podcast where he engages top theologians on the most important theological issues today.