May 2020
0:00 Introduction & Updates
4:42 Is it incorrect from an Orthodox Christian perspective to venerate Pagan god spirits the same way we venerate saints and icons?
9:15 Did you ever have a ‘redpill’ moment in regard to symbolism?
10:30 Microphone issue interlude and ASMR lolz
14:14 What is the symbolism of hot and cold water?
16:07 What do you make of the ‘end is nigh’ section of youtube and that whole mindset?
20:22 Are there similarities between the nephilim and the fool?
21:29 What do Paul and the fathers mean that we should pray without ceasing? Is it possible?
24:17 Why in the Bible do some men such as Job render their clothes and shave their heads when they get bad news?
27:54 Is there any merit to some non-denominational churches strategy of being ‘culturally relevant’?
31:32 What is the symbolism of wailing/mourning and why have there been professional mourners in cultures inc. Bible?
34:20 Can you explain the symbolism of saving yourself for marriage?
37:28 Are zombies a mockery of Christ’s resurrection?
39:39 Do you have anything you haven’t been asked about that you’d like to talk about?
40:03 Do all bad ideas come from France? What is it that English-speakers get wrong about French-speakers?
41:58 Is the round table a problematic structure, more associated with oligarchy and democracy than a king?
46:50 How important is a good translation of the Bible is to symbolic understanding?
50:48 What is the symbolism behind the ‘dancing sun’ miracle in Fatima and other Marian apparition places?
52:34 Is symbolic interpretation in particular a vision of the structure of reality, something that we can apply to our everyday life?
55:32 What is the right mindset to have when reading ‘Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art’?
58:37 What should I be careful about and what should I pay attention to to get the most out of reading Rene Girard’s ‘Crisis of the Modern World’?
1:01:42 How do you know that Christian moral claims are based on transcendent moral ethic?
1:06:26 Could you talk about the dog-headed St. Christopher?
1:07:26 What do you make of Owen Barfield?
1:08:14 Am I correct to separate the two beasts God shows Job, the Behemoth and Leviathan, as chaos and order?
1:09:51 In Isaiah 49 there is a reference to thrones in Sheol - implying hierarchy in the realm of the dead. What do the thrones in the passage mean?
1:14:37 What are your main struggles at the moment?
1:16:32 Is Dostoyevsky expressing a Christian idea or his own philosophy in a passage from ‘The Demons’ where the Holy Fool asks for forgiveness from the Nihilist?
1:19:35 What is the symbolism of Ecclesiastes 12?
1:22:20 How do you see your Platonic Christian ontology work itself in gender hierarchies, in particular husband and wife?
1:25:27 Hello Jonathan, I hope you are well! Through contemplating the field of my experience I can now see how it is in its most fundamental level comprised of the manifestations of logoi (meaning). I can also see how language, the word, can be seen as the point where a logos coalesces. But I can also observe that, on contemplating something deeply, new logoi manifest to me before I attach a word to them. So, it seems that, though a logos is intertwined with the word once it is defined, before that point it is still manifest and thus not always arising from the naming as such. How dependant is the distinguishing of logoi to concrete language? Could you share your own observations? Thanks!
1:28:43 Can you say more on the rituals around receiving communion in Orthodoxy?
1:29:31 Does it seem inevitable that as mankind loses its ability to properly lower heaven, we build machines to raise ourselves into the material heaven?
1:31:44 Is there any significant difference between necromancy and the creation of golems (zombies and robots)?
1:35:05 What is the heavenly meaning of silence?
1:37:19 What is exactly the meaning of the quote ‘Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich person to enter into the Kingdom of God’?
1:40:26 Why is an Orthodox like a pirate?
1:42:02 How would you describe the afterlife to a materialist?
1:43:18 Can you elaborate on marrying the foreigner?
1:46:42 Does ‘devil’ mean ‘devalues’ and ‘television’ ‘tell-lies-vision’ as per Nation of Islam?
1:47:55 What is the difference between marriage in the Bible and marriage today? What is the meaning of sex outside of marriage?
1:51:16 Have you read Nietzsche?
1:52:07 Lent, Easter, Passover and Ramadan all took place during quarantine this year, is that Providence?
1:52:43 What are your thoughts on flips without repentance?
1:54:38 Is a nation whose identity is wrapped up in revolution destined to destroy itself?