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Episode #6: The Gospel of Striving: Taking Action To Find the Inner Life, but Finding Grace: Goethe
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What if grace isn’t something you deserve, or even understand—but something that finds you in the middle of your restless, stumbling search for meaning?
Did Faust accidentally find grace?
That’s one of the most provocative and mysterious questions at the heart of Faust. Here's a way to unpack it:
In Faust Part II, despite making a pact with Mephistopheles and engaging in a life of ambition, desire, and sometimes destruction, Faust is ultimately saved—not because of his morality or religious orthodoxy, but because of his unceasing striving. Goethe suggests that the human soul’s honest yearning—even when it errs—can be met by grace.
It’s a radical, almost scandalous vision of salvation. Faust doesn't earn grace. He doesn’t even ask for it. He just refuses to give up the quest for meaning. That’s what makes his redemption both accidental and inevitable in Goethe’s cosmos. It's grace that meets striving, not striving that discovers grace.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stands as a profound voice for our digital age, offering a vision where the inner life and external world can be reconciled despite rapid technological change.
• Born in 1749, Goethe was a German polymath whose influence on Western literature and thought remains significant
• His concept of "world literature" anticipated globalization's cultural exchange
• "The Sorrows of Young Werther" became an international sensation, establishing Goethe as a literary star
• Youth coming-of-age stories represent the struggle to find meaning in a rapidly changing world
• The real coming-of-age story involves reconciling inner longings with external circumstances
• The "Storm and Stress" movement championed emotion over enlightenment rationality
• Goethe's "Faust" explores midlife crisis and the emptiness of pursuing knowledge without meaning
• Part One of Faust shows the bankruptcy of pursuing power and knowledge as life's ultimate goal
• Part Two of Faust presents a redemptive vision often overlooked by modern readers
• The inner desire for meaning, love, connection, and transcendence remains constant across generations
• Contemporary coming-of-age experiences accelerate with each passing decade due to technological change
• Goethe's work bridges the gap between scientific rationalism and spiritual transcendence
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Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
Chapters
1. Coming of Age in a Changing World (00:00:00)
2. Introduction to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (00:02:47)
3. Sorrows of Young Werther: The Rebel's Story (00:06:21)
4. Connecting Literature to Universal Human Experience (00:11:17)
5. The Storm and Stress Movement (00:18:22)
6. Goethe's Unique Vision of Evil and Redemption (00:21:37)
7. Exploring Faust: The Midlife Crisis Tale (00:30:36)
8. Divine Intervention and Spiritual Development (00:42:52)
9. The Inner Life Remains Unchanged (00:56:09)
10. Living According to Your Heart (01:09:27)
11. Episode Closing Thoughts (01:22:47)
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