Episode 311: “Falling Inward” with Dr. Jason Baxter

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This week on The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina and Thomas are joined by their friend and colleague Dr. Jason Baxter to talk about his newest book coming soon from Cassiodorus Press, Falling Inward. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina asks Jason why he wanted to update and republish this work that he originally wrote several years ago. They discuss what is different about the idea of falling inward versus navel gazing, the role of the teacher in approaching literature in a humane way, why we should seek a pre-modern cosmology, what kinds of topics Jason explored in this book, and so much more!

There is still time to register for this year’s upcoming annual Literary Life Online Conference, happening January 23-30, 2026, “The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Quickeneth: Reading Like a Human”. Our speakers will be Dr. Jason Baxter, Jenn Rogers, Dr. Anne Phillips, and, of course, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks.

Finally, you can also sign up now for upcoming classes such as Dr. Michael Drout’s “Viking and Old Norse Culture.”

Commonplace Quotes:

Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.

“Il ne faut pas toucher aux idoles: la dorure en reste aux mains.”
Gustave Flaubert, from Madame Bovary

Stay away from anything   
that obscures the place it is in.   
There are no unsacred places;   
there are only sacred places   
and desecrated places.

Wendell Berry, from “How to Be a Poet”

Augustine then uses this thought experiment, of the flight of the soul, to higher and higher levels of the world, from caterpillars to supernovas, as a way to exemplify his meditation on the world’s beauty. Later he quotes Romans 1:20–“the invisible things of God understood by things which are made”–just as Suger and Hugh of St. Victor would do later. And yet Augustine’s search is different. It is not concerned with how the plurality of the world gives us a picture of the generosity of the Maker, but rather with the vertical element of the search by which the soul, as it climbs higher, paradoxically moves deeper into the core of the soul: “Who is He,” Augustine asks later, “that is above the topmost point of my soul? By the same soul I shall ascend to Him.” After Augustine climbs all the way up to the vault of heave, he then realizes that to find God, he has to turn within and look for him within. His flight upward is a metaphor for plunging in the depths of the human heart.
Jason Baxter, from Falling Inward

The Passions That We Fought With

by Trumbull Stickney

The passions that we fought with and subdued
Never quite die. In some maimed serpent’s coil
They lurk, ready to spring and vindicate
That power was once our torture and our lord.

Book List:

Why Literature Still Matters by Dr. Jason Baxter

Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis

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You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

You can find Cindy Rollins at MorningTimeforMoms.com, over on her podcast The New Mason Jar, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter. You can also check out her Patreon for additional content.

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