The Plunge with Derek Holser

Welcome to Episode Six in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Bradley Birzer, Leah Holser, Turner Burnett, and Sørina Higgins. The discussion covers perspectives on Pippin, Smeagol/Gollum, Sauron, and Tolkien as The Narrator.

To listen to the entire conversation with Bradley, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tolkiens-greatest-characters-pippin-bradley-j-birzer/id1762146345?i=1000731168718

To listen to the entire conversation with Leah, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tolkiens-greatest-characters-smeagol-leah-holser/id1762146345?i=1000748532151

To listen to the entire conversation with Sørina, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tolkiens-greatest-characters-the-narrator-dr-s%C3%B8rina/id1762146345?i=1000726507557

⸻

Welcome to Episode Five in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Holly Ordway, Landon Loftin, Alison Milbank, and Michael Ward. The discussion covers perspectives on Éowyn, Faramir, Gandalf, and Cormallen. 

To listen to the entire conversation with Holly, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000736742721

To listen to the entire conversation with Landon, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000745422677

To listen to the entire conversation with Michael, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000741990520

⸻

Welcome to Episode Four in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Jess Lederman, Elizabeth Hardy, David Burnett, and Turner Burnett. The discussion covers perspectives on the C.S. Lewis novel The Great Divorce, with an emphasis on Lewis's relationship with George MacDonald, and Lewis's portrayal of heaven, hell, and the afterlife. 

To listen to the entire conversation with Jess, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000684949599

To listen to the entire conversation with Elizabeth, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000683073754

To listen to the entire conversation with David and Turner, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000678319767

There is no other day. All days are present now. This moment contains all moments...

⸻

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻

Welcome to Episode Three in our Summer Replay Series.

Today's conversation features Dr. Heather Huckett, Dr. Don Lichi, Margaret Fay, and Pastor Justin Bryeans. As psychologists, counselors, and pastors, they work at the intersection of human identity, relationships, and spirituality. 

To listen to the entire conversation with Heather, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000718982994

To listen to the entire conversation with Don, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000720219913

To listen to the entire conversation with Margaret, click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000716833166

To listen to the entire conversation with Justin, click here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-plunge-with-derek-holser/id1762146345?i=1000722091330

Welcome to Episode Two in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Laura Van Dyke, Owen A. Barfield, Landon Loftin, and Max Leyf. The discussion covers some biographical elements of Owen Barfield's life, along with his work on the imagination, his "Great War" with C.S. Lewis, and his lifelong pursuit of anthroposophy, as developed by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

To view the entire conversation with Laura, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFo74tCJlUg&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7UGQ-LGcMVGDuLj8w1Bx2MM&index=4

To view the entire conversation with Owen, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ66daOsYfg&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7UGQ-LGcMVGDuLj8w1Bx2MM&index=6

To view the entire conversation with Landon, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AhwBKr4OsU&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7UGQ-LGcMVGDuLj8w1Bx2MM&index=1

To view the entire conversation with Max, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJLXVa2fCW0&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7UGQ-LGcMVGDuLj8w1Bx2MM&index=10

Owen Barfield (1898–1997) was an English philosopher, author, poet, critic, and solicitor best known as a foundational member of the Inklings literary circle. Born in London to a solicitor father and suffragette mother, he was educated at Highgate School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he earned a first-class degree in English language and literature in 1920; his subsequent B.Litt. thesis became the basis for his influential early work.

Barfield’s central philosophical project was tracing The Evolution of Consciousness— the historical transformation of how humans perceive and participate in reality through changes in language and thought. Deeply shaped by Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy (which he helped introduce to English-speaking readers), he contrasted “original participation,” the primordial, intuitive unity with a meaningful cosmos expressed in the living metaphors of early language, with modern “idolatry,” the habit of treating abstract scientific representations as the sole reality while ignoring our participatory role in constituting the phenomenal world.

Other major works— History in English Words (1926), Romanticism Comes of Age (1944), Speaker’s Meaning (1967), and The Rediscovery of Meaning (1977)—extend these themes across linguistics, literary criticism, and cultural history. Barfield’s ideas profoundly shaped Lewis’s and Tolkien’s imaginative worlds and continue to inspire contemporary efforts to re-enchant modern thought by recovering participatory, imaginative ways of knowing.

⸻

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻

Welcome to Episode One in our Summer Replay Series. Today's conversation features Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, Kerry Dearborn, Chris Green, and Jordan Daniel Wood.

The discussion ranges from George MacDonald's conception and practice of true community, his theology of aging, suffering, and death, and his portrayal of the afterlife through his great novel Lilith.

To view the entire conversation with Kirstin, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKD1ep1xy14&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7XfqMabMVwCuK3rFTvl3fI_&index=4

To view the entire conversation with Kerry, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0j3FgO-HPU&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7XfqMabMVwCuK3rFTvl3fI_&index=3

To view the entire conversation with Chris and Jordan, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA8twLDcdjg&list=PLyZJdcfxNq7WEFZSiyjx63xoMzJzqSCXU

George MacDonald (1824–1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Congregational minister whose life embodied the tensions and creative ferment of the Victorian era. Born on December 10, 1824, in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, to a middle-class farming family, he studied chemistry and natural philosophy at King’s College, Aberdeen, before training for the ministry at Highbury College in London. Ordained in 1851, he served briefly as pastor of a Congregational church in Arundel, England. Still, he resigned amid controversy over his unorthodox theological views—particularly his emphasis on God’s boundless love and rejection of strict Calvinist doctrines of limited atonement and eternal punishment. He married Louisa Powell in 1851; the couple raised eleven children amid chronic financial hardship and repeated bouts of tuberculosis that claimed the lives of several family members. After leaving the pulpit, MacDonald supported his household through writing, public lecturing (including a successful American tour), and occasional teaching, eventually settling in England, where he died on September 18, 1905, three years after his wife. MacDonald’s literary output, comprising more than fifty volumes, spanned realistic Scottish novels, children’s fairy tales, adult fantasy, poetry, and theological essays that together helped lay the foundations of modern fantasy literature.

Early successes such as the dreamlike Phantastes (1858) and the later Lilith (1895) explored spiritual pilgrimage through mythic landscapes, while beloved children’s works, including At the Back of the North Wind (1871) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872), wove Christian themes of trust, courage, and divine care into enchanting narratives. His “realistic” novels - David Elginbrod, Alec Forbes of Howglen, and Robert Falconer - depicted Scottish life with moral seriousness and psychological insight, and collections such as Unspoken Sermons articulated a warm, imaginative Christianity centered on the Fatherhood of God and the transformative power of love.

Though his popularity declined after his death, MacDonald’s vision profoundly shaped later writers: C.S. Lewis called him his “master” and edited an influential anthology of his writings; J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, W.H. Auden, and Madeleine L’Engle all acknowledged his impact. Today, he is recognized as a pioneering bridge between Victorian faith and the imaginative theology that would animate twentieth-century fantasy.

⸻

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻

Welcome to Episode 6, our final installment in our series William Blake: Mystic for Modernity.

Today's guest is Valentin Gerlier. Valentin is a scholar, songwriter, and musician, and our conversation is a poetic and lyrical gem. Full of light and wisdom, like William Blake himself!

For more on the Poetics of Imagination at Schumacher College -

https://www.schumachercollege.org/poeticsofimagination-1-1

To learn more and join School of Sophia –

https://www.schoolofsophia.com

Largely unrecognized and dismissed as eccentric during his lifetime, William Blake is now celebrated for his fiercely imaginative, spiritually profound works and his radical opposition to institutional religion and rationalism. From an early age, Blake claimed to have had mystical visions, which profoundly influenced his creative and spiritual philosophy.

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻

Welcome to Episode Five in our latest series: William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. As we continue to explore the life and majesty of William Blake, I am joined by a returning Plunge favorite: Landon Loftin.

Landon Loftin has a BA in Religion and Philosophy from Southwest Baptist University, an MA in Apologetics from Houston Christian University, and a PhD in Humanities from Faulkner University. He is the author of a plethora of academic articles on the writings of authors such as G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and Owen Barfield.

https://tinyurl.com/3kp585zd

Additionally, he is co-author of What Barfield Thought: An Introduction to the Work of Owen Barfield, for which he was named co-recipient of the 2023 Award of Excellence by the Barfield Literary Estate.

Connect with Landon: Book: https://tinyurl.com/5ee6hr3j

Largely unrecognized and dismissed as eccentric during his lifetime, William Blake is now celebrated for his fiercely imaginative, spiritually profound works and his radical opposition to institutional religion and rationalism. From an early age, Blake claimed to have had mystical visions, which profoundly influenced his creative and spiritual philosophy.

Blake was a radical thinker who sympathized with the American and French Revolutions. He abhorred slavery and the oppressive impacts of the Industrial Revolution. He rejected rationalism in favor of unbridled human imagination. His philosophical and prophetic works, such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Milton, feature his own complex mythology and criticize both societal and religious repression.

⸻

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻

Welcome to Episode Four in our latest series: William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. As we continue to explore the life and majesty of William Blake, I am joined by a returning Plunge favorite: the Inimitable Ron Dart!

Ron has had an abiding interest in Blake since his teens in the 1960s. Ron was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s, taught in the department of POLSC at University of the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford BC) for 35 years, and now teaches Classics at St. Stephen’s University (New Brunswick).

Largely unrecognized and dismissed as eccentric during his lifetime, William Blake is now celebrated for his fiercely imaginative, spiritually profound works and his radical opposition to institutional religion and rationalism. From an early age, Blake claimed to have had mystical visions, which profoundly influenced his creative and spiritual philosophy.

Blake was a radical thinker who sympathized with the American and French Revolutions. He abhorred slavery and the oppressive impacts of the Industrial Revolution. He rejected rationalism in favor of unbridled human imagination. His philosophical and prophetic works, such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Milton, feature his own complex mythology and criticize both societal and religious repression.

⸻

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻

Welcome to Episode Three in our latest series: William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. As we continue to explore the life and majesty of William Blake, I am joined by a most enchanting guest: Susanne Sklar. 

Susanne Sklar, PhD, is a leading international authority on William Blake, with a particular focus on his final illuminated masterpiece, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (1804–1820).

Sklar has taught Blake’s poetry, art, and prophecy across six countries and contributed to conferences like “Global Blake.” As a former actress/director, social worker, and peace researcher/activist (with fieldwork in the Holy Land and Russia/Soviet Union), she consistently connects Blake’s ideas to contemporary social justice, economic ethics, ecological interconnectedness, and peacemaking—positioning him as a prophetic champion against war, nationalism, exploitation, and materialism.

Largely unrecognized and dismissed as eccentric during his lifetime, William Blake is now celebrated for his fiercely imaginative, spiritually profound works and his radical opposition to institutional religion and rationalism. From an early age, Blake claimed to have had mystical visions, which profoundly influenced his creative and spiritual philosophy.

Blake was a radical thinker who sympathized with the American and French Revolutions. He abhorred slavery and the oppressive impacts of the Industrial Revolution. He rejected rationalism in favor of unbridled human imagination. His philosophical and prophetic works, such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Milton, feature his own complex mythology and criticize both societal and religious repression.

⸻

📲 Connect with Derek Holser:

🐦 Twitter / X: https://X.com/derekholser

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@derekholser

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theplungewithderekholser/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/derekholser

📚 Latest Book! Lightgliders ➡ https://www.amazon.com/Tambika-Shield-Wisdom-Lightglider-Origins/dp/1645075486

⸻