The City of Man

Very entertaining. I appreciate the host’s willingness to engage with his guests.

Our interlocutors--Edward Song and Coyle Neale--are highly intelligent, well spoken, and well educated. They discuss conservatism, liberalism, and now in a recent podcast, Marxism. This is all done with a view toward understanding the topic on a basis of considered judgments that are based on a deep familiarity with the philosophical and political ideas and the writers with whom they discuss. It is a respectful discussion of different viewpoints--Coyle the conservative/Guy the liberal--where each states clearly where they are coming from. This podcast is a model that points to the possibility of serious, informed, and engaged dialogue between different viewpoints. Of course, they share a Christian faith in common on a deep level. Maybe that is what is needed for such a civil and informative discussion. Regardless, their dialogue is PART of what I think the City of God would be about in terms of being a leisured (in the proper sense), pleasant, and educational experience done in the image of God. Well done guys!

The two hosts of this podcast are intelligent, thoughtful, well-read, polite men. You won't find the poison that comes with so many other political discussions, where the other side is demonized and mocked and made into a straw man. And it has a great intro song. Those who complain about it must not be listening to the lyrics. However, despite this podcast's virtues, I found it was not for me. The hosts describe themselves as coming from a traditional Christian perspective. Based on my research, I don't think that really means anything, historically. I think they mean it as Evangelical (which they both are) and any tradition that agrees with most of the core tenets of Evangelicalism, broadly defined. I don't know if it's due to the way this particular brand of Christianity shapes/restricts their politics, but although the hosts present themselves as being on opposing sides of the political spectrum (one conservative and one liberal), they agree with each other an awful lot, or sometimes they have disagreements but are both within the conservative camp on that issue.

Great podcast. I like the way the hosts interact with each other and their guests. I have listened to a half dozen episodes and will catch up with all soon. the most recent pair of episodes shows very well how the hosts and their guests can interact on either side of a controversial subject--the coming election. the hosts were both clear about their views and listening carefully to their guest--who represented very different positions. I found out about the podcast from a promo on the Sectarian Review--please keep cross-promoting the podcasts so new listeners can find City of Man.