Owen Barfield’s ‘Saving the Appearances’

The Theology Pugcast

This week, the Pugsters turn to another Touchstone article by Louis Markos, this one on Owen Barfield. Barfield was one of the Inklings along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and helped nudge Lewis toward Christianity. He also was heavily influenced by Rudolph Steiner’s esoteric thought and tried to Christianize it. In this episode, the Pugsters discuss Barfield’s ideas about the relationship of human beings and the natural world, which argued that in the past people had a simple, spiritual relationship with the natural world but lost it with the Scientific Revolution. The goal, according to Barfield, is to bring the two together. On the way, the guys talk about Francis Bacon, Galileo, and whether you can keep the benefits of science and technology while losing their downsides.

Article Referenced: https://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=34-06-027-f