A Commitment to Reality

Re-Enchantment—Everyone is talking about it these days. 

But, you can’t re-enchant something that always was. We are simply realizing the reality of Enchantment.

In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Fr. Stephen Freeman joins Dave Hanegraaff to remind us that the world has always been Enchanted—we have just been ignoring that reality.

Secularism has caused many modern people—even Christians—to misunderstand the reality of the world we live in. Modern life has flattened our conception of reality into something purely material, neutral, and abstract. Many Christians have even made God an abstraction—something Fr. Stephen Freeman calls Christian Atheism.

But, God as an abstraction is no God at all. God is everywhere, present and filling all things.

 This leads to a myriad of misunderstandings—including something as important as our salvation. Salvation is about being restored to reality itself: to God, to others, and to the world as it truly is.

Glory to God, in all things.

For more information on Fr. Freeman's book Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe please click here.  https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-everywhere-present-christianity-in-a-one-storey-universe/

 Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality

(Timestamps below.)
0:00 — Intro / The Story of Fr. Stephen Freeman
6:45 — Enchantment
9:45 — Understanding the “one-storey universe”
16:45 — Reality is a gift. Be thankful for it, in all things
18:45 — The true meaning of secularism
21:30 — There is no neutrality in the public square
24:15 — How Marxist rhetoric is used
26:25 — Secularism is heresy
30:00 — God as an idea is no God at all — Christian atheism
35:40 — The reality of salvation
40:30 — Salvation is not a legal problem, but a problem of communion
49:30 — Total depravity, the imago dei, and the goodness of creation
56:00 — Modernity, materialism, and money
1:00:00 — We have so much to learn from the poor
1:07:25 — Did history end with the Resurrection?
1:10:45 — Become a fool for Chris
t1:13:00 — Technology and progress are not always what they seem
1:18:15 — Literalism is the enemy of reality
1:20:10 — We don’t weep enough
1:23:15 — Who do you hate? Your work starts there
1:31:45 — What happens to a culture that can no longer name what it sees?
1:33:25 — Where are we most eager to look away from reality?
1:34:30 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels most real to you?
1:38:25 — Glory to God in ALL things

Are we all cyborgs now?

We’re not just building machines that act like humans. We’re becoming humans that act like machines.

In a world obsessed with whether AI can become human, far less attention is given to the way we are sacrificing our humanity at the altar of data, efficiency, and optimization.

This is not inevitable.

We can reclaim our humanity from the machine by making a commitment to reality—embracing our embodiment and the physical world around us.

Making a commitment to reality means being intentional and communal in our assessment of every new technological breakthrough—and how we incorporate it, or don’t, into our lives.

We must ask hard questions—and make even harder decisions.

Where do we draw the line?

On this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Joshua Pauling joins Dave Hanegraaff to discuss Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine (co-authored with Robin Phillips), and what it means to remain human in an age increasingly defined by abstraction, efficiency, and disembodiment.

Because we weren’t made for “datafication”—but for deification—communion with creation and the Creator.

For more information on the book Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine  please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-are-we-all-cyborgs-now-reclaiming-our-humanity-from-the-machine/

Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality

(Timestamps below.)

0:00 — Intro / Have we made a technological deal with the devil?
3:30 — Forget the Turing test, what about humans choosing to live as machines?
5:50— The rapid pace of technological change
7:45 — How is digital technology different from past technologies?
10:45 — Why start a book on technology by writing about woodworking?
13:45 — Gnosticism—how did our body become the enemy of our lives?
18:15 — Personal Practices that help us live an embodied life
20:55 — Intentionality
23:25 — Will the Amish have the last laugh? (What we can learn from the Amish)
28:15 — The distinction between access and ownership
29:45 — Who were the Luddites and what can we learn from them?
31:45 — Monastic wisdom for our world today
35:45 — Should we be missionaries online?
38:30 — Can you go to church online?
40:30 — The problem with viewing church as education
45:30 — Does a memorial view of the sacraments make light of our embodiment?
46:45— We were made for deification not data processing and accumulation
50:45 — Where do we draw the line with technology?
54:30 —Human enhancement vs restoration—serious bioethical questions on the horizon
58:30—Tech realism, pessimism or optimism?
1:00:00 —The need for intentional, communal reaction and resistance to the machine
1:04:00 — What is the joy of thingness?
1:07:00—What is true leisure and how can it save us?
1:09:50—the importance of No Agenda togetherness
1:13:10 —Can hospitality save the world?
1:17:00—Lightning round questions about reality

“What part of you has come here to die?”

It’s a question that Martin Shaw—one of our great living storytellers—is famous for asking.

Shaw offers these kinds of provocations to a Western world where Christianity has largely been domesticated and desperately needs to recover its wildness.

Prayer doesn’t feel real to you? 

Rip up a twenty-dollar bill every time you pray. 

On your phone too much? 

Smash it with a hammer.

Have something you need to confess but are afraid to tell another living soul? 

 Dig a “confessional hole” in the ground with your bare hands and shout it into the earth.

In this episode of A Commitment to Reality, Shaw joins Dave Hanegraaff to explore how to recover a wild Christianity in a world where faith for many has become cold, abstract, and domesticated.

Thank you for joining A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality
 
(Timestamps below.)  

0:00 — Intro / Friends in Common Recovering Wild Christianity
2:20 — Belief is cool again—Atheism is for old people
3:45 — Aesthetic Arrest
6:45 — You don’t want persona, you want presence
8:00 — Make a covenant with limit in a culture of excess
13:55 — Growing up the son of a preacher man
17:15 — The cost of becoming religious
23:05 — What is myth? (And why is it not what we think?)
27:30 — On Sectarian Christianity
30:00 — Theology without practice is the theology of demons
31:35 — Night vigils and reclaiming initiation rites 
35:50 — What part of you has come to die?
42:15 — His home burned down—Discussion of losing everything.
45:00 — What is a saint?
46:35 — Death — how can we breathe new life into death?
50:40 — The value of a good cry
53:45 — How to tell our stories differently
56:00 — On your phone too much? Smash it
57:10 — Struggling with prayer? Rip up money when you pray
59:20 — Confessional holes—dig a hole with your hands and confess into the earth
1:00:40 — In a world that feels unreal, what feels real?
1:02:30 — Johnny Cash had a Boy Named Sue. Glen Hansard has a Boy Named Grace: Dave tells the story of naming his son Grace.

Jay Richards and Dave Hanegraaff explore why reality requires commitment, embodiment, and disciplined practices that keep us grounded when our digital lives lead us into abstraction.

This is a wide-ranging conversation, beginning with the reality of economics before diving deep into the accelerating presence and authority of AI and why the tech debate is ultimately about anthropology—what a human person is, and what we’re becoming.

Jay makes the case for why the forgotten discipline of fasting is a forgotten fountain of fortitude—for body, mind and soul—especially in a culture of excess increasingly out of touch with reality.

Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you listen.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Intro
00:30 – I used to hate you—the value of conversation and actually listening
03:00 – How to change your mind
05:15 – How social media bubbles create reality distortion
07:35 – Go outside—embracing embodiment in a digitized world
11:15 – Intentionality and going analog in an increasingly digital world
15:10 – Beneficial uses of AI
18:40 – We can’t stop AI: fear, inevitability, and panic
20:20 – Metaphysics/anthropology: the real battleground beneath AI debates
22:14 – Is AI demonic? What’s actually happening “under the hood” with AI tech?
26:45 – “AI” is a marketing term—how that language shapes fear of AI
28:30 – How AI could create a massive class divide
32:25 – Mamdani and socialism—the power of images vs reality
36:45 – The benefit of being able to say “I used to think that”
41:25 – How to be productive
45:00 – Why did most Christians stop fasting?
50:00 – The appeal of ascetic practices in a culture of excess
55:15 – Combatting spiritual warfare with fasting
58:00 – Physical benefits of fasting explained—and how to begin
1:08:30 – Why flipping the old food pyramid is a great idea
1:13:00 – I hate talking about fasting—but we need to talk about fasting
1:16:20 – How Eastern Christianity can lead a revival in fasting for all Christians
1:18:10 – The forgotten gift of fasting seasons like Advent and Lent
1:19:00 – “A feast without a fast is a strange, half-finished thing”
1:23:30 – Fasting is a skill—how to start
1:26:00 – Best practices for grounding us in reality
1:27:40 – Where are we most eager to look away from reality?
1:31:55 – Understanding what A Commitment to Reality means
1:32:35 – In a world that feels increasingly unreal, what feels real to you?
1:34:00 – New Atheism is dead

Welcome to A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff.

Frederica Mathewes-Green and Dave Hanegraaff explore the importance of “shared reality” in a post-truth age—and why the most important word in the title might be commitment.

This is a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to live in alignment with reality, while also hitting topics such as how the internet is optimized for outrage, why our social muscles are atrophying, and why AI feels different from every other tool: it presents itself like a person—earning trust and authority fast.

Along the way we explore how to respond with everyday practices that re-align us with reality.

Follow A Commitment to Reality wherever you listen.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Intro
00:49 – What A Commitment to Reality means
07:17 – Who is Frederica Mathewes-Green?
12:35 – The Glenn Beck moment: how listening changes conceptions
15:23 – How is your soul?
17:20 – What breaks your heart?
19:15 – Social atrophy—why can’t we communicate anymore?
23:44 – TV and the Internet—Architects of Anger
25:15 – Why is it so hard to change our minds?
29:05 – Charlie Kirk and the courage to speak up
35:00 – Theology in West vs East: knowing about God vs. knowing God
40:55 – Feelings and emotions are not the same (why that distinction matters)
48:20 – How important is getting it right when it comes to truth?
49:55 – Truth as living reality—alive like a forest, not dead like a cold statue
56:15 – The Replication Crisis—A Modern Tower of Babel?
59:30 – AI is dangerous, irresistible and irreversible
1:01:00 – My cat died and ChatGPT comforted me—why AI feels real (and scary)
1:14:25 – Are we experiencing true “Future Shock” today?
1:16:13 – AI as the anti-Eucharist
1:19:30 – AI is already an authority and everywhere in our lives
1:21:30 – Practices that can re-orient us to reality
1:28:00 – The pursuit of imperfection in a world where everything is the same
1:31:00 – Do we need to follow the news?
1:35:15 – Why reality must include the miraculous
1:40:10 – Frederica Mathewes-Green is writing a new book?
1:43:40 – How well does ChatGPT handle profoundly spiritual topics?
1:47:10 – In a world that feels increasingly unreal—what feels real to you?
1:48:45 – Synesthesia
1:50:15 – Public challenge to Frederica’s son—David Mathewes to write a song about “A Commitment to Reality”