Brandon Rickabaugh was the guest speaker for the Faith and Society Lecture Series on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

His lecture was titled “Knowing Jesus in a Culture of Disillusionment”. Rickabaugh is a Research scholar in Public Philosophy and an assistant professor of Philosophy at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

There were approximately 25-30 people in attendance with more attending via Zoom. The attendees were a mix of students, faculty and community members.

Rickabaugh offered his views on the Culture, Disillusionment, Knowledge and Jesus.

He defined “Disillusionment” as a realization that the world is “meaningless” and is a result of “our failure of our knowledge.”

He explained that Disillusionment causes, “Discredit core positive values, ideas and beliefs, a lack of perceived purpose, undermines our fundamental understanding of reality, [and] impedes efforts to integrate or accommodate new information”.

He offered insight into how people react to their Disillusionment. He defined these reactions as Paralysis, Disavowing and Seeking Knowledge.

He argued that knowledge and recognition of the soul was the only way to truly overcome disillusionment. He then connected knowledge with Jesus’ teaching.

After his talk had ended, he had a question and answer session. Many people participated in this discussion and there was a short reception afterwards.