Critical Faith

Inhabiting Tradition with Bob Sweetman

In today's episode, we welcome new member of the Critical Faith team, Jimmy Ronald! Jimmy had a chance to chat with ICS Senior Member Bob Sweetman about some of his thoughts on tradition as authority or a "right place to start," story vs. argument, and some of the writing projects Bob has on the horizon.

Have a listen to this and other episodes with Bob from the Critical Faith archive!

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Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Nietzsche, Foucault, and Genealogy with Bob Sweetman

As we start gearing up for the start of the semester at ICS, we're spending a few weeks with some of our Senior Members as they prepare for their upcoming online courses in the fall.

So for this episode, we welcomed Bob Sweetman, ICS Senior Member in history of philosophy, back onto the podcast to talk about his latest course offering starting in September: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Genealogical Approach to the History of Philosophy. This course will meet virtually on Tuesdays, 10am-1pm EST. 

If you'd like to find out more about the course, to register, or to learn more about our discounts for first-time auditors and ICS alumni, you can visit the course page on our website or send our Registrar an email at academic-registrar@icscanada.edu!

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: The Response-Ability of the Heart

Congratulations! You've reached the final installment in our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss! 

Bob and Gideon have covered a lot of territory in the past number of weeks--from the influence of Abraham Kuyper on Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven, to the broader historical and philosophical context in which Reformational philosophy first developed. This week, they ask the burning question: why does this matter? And Bob leaves us considering what Reformational philosophy has to say about how we know, and how such knowing is ultimately a response of the heart to the world around us.  

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Things and Their Hows

We're nearing the end of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss, and this week we take a turn to a fundamental philosophical topic: ontology.

In this episode, Bob explains what ontology is, how Reformational philosophy's complex-and-integral approach compares to some of its theoretical contemporaries, and provides examples of how this ontology frames human responsibility. 

Stick with us for the final episode in this series coming in the next couple weeks!

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Ground Motives and Spiritual Movements

We managed to get a couple more episodes of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss recorded a few weeks before the pandemic hit. So this week, we present you with episode three! 

Last time, Bob explained the significance of Kuyper's idea of "sphere sovereignty" to how Herman Dooyeweerd then went on to develop it into a critique of power dynamics. This week, Bob and Gideon discuss Dooyeweerd's idea of "ground motives" and Reformational philosophy co-founder Dirk Vollenhoven's approach to historiography as tools for recognizing how societies change, collide, and flow through history.

We'll continue this series in the coming weeks, so stay with us to find out more about what makes Reformational philosophy tick...

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Spheres of Societal Power

Welcome to week two of our miniseries on Reformational philosophy with Bob Sweetman and Gideon Strauss! After last week's introduction to Abraham Kuyper's role in the backstory of Reformational philosophy, today we have two goals. First we'll look at Kuyper's idea of "sphere sovereignty." Then we'll consider how the key Reformational figure of Herman Dooyeweerd begins to develop Kuyper's idea into a critique of social and historical power dynamics. 

This series will continue next week, so stay with us to find out more about what makes Reformational philosophy tick...

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Ref Phil 101 with Bob Sweetman: Kuyper's Principled Pluralism

Have you ever wondered what this Reformational philosophy thing is that folks at ICS constantly talk about? For the next few weeks, Bob Sweetman, with the help of Gideon Strauss, will be giving us a crash course on how Reformational philosophy came to be, what it says, and how it is relevant today.

This week, Bob gives us some of the backstory to how Reformational philosophy first developed. To do so, he dives more deeply into a conversation begun in our last episode about Abraham Kuyper and his idea of principled pluralism. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out more about what makes Reformational philosophy tick... 

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit www.icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.

Walking Among Giants with Bob Sweetman

How do you find your feet when walking among giants?

This week, our hosts Mark and Gideon chat with Senior Member and H. Evan Runner Chair in the History of Philosophy Bob Sweetman about studying Thomas Aquinas, mining your intuitions, and discerning emulatio (a spiritual practice of emulation) in the contemporary spirit of competition.

We want Critical Faith to give you a glimpse into the everyday life of ICS. So we're talking with Senior Members, Junior Members, and friends of the Institute to hear about what got them here, what they're working on, and why it matters for them. 

Links to this week's Don't Miss This! items:

ICS Open House and Advent Concert this Saturday December 1

Wine Before Breakfast campus ministry

Critical Faith is sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. For more, visit icscanada.edu.

Music by Matt Bernico.