I had the pleasure of giving an interview to Dr. Albert Mohler, the theologian and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, while in Louisville last week; the show was taped and will air tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern time. You can hear it live on Dr. Mohler's Web site, and a link to the show will be posted there after it airs.
I was in awe of Dr. Mohler. He's a brilliant thinker and a passionate defender of the culture of life. Being on his show and hearing him praise The Thrill of the Chaste was a true joy.
My friend Dennis Schenkel — who, along with the seminary he attends, St. Meinrad, hosted me while I was in that part of the country — was also impressed. He writes of the interview in his blog entry about our day together:
I sat in the control room the whole time, listening to the interview and their chatter between segments, and I had a chance to speak with him when they were finished taping the show. As I listened to him talk, and ask questions, and make a case for the recovery of a vocabulary of virtue, I could not distinguish him from a good Catholic thinker. (If he or his admirers read this, I hope they do not take offense.) I heard him praise John Paul as a sound philosopher, and Benedict as a first rate theologian, and he spoke well of the Theology of the Body, and talked about his own project putting together a similar framework that works in evangelical categories. I can't say enough good things about him. If there are Southern Baptist pastors back home who are trained by him, I don't know if we'll agree on everything, but we'll definitely be able to cooperate as regards the "social order."During the show, Dr. Mohler talked about "recovering the language," a concept he described in a Touchstone article I highly recommend, about true ecumenism vs. the false kind: "Standing Together — Standing Apart: Cultural Co-belligerence Without Theological Compromise."
