defragmenting Cairn University

Episode Notes
Proponents of physician-assisted death present it as an act of compassion that recognizes the dignity of those suffering from terminal diseases and other illnesses. Dr. Ewan Goligher, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, is a critical care physician who is regularly involved with patients and their families facing end-of-life decisions. In his book How Should We Then Die? A Christian Response to Physician Assisted Death, Dr. Goligher argues that the practice of physician-assisted death actually devalues humans and is an act of secular faith that presumes to know what it’s like to be dead. In this episode, he and Dr. Keith Plummer discuss his reasons for those claims and why the Christian story provides transcendent meaning that enables us to endure suffering with confident hope.

Episode Notes
Over his almost two decades as host of the UK-based radio program and podcast Unbelievable?, Justin Brierly facilitated countless thoughtful conversations about faith and unbelief between some of the world’s foremost atheists and Christian apologists. In his book The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God and podcast by the same name, Justin explores what led to the popularity of the so-called New Atheists in the early 2000s as well as the internal conflicts that led to the movement’s implosion. He joined Dr. Keith Plummer to discuss that and why secular thinkers such as Jordan Peterson, Peter Boghosian, Louise Perry, and Tom Holland, to name a few,  are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the Christian story’s relevance to questions of science, history, culture, and our search for meaning.

Episode Notes
The Christian faith provides intellectually and existentially satisfying answers to many of life’s questions. But it likewise challenges us to consider whether the things we’re most curious about are really important and liberates us to ask new and better questions. Dr. Matthew Lee Anderson is convinced that the call to follow Jesus is a call to a life of questioning (to be distinguished from doubting). He writes in his book Called into Questions: Cultivating the Love of Learning within the Life of Faith: “We can only question well when we believe there are answers—but we will only live our way into the answers if we orient our questions toward the good and the true as Jesus reveals them.” In this episode, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Keith Plummer talk about the vital role a stance of questioning should play in the individual and corporate life of discipleship.

Episode Notes
Dr. Gary Schnittjer, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Cairn University, is co-editor of the Scripture Connections series to which he is also a contributing author. His book, Old Testament Narrative Books: The Israel Story, explores the histories of the Hebrew kingdoms—their rise, fall, exile, and restoration—and shows their connections to the ancient near eastern world, the rest of the Bible, the gospel, and our lives. In this episode of defragmenting, Dr. Schnittjer and Dr. Keith Plummer discuss a number of themes from the book including how biblical narratives work and what to look for when reading them. Old Testament narratives are far more than historical records. They’re divinely inspired literary works intended to shape the lives of God’s people.

Episode Notes
The question “Am I being formed?” is never a valid one for the Christian. Rather, we must continually ask ourselves “By what am I being formed and how?” In his book Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, Samuel D. James claims “Rather than being a neutral tool, the internet (particularly the social internet) is an epistemological environment—a spiritual and intellectual habitat—that creates in its members particular ways of thinking, feeling, and believing.” James believes Christians have been largely unaware of the formative powers of regular life online. In this episode, he and Dr. Keith Plummer talk about why it’s important for followers of Jesus to realize how the habits and practices of the digital world obscure wisdom (which James defines as conformity to the objective reality of God’s creation) and how we can resist.

Episode Notes
Our world is becoming increasingly polarized and we're prone to division before unity in any number of arenas. Technology fractures our sense of embodiment and the current culture wars see Christians parting ways over theology, politics, history, race, social justice. This division isn't only external...rather there is an ongoing pressure to disassociate the mind from the body - divorcing how we think from how we live. Even within the church, the tendency to know and understand the Bible as separate stories and rules of living rather than a cohesive narrative of God's redemptive plan leaves many believers knowing the "what" of their faith without the "why." In this episode, hosts Dr. Keith Plummer and Ben Best discuss the name "defragmenting," the purpose behind the conversations and interviews that excite them, and the unique and timely intersection of biblical integrity and thoughtful Christianity.