This was based on a prediction from, of all people , George Will. The 2001 conversation deals with “the psychology of religion,” a course that I was teaching at the time. Some 13 years later Cardinal George was about to retire but remained one of the great intellectual presences within the Catholic church.

 …was waged over the New Testament and the question of which books, including various “gospels,” were to be included and which rejected. Two great Biblical scholars, Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina and Margaret Mitchell of the University of Chicago, in 2005 reviewed the rich modern research including the most important issue of how the Resurrection acquired canonical status.

…is either directly or inversely related to its length. Thus, taking two great clichés about history, if Santayana  (“those who forget history are condemned to repeat it”) is true or false then Henry Ford (“history is bunk”) is correspondingly false or true. Whether concerning history, politics, love, wealth or life itself (“life is a bitch and then you die”), the thousands (millions?) of aphorisms, maxims and wise saws are the stuff of conversation and argument.

Our guest Professor Gary Saul Morson collects them and writes books about them and in this conversation we kick many of them around, pondering their correct attribution and incidentally asking: Is it true or false, partially or universally, and who handled the truth of the matter better than this?

That is the actual title of a wonderful book of short stories by  Joseph Epstein who is, in fact, a good friend of the host. Interestingly, one of his best known books is titled “Friendship: An Expose.” He is as well one of the great talkers and story tellers – as is well evident in this conversation from 2003.

Robert Hughes was for many years the art critic for Time magazine. At the same time he was, as an Australian, an émigré to the United States who studied and deeply understood our culture, history and politics. He was one of the most fascinating talkers we ever had on the program and here he is in brilliant form, in a 2006 conversation.