Joseph Stuart on Christopher Dawson, The Primacy of Religion, and Cultural Appreciation

Conservative Conversations with ISI

In this episode:

• Joseph Stuart, professor of history at the University of Mary and a former ISI Weaver fellow, joins the podcast to discuss the work of 20th century historian of culture, Christopher Dawson
• why religion is at the heart of cultural identity, and how cultures that abandon their religion inevitably become captured by ideological “political religions”
• how to appreciate different cultures and have a rich, complex view of other civilizations without becoming a relativist

Texts Mentioned:

• Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War by Joseph Stuart
• Gifford Lectures by Christopher Dawson
• Leisure, The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
• Primitive Culture by Edward Tylor
• The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• Religion and Culture by Christopher Dawson
• The Dynamics of World History by Christopher Dawson
• The Crisis of Western Education by Christopher Dawson
• The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington
• “Christopher Dawson and Ayatollah Khatami and ‘The Dialogue of Civilizations’ A Christian-Muslim Conversation” by Stephen G. Carter
• The Mission movie
• “Conservatism” by Christopher Dawson (introduction by Joseph Stuart)
• Religion and the Modern State by Christopher Dawson
• Joseph Stuart Faculty Page

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