Introducing The Good, the True, the Beautiful: A Multidisciplinary Tribute to Dr. David K. Naugle

 

Meet the guy who taught my first philosophy course: David Naugle. I also took Aesthetics, Philosophy of Religion, and Introduction to Worldviews with Dr. Naugle.  Naugle’s book Worldview: The History of the Concept is the definitive book on the concept of a worldview.  More importantly, Naugle’s a good guy and is one of those inspirational teachers who pursued wisdom himself and inspired a host of students to do the same.

My new book The Good, the True, the Beautiful: A Multidisciplinary Tribute to Dr. David K. Naugle is finally out. (On the publisher’s site here. Amazon page here.  It’s cheap on Kindle!)  I only wrote two bits of it and edited the rest.  Actually, I’m not even that important: I’m one of four editors.

It was a big team effort and I think it turned out pretty well.

Among the big themes that Naugle talked about all the time are these:

1. All truth is G-d’s truth.

2. The Christian worldview has three major aspects: Creation, Fall, and Redemption.  All was created good by G-d, all is corrupted by sin, and all–all–the good world that G-d created is to be redeemed!

The universal scope of the Christian worldview is probably the Naugelian theme best captured by this book.  Most of us who wrote it are people who took one or another philosophy course by Naugle, but this is not a philosophy book.  It’s sort of a book about everything.  Although it’s mostly academic writing, we do have an original translation of a nice talk on the liberal arts by Reformation theologian Philip Melanchthon, some poetry, and one short story–the premise of which I introduce here.

And the more academic writing covers some broad territory:

  • You want to read about how these lovely quotes on flowers relate to a Christian worldview and to the gardens of the Bible? Read Mary Flickner’s essay.
  • You wanna theological analysis of the nightmare-inducing movies about Pennywise the Dancing Clown?  Read Leigh Hickman’s essay!
  • You wanna read about H. P. Lovecraft and “trial by worldview”?  Read Jaclyn Parrish’s essay.
  • What if everything involved apologetics?  Mark Eckel’s essay talks about that.
  • Ooh, and how about an introduction to the current state of Christianity and politics in Russia?  You want Artyom Tonoyan’s essay!
  • Or a cool analysis and critique of contemporary worship songs?  Read Christine Hand Jones’s essay.
  • Or maybe something about beauty, art, and the importance of bad guys in stories?  Read Dustin Messer’s essay.
  • Or an analysis of desire, beauty, and G-d?  Try David Miller’s piece.
  • Or a nice explanation of Nietzsche, but with some Augustine, Descartes, and Francis Bacon tossed in?  You want Russ Hemati’s essay.
  • Or more Augustine–on beauty?  Read Tavner Threatt’s piece.
  • Not your favorite medieval?  Learn the basics of Aquinas with Dax Bennington’s essay!
  • Or how about an important medieval figure who doesn’t get as much attention, with evidence that flat-earther medievals are a myth?  Read Adam Jones’s essay on the Venerable Bede!
  • Or how about an intro to still-living Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga’s views on G-d, free will, and sin–and an alternative perspective?  Try Scott Shiffer’s essay.
  • Want to learn about lesser-known 1800s missionary Julia Sass, William Wilberforce, and the idea of calling?  Read Hannah Briscoe’s essay.
  • Do you want to read about how the Narnia books illustrate The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis?  Read Rose Cothren’s essay.
  • Do you want to find out why The Last Temptation of Christ is an ok Christian movie?  Read Kevin Neece’s essay.
  • You want to learn what some great philosophers said about how faith goes beyond reason but is still reasonable?  And learn what Kierkegaard was really saying?  Then read my essay.
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  1. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Saint Augustine: Or a cool analysis and critique of contemporary worship songs?

    • #1
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