The Plunge with Derek Holser

By derekholser

The Plunge is a serial podcast, hosted by Derek Holser, and anchored by conversations about Theology, Philosophy, and Culture.

The Plunge is a forum for producing extended conversations with a variet... more

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The podcast currently has 98 episodes available.

The Plunge with Derek Holser episodes:

July 10, 2026 Owen Barfield: The Evolution of Consciousness | Summer Replay Series
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.

In 1923, he married musician and choreographer Maud Douie; the couple adopted three children, including daughter Lucy, C.S. Lewis’s goddaughter. Barfield met C.S. Lewis at Oxford in 1919 and maintained a close, forty-four-year friendship marked by their famous “Great War” debates over imagination, materialism, and anthroposophy; Lewis repeatedly acknowledged Barfield as one of his most important intellectual companions and dedicated The Allegory of Love to him. Barfield earned the title “first and last Inkling” for the depth of his influence on the group’s thinking about language, myth, and meaning.

After a decade devoted to poetry and writing, Barfield qualified as a solicitor in 1934 and practiced law in London until retiring in 1959 at age sixty, after which he served as a visiting professor at several North American universities.

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.

His landmark Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning (1928) demonstrated how poetry recovers lost semantic vitality and reveals the history of consciousness itself. In the widely admired Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry (1957), he argued that genuine knowledge requires “final participation,” a conscious, redeemed reunion with the world that overcomes the alienation of purely representational thinking.

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.

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📲 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

⸻
...more
1h 27min
July 03, 2026 George MacDonald: Community, Death, and Beyond | Summer Replay Series
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.

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📲 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
⸻
...more
1h 10min
June 26, 2026 William Blake: Mystic for Modernity, Episode 6 | Valentin Gerlier
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!

Valentin is Head of Creative Cultures Pathway at Schumacher College, where he teaches the Poetics of Imagination programme, a course in myth, poetry and story. He is also a Fellow and Tutor at the Temenos Academy, a Research Associate in Philosophy at the UC-CERES/Institut Catholique Toulouse.

He is also a visiting lecturer and tutor at numerous other institutions, including The University of Notre Dame (London Gateway) and the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Shakespeare and the Grace of Words (Routledge, 2022), and his forthcoming book is entitled Heaven’s Wildflowers: A Blakean Theory of Nature, Culture and Imagination (Routledge, 2027). Valentin also runs a hybrid online wisdom school, School of Sophia, dedicated to truth, goodness, and beauty.

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.

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

⸻
...more
59min
June 19, 2026 G.K. Chesterton on William Blake | featuring Landon Loftin
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.

This conversation explores G.K. Chesterton's thoughts on William Blake. Two great souls interacting for us today, mediated by the ever-insightful 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.

He is the editor of Chesterton and the Philosophers, available now!

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
⸻
...more
55min
June 12, 2026 William Blake: Mystic for Modernity, Episode 4 | Ron Dart
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).

Ron has published more than 40 books and avocationally often in the mountains, "when men and mountains meet” (as Blake would say),
montani semper liberi.

Explore many of Ron's books here: https://tinyurl.com/2s3hnvva

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
⸻
...more
1h 8min
June 05, 2026 William Blake: Mystic for Modernity, Episode 3 | Susanne Sklar
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).

Her landmark book, Blake’s Jerusalem as Visionary Theatre: Entering the Divine Body (Oxford University Press, 2011), is widely praised in academic reviews (Blake Quarterly, Christianity & Literature, etc.) for its innovative approach: treating the epic as “visionary theatre”—a fluid, performative work meant for imaginative participation rather than purely rational analysis. She draws deeply on Blake’s biblical roots, 18th-century contexts (Moravianism, Freemasonry, Joanna Southcott), and themes of radical forgiveness, beauty as salvific, and the Human Imagination as the Divine Body.

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
⸻
...more
59min
May 29, 2026 William Blake: Mystic for Modernity, Episode 2 | Jason Whittaker
Welcome to the second episode in our latest series, William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. William Blake (1757–1827) was a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker of the Romantic Age.

Jason Whittaker is a writer and academic at the University of Lincoln, who spends his time alternating between visions of William Blake and writing about digital media. The author and editor of twenty books, including Jerusalem: Blake, Parry and the Fight for Englishness (OUP, 2022) and You Want What We've Got: Big Tech v Big Journalism.

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
⸻
...more
1h 15min
May 22, 2026 William Blake: Mystic for Modernity, Episode 1 | Mark Vernon
Welcome to the first episode in our latest series, William Blake: Mystic for Modernity. William Blake (1757–1827) was a visionary English poet, painter, and printmaker of the Romantic Age.

My guest today is Mark Vernon. Mark is a writer and psychotherapist. A keen podcaster, including over 100 dialogues with Rupert Sheldrake, and a columnist with The Idler, he speaks regularly at festivals and broadcasts on the BBC.

Mark has a PhD in Ancient Greek Philosophy, and degrees in Theology and Physics. His most recent book is Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, and previous books include Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey, and a book on Owen Barfield and the significance of Jesus for mystical Christianity. For more information, see www.markvernon.com

https://www.amazon.com/Awake-William-Blake-Power-Imagination/dp/1911723979

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

⸻
...more
1h 10min
May 15, 2026 The Hundred Acre Wood: Animals in Literature | Brenton Dickieson
Welcome to Episode Twelve in our Animals in Literature series. Today's conversation features a fun, nostalgic, endearing discussion of Christopher Robin and his friends in The Hundred Acre Wood, created by A.A. Milne.

Today's guest is returning Plunge favorite and great friend, Brenton Dickieson.

Brenton is a father, husband, friend, university lecturer, and freelance writer from Prince Edward Island, Canada. You can follow Brenton on X, @BrentonDana:
https://x.com/BrentonDana

As the author of more than 1,100 articles, blog posts, and reviews, Brenton has worked as a freelance author, columnist, and policy writer for Canadian magazines and the government of Prince Edward Island. As a theologian of literature, Brenton writes the popular website, A Pilgrim in Narnia, which explores the intersections of faith, fantasy, and fiction.

With more than 1.1 million website hits and a yearly readership now exceeding 200,000, more than 8,000 social media followers, and significant networks within the scholarly and readerly worlds of C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, Brenton has a powerful platform for considering the literary, spiritual, and theological interest of some of our most famous world-builders, including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, L.M. Montgomery, and others.
https://apilgriminnarnia.com/about/

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

⸻
...more
1h
May 08, 2026 Watership Down: Animals in Literature | Olga-Maria Cruz
Welcome to Episode Eleven in our Animals in Literature Series. Today's guest is the Rev. Dr. Olga-Maria Cruz, to regale us on the glories, virtues, and meaning in the novel Watership Down.

Watership Down by Richard Adams is widely celebrated for its phenomenal world-building, authentic characters, and deep moral revelations. In this rabbit-centric world, a small band must survive the wilds, and hostile warrens, until finding their way - remember the way by way of great stories - to their new home.

Rev. Dr. Olga-Maria Cruz is a pastor, ethics professor, musician, poet, and essayist. Her work lives at the intersection of church and university life, and anywhere words, music, people, and big ideas converge.

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

⸻
...more
1h 2min

FAQs about The Plunge with Derek Holser:

How many episodes does The Plunge with Derek Holser have?

The podcast currently has 98 episodes available.

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