A Case for the Christian Gentleman
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
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This talk was delivered at the Henkel Conference in Nashville, TN. It proposes the idea of the gentleman as an alternative to the now-popular red-pilled ideology on social media.
What perfect timing! My 16-year-old son is home from school today with a cold, so he has something of wonderful substance to watch! ❤
Dr. Cooper, you are the only academic I know who can give a serious talk while also mentioning “aesthetic” “larping” and “zoomers.” I think this is a great testament to how well you have your finger on the pulse of the culture.
A mighty speech worthy of thunderous applause. While I have come to lean more and more towards the idea that the Christian Monarchy is indeed a superior model to the Liberal Mass Democracy, we must remember that politics flows from culture (which in turn flows from religion). The re-evangelisation of culture and the saving of souls must therefore come first. And only with First Things first do you get Second Things thrown in.
Thank you, Dr. Cooper, for recognizing and addressing this problem of despair among men and boys, and for tracing its roots and providing real, lasting solutions. You're a profound thinker who really has their finger on the pulse of society.
Thank you brother for the reminder. I use to care so deeply about truth, beauty, and goodness. I use to be much more invested in classically educating myself. I’ve come to profoundly realize that the cultural pond we swim in is incredibly powerful if not consciously blocked when it becomes corrupted. I find myself watching and listening to more and more “gossip” and “entertainment” rather than virtue building educational material. As a result, I actually think I’ve become dumber to some meaningful extent.
May we men rise above the filth of our society and raise a new generation of gentlemen and ladies to glorify the Lord.
Thank you for your service and example brother.
Finally a confessional Lutheran who will take virtue and ethics head on. Avoiding the 3rd use is one of the tradition’s biggest weaknesses (at least in modern times.) I’ve thought for a while if the Lutheran church would acknowledge the importance virtue/ethics they’d be the biggest congregation around. If Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules (bastardized 10 Commandments) are as popular as they are imagine how popular the actual 10 Commandments would be when backed up with true theology.
There is quite a rich ethical tradition in Lutheranism historically.
No doubt. That's clear by reading the confessions. I wish the LCMS took a stronger/clearer stance on it at the synodical level. Aside from a couple of books coming out of CPH, virtue/ethics are a black hole. I think the fear of being perceived like Rome scares them away, which I think is a huge mistake. Just because virtue/ethics aren't necessary for salvation, doesn't mean they aren't good for us. @@DrJordanBCooper
Very unique approach to the cultural troubles occuring.
This seems more proactive and offensive, than defensive. Thank you for discussing this!
Wow!! This is amazing information Dr. Cooper! Thank you for supporting our young men with these kinds of talks.
Thank you. Very thought provoking. We do need transcendentalists, desperately.
18:10 I agree with aristocracy. The problem today is our "aristocracy" pretend to be the same as you or I and therefore they don't need to he held to any sort of standard. Instead of watching ones Ps and Qs it's Queer Pronouns. Whereas they once wanted the best for society as a whole (mostly), today's have disdain and contempt for the working man and his family. And with hereditary peerage and monarchy, they have skin in the game. If the system fails then their children will be killed or rendered penniless Sonita in their interest to prevent revolutions.
Dr. Cooper, what do you think of the attempt to retake Mainline denominations and other mainstream institutions?
you suck at minecraft
Thank you, Dr. Cooper. I always love when you speak to the culture as I think you bring something unique to the table within the wider conversation. Christians should be promoting a positive vision for the future of the culture rather than simply condemning the current cultural trends. I think you do a nice job of providing that positive perspective, and as a young man myself you have helped me to want to strive for the good, the true, and the beautiful! A worthy antidote to the warped masculinity of red-pilled folks as well as the femininized masculinity that many in the culture attempt to promote.
Great talk, professor! Please make this a reoccuring topic of conversation; it's very much needed in today's world.
Also, I know this channel is primarily for Lutherans, but I encourage everyone to check out a Traditional Latin Mass to see Christian tradition perserved. It's similar to what Luther would've been familiar with, and the priests are usually conservative. It's defintely inspired me to more gentlemanly in a Christian sense more than anything else.
I've certainly benefited from what you've had to say. That you don't hinge your ideas of masculinity on "getting women" I am especially thankful for as someone who, for deeply personal reasons, am not pursuing marriage and likely won't into the future.
Something I'd like to ask is if you intend to address how one should understand and express strength in this gentleman framework. Part of the problem as i see it is men don't know how to well express the natural power they are gifted with because the new social norms beats this strength down and say it's evil. So then men drift to a brutish sort of idea with people like Tate because they are the only ones who talk about this.
Plus a talk about it would be good to point to when some wannabee Top G wants to claim you are advocating for "nice guys" or something.
That's a great suggestion.
I can feel the Gentleman's club video coming sooner.
The Henkel Conference was great. Thank you for coming and speaking. I like this presentation live and am glad to hear it again.
I'm just starting the lecture, so maybe this will be explained in the course of it, but what does "red pill" mean?
Candace Owens didn't praise Andrew Tate. She made it very clear on her channel that she interviewed him because she thought it would be interesting. And she did challenge him a number of times in the interview.
very good critique, subscribed. I find the hardest thing about going to church these days are the dumbed down sermons , I would love to go to a church with culturally rich and intellectually deep sermons.
Fantastic talk, well done!
Very nice! Did you red "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation"? Would you do a review?
I second this. Jordan's take would probably be really nuanced as usual. I've heard that it's a mixed bag.
Paul Vanderklay thinks a more interesting sequel would be "Jesus and John Lennon" (highlighting the hypocritical blindspots of the progressive evangelical camp).
@@vngelicath1580 It is a very complicated Topic. And very cultural too. American culture. I read about from Far away in Brazil. I Guedes I only grasp. But Jordan sound Very unic and against trend, talking about It in the lecture. Sound like Jordan being British and evangelicals being Elaine/American. So I would like to hear him review this waine book. I supoose he does not agree, but Waine would not be pleased by his tie.
I like Paul too.
I have not read it. And from your comment below, yes I probably am more English in sensibility in some ways, but that's just my New England heritage I suppose. From what I have seen from Du Mez, there are likely points at which I would agree with her critique, but it is also clear that she's influenced by Foucaultian historical analysis, which I am obviously quite critical of. I'll say that I have not been impressed in the slightest from what I've seen of many of her sweeping statements on social media, as she comes across as rather reactionary (in the manner of many of the "exvangelicals"). But, it would not be fair to critique the book without actually spending time reading it. Perhaps it would be worthwhile.
@@DrJordanBCooper Reading your comment, I really would like to hear your non waineian and non woke criticism from the topics in that book.
As someone who has had to “count the cost” and paid big time I find this topic trivial.
I know this is going to be good, always is!
The criticism on Star Wars is spot on!
Great talk. This was at my church. I guess I’m getting rid of my hustlers university membership.😂
There is a book in this. What does the Christian Gentleman of the 21st century look like? I will buy it.
This talk was prepped as a chapter for that book.
You bring up thought-provoking points, especially about the pursuit of authenticity. Most if not all doctrines outside of Christ Himself may suffer from going too far in either direction, which we humans are eager to do. "Oh, you say that Capitalism is bad? Throw it all out, then! Bring in Communism, and the most severe kind. THAT'LL fix everything!" This behavior is purely repetitive throughout human history. So, while I agree with how you frame your points about the dangers of pursuing individual authenticity at all costs (which itself is an extreme), I wag my finger at its opposite as equally extreme and with equally destructive consequences. The most difficult thing to do for people enmass throughout history is not to strike a balance ("A republic, if you can keep it") but to maintain that balance generationally. But even Plato's "Perfectly Just City" only works if absolutely NOTHING changes at all about its structure, both internally and externally. History foils this lofty undertaking at every opportunity.
All that to say, it's not that the grass isn't greener on the other side, because in this case, I agree with you that it was greener yesterday, but it wasn't THAT much greener as to present it as the solution to all our woes. Societies seem to follow a repetitive formula and ours, for better or worse in the grand schema, is right on track. Regardless of our woes, like those in exile memorialized in the book of Lamentations, all is to His glory.
Edit: I hope I am not read as disingenuous or mean-spirited at all. I admire the call to classic values, and I would personally desire our culture to reverse its course to a moral baseline (which seems at the point of free fall). I have learned much and continue to learn much from your expositions. In fact, you were my introduction into confessional Lutheranism (though I am admittedly brand new). Keep on fighting the good fight. Every action (and inaction) matters.
Good points. I think the error of modern Liberals and Conservatives is that they are both hyperindividualist and collectivist at the same time and in the worst of both ways. Unfortunately, "Traditionalism" isn't the golden solution either, as corruption led to the need for modern reforms in the first place.
While, yes, I do consider myself a traditionalist, I am not arguing simply for a pure repristination of some past golden age.
I do wonder what we mean by "traditionalism", the way many #Trads talk, we always have a moral obligation to preserve the ways of our ancestors, but what happens when you place this same principle in the face of our pagan forefathers who abandoned the ways of their fathers and embraced the _vastly_ more "progressive" message of a crucified servant, proclaiming the duty to love your enemies and embrace suffering voluntarily.
I'm not saying I'm not traditionally oriented, but the narrative of the rosey-pictured past and modern decline could just as easily have come out of the mouth of Romans bitter about societal decline (blamed on a failure to uphold tradition and the order of the universe) in their day.. and it did.
I'm definitely not the scholarly type but I agree that the current Andrew Tate style man hood is bad. Its all about money and personal power
He's right.
A great perspective that tackles a lot of our current issues, but it seems that you disregard for a very important attribute, in which the word you used "Nation" derives from. That being "Ethnos" which is same blood, same culture, and same language. But it seems, probably on your effort to not sound "racist" or personal denial of reality, you did not mention this very important factor, which, the people make the nation, and only Europeans can perpetuate European Civilization. You and I are kinsmen according to the flesh, us belonging to the Northern European. And that Western European Civilization, which you seem to enjoy and yearn for, is one built by our forefathers.
Origen over 1500 years ago addresses what we know today with modern biology. The differences between the races.
"But since these rational creatures . . . were endowed with the faculty of free will, this freedom of will either incited each one to progress by the imitation of God or drew him to defection through negligence. and this . . . is the cause of the diversity among rational creatures . . . God, to whom it forthwith seemed just to arrange his creatures according to merit, drew these diversities of intellects into the harmony of one world, that with these diverse vessels or souls or intellects he might adorn, as it were, one house, in which there ought to be ‘not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay, and, indeed, some unto honour and others unto dishonor’. (Princ. 2.9.6, quoting 2 Tim. 2:20)
I would love to live in a world where everyone had the same intellect, piety, and strengths, but as you and I both know, this is a fallen world. You and I belong to the same kinship, which is our Northern European ancestry, into which we can trace it to the father of Europe, Charles the Great. I'm sure you see the news, the declining birth rates around Europe, the demographic replacement, the anti-white attacks and slaughters across the world. How then, do you expect we respond to this? When it is on the basis of our race, that the blame of evil is put on us. You have children, whom I assume are both blood of your blood, flesh of your flesh. How will they grow up in a world, a homeland, that is becoming irreversibly transformed by foreign peoples who hate us?
As for national identity, which you slightly tackled in your speech. It's important we know where this derives from, let's not be modernist. The Western Classical notion of identity comes to us from Herodotus’ Histories, written in the 5th century B.C. It’s from Herodotus that we have the story of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, told in the broader context of the entire Hellenic world’s successful resistance to the Persian invasion. In order to do that, the Spartans and Athenians had to overcome their differences and join together to defend what was common to both of them as Greeks. In Herodotus’ Histories Book VIII, there is a scene in which the Athenians explain to a messenger from Sparta why the Spartans should side with the Athenians and not the Persians.
“First and foremost of these is that the images and buildings of the gods have been burned and demolished, so that we are bound by necessity to exact the greatest revenge on the man who performed these deeds, rather than to make agreements with him. And second, it would not be fitting for the Athenians to prove traitors to the Greek people, with whom we are united in sharing the same kinship and language, with whom we have established shrines and conduct sacrifices to the gods together, and with whom we also share the same way of life.” (VIII:144.2)
In this passage are no less than four criteria for being a Greek, or Hellene: common religion, common blood, common language, and common customs. That was 2500 years ago. This is still the best and most comprehensive working definition of national identity. This is because one can extract it from this particular situation in ancient history and apply it to virtually anywhere in the world at any time. The four elements of identity are either present or absent, to varying degrees, and people are correspondingly either strong or weak.
The story of the Greek resistance to Persian tyranny is the story of the self-realization and self-actualization of a people. When the four elements of identity are in place, they work together synergistically to form a kind of collective body, capable of functioning as an organic whole. The Persian army was numerically much stronger than the Greeks, but most of their soldiers were conscripts from conquered territories who were forced into service. They were Persians in name only.
I do enjoy your theology, and I am very grateful for the work you do for our Lord Jesus Christ, but I do find it rather concerning we are missing an important, if not the most important element of one's identity, and that is their blood. In tha blood will decide the person's cranial size, brain shape, average IQ, IQ distribution, average ability to defer gratification (which is very closely linked to the propensity to criminality), bone density, blood type, hormonal composition, gut fauna, the adaptability to certain climates, tolerance to alcohol, and other traits that are all decided through and by the blood. Would like to know your thoughts. God bless!
Good talk. But what if, and hear me out, instead of encouraging young men to imitate nobles and aristocrats, we encouraged them to imitate Christ?
I think you missed the point a little. If an influential class of society imitates Christ it’s easier for the rest of society to. Historically, the rich had more time to dedicate to knowing Christ than the lower class who spent most of their days laboring. Now, our influential class sells pagan idols and culture reflects that to a certain extent.
At no point did I hear Dr. Cooper suggest otherwise. Historically, this 'high culture' which he referenced was designed and embraced by Christians, who were obviously striving to be Christ-like. When Dr. Cooper referred to the destruction of high culture, he named atheists and Marxists, and listed specific examples of their 'contributions' to society. I don't believe it would be plausible for unbelievers to desire the lifestyle which he's suggesting.
@@LucasCLarson Hmm, perhaps you’re right, perhaps I misunderstood. Count me skeptical, though, of the idea that historically the wealthy were dedicating their leisure hours to knowing Christ.
Dont u wanna be a politician? :D
Who would want that?
@@DrJordanBCooper Maybe some of your fans. But yes, if you dont have this ambition, then its useless.
@@DrJordanBCooper the unqualified
@@j.g.4942 😂 Jeez, that's some crazy roast!
It's true though
Other than LARPing as a 19th century dandy, I can't think of too many occasions where being a gentleman benefits a man.
Nice guys finish last, and seldom copulate. To behave as a gentleman is only important contextually and should never be adopted as a persona.
Good women however tend to see through the tough guy alpha male guise. Even if they're not feminist, a lot of women are picking up and learning thugs are bad. Also, you stand out among the interchangeable G-Dawgs in the world that's not easy in this day and age.
A utilitarian Catholic Perennialist? Now that's an enigma if I ever saw one.
@@BoondockBrony Why in the world would you think that anyone who isn't Beta/Gamma is automatically a thug, or an actor? That's a false dichotomy.
Secondly, good women are not attracted to weak men any more than bad women. If you like the idea of a sexless marriage, then be a milquetoast gentleman.
@@anthonymount1275 I get much stranger than that, I assure you.
Don’t equate nice with good. A gentleman is good, not necessarily nice.