In this episode of Language of God, Colin Hoogerwerf and Jim Stump sit down in Oxford, England with writer, veterinarian, barrister, and philosopher Charles Foster to explore a provocative idea at the center of his newest book, The Edges of the World: that everything truly significant happens at the edges. From the margins of geography and culture to the borders of science, religion, and human consciousness, Foster argues that creativity, transformation, and spiritual insight emerge not from comfortable centers of power, but from places of uncertainty, encounter, and risk. Along the way, the conversation ranges widely through questions about why humans are drawn toward certainty and control, whether Christianity has lost its “edgy” character, and how science can become too attached to its own paradigms. The discussion also explores language, embodiment, morality, and whether modern humans have become disconnected from the physical world in ways that earlier humans—and perhaps even nonhuman creatures—were not. Together, they reflect on Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, evolutionary biology, the Eucharist, modern scientific culture, and the role of language in shaping human consciousness. Foster makes the case that paying deeper attention to our embodied lives—to touch, scent, place, relationship, and the more-than-human world—may help recover something essential about what it means to be human.
