My guest in this episode is Dr. Mary Poplin. Several months ago she and I discussed her excellent book Is Reality Secular? As we concluded she mentioned that for the past four decades she has been observing Critical Theories develop in higher education, and was herself an early proponent. For the past three decades she has been working to understand and evaluate Critical Theories from a Christian perspective. Given her background and extensive reflection on this topic, I can think of no one better able to help us understand and evaluate these very popular perspectives reverberating throughout higher education and now our broader culture.

Dr. Poplin is a Senior Research Fellow and Professor Emerita at Claremont Graduate University’s School of Educational Studies. She has also authored numerous books on Christianity and higher education.

In this podcast we discuss:

• Defining Critical Theory (including Critical Race Theory–CRT)
  
• How Critical Theory developed and became dominant in higher education
  
• Why CRT rejects Martin Luther King’s views
  
• Her journey into feminism and CRT, and why she began to question her views
  
• What CRT gets right–truths CRT is highlighting
  
• What CRT gets wrong–errors CRT is promoting
  
• How radical feminism started this movement toward division
  
• How Critical Theories are changing the university in fundamental ways
  
• Black scholars CRT excludes from the conversation, and why
  
• Different approaches to these issues in the humanities, social science, and sciences
  
• Why Critical Theories are so popular among some Christians, and whether this is justified
  
• How students can reflect well and develop their own conclusions about Critical Theories
  
• How students can reflected on and engage CRT in their coursework
  
• How students can reflect on and engage CRT in campus organizations
  

Resources mentioned during our conversation:

• Mary Poplin, Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews
  
• Christopher Rufo’s short video summarizing Critical Race theory 
  
• Oher resources by Christopher Rufo
  
• James Lindsey, Race Marxism: The Truth about Critical Race Theory and Praxis
  
• James Lindsey’s website New Discourses
  
• Hellen Pluckrose & James Lindsey, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity–and Why This Harms Everybody
  
• Carol Swain & Christopher Schorr, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House
  
• Stan W. Wallace, “How Should Christians Understand Critical Theory?”