The Symbolic World

In this episode of the Universal History series, Richard Rohlin presents a talk about 4 things we must take into consideration in order to think like a pre-modern Christian. This is a primer for approaching old texts like Beowulf, the topic of our upcoming online course on the Symbolic World website.

Original YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/CyJaaX60QKw

THE BEOWULF COURSE
Learn more: https://thesymbolicworld.com/news/the-beowulf-course-by-richard-rohlin-and-jonathan-pageau

Also, please note that the course will happen on our Symbolic World website Circle community, so please make sure that you’re signed up (Free): https://thesymbolicworld.com/login

We are excited to present our very first online course hosted directly on The Symbolic World website!

Richard Rohlin and Jonathan Pageau will build on their popular Universal History series by offering an in-depth exploration of the Epic Poem, Beowulf.
Promo video: https://youtu.be/hUjxvEw3uCY?si=jozwytuh-tcHQe7i

You are invited to participate in this 6-week live online course every Thursday starting on Thursday, September 7th, at 2:00pm Eastern Time. Each session will be 2 hours long. The course will conclude on October 19th. (Note: No class on September 21th.)

All materials will be provided, except for a copy of R.M. Liuzza's translation of Beowulf: https://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Broadview-Literary-Texts-Liuzza/dp/1551111896
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Preview
0:44 - Intro music
1:08 - Introduction
4:35 - C.S. Lewis
7:09 - Modern VS Ancient
11:10 - Tourists in the Church
15:11 - 1) Authorship and textual "errors"
20:16 - Why do we have 4 gospel accounts?
22:52 - What is a book? Pre-modern, Modern, and Post-Modern
30:13 - Authorship
33:11 - Transmission
37:40 - 2) The meaning of words and things
55:47 - 3) Heaven above, earth below
1:04:00 - Moved by love
1:5:25 - Space and time
1:7:39 - The metric system
1:10:20 - Chronos and Kairos
1:17:11 - Meaning in hindsight
1:20:55 - 4) The anthropocosmic vision
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
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My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

Many of the Church Fathers talk about the notion that angels have what we call "subtle bodies", that angels are not completely incorporeal (God only is completely incorporeal) but their bodies are also not circumscribed in flesh, but in mind.

In this formerly patron video, I explain what the Church means with this description of angels and how it's something we can relate to in the general human experience.

Original YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/MTuDl7o-1bE

The discussion with Rafe Kelley I mention near the end: https://youtu.be/06Osa0EmJVc
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Timestamps:
0:00 // Introduction
0:43 // Intro music
1:08 // What are subtle bodies?
2:13 // St. John Damacene
6:32 // Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
9:19 // Our subtle bodies and the hierarchy of angels
14:06 // True analogies
15:23 // Jesus prayer
18:13 // Continue: True analogies
20:17 // Examples
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
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Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

I sit down with Ted Lewis to discuss the work of Jacques Ellul and his views, on technology, Christianity, civilization, and transpersonal agency.
Ted Lewis is Executive Director of the International Jacques Ellul Society.
Full bio: https://restorativechurch.org/about-ted-lewis/

International Jacques Ellul Society: https://ellul.org/

The Ellul Forum: https://ellulforum.weebly.com/

Original YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/JIsypT45UVM

List of books mentioned:
- The Technological Society, by Jacques Ellul
- The Secular City, by Harvey Cox
- The Empire of Non-sense, by Jacques Ellul
- The Humiliation of the Word, by Jacques Ellul
- The Ellul Forum
- I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, by René Girard
- The Space Trilogy, by CS Lewis
- The Technological Bluff, by Jacques Ellul
- The Technological System, by Jacques Ellul
- The Abolition of Man, by CS Lewis
- Presence in the Modern World, by Jacques Ellul
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Preview
00:01:15 - Intro music
00:01:40 - Introduction
00:02:40 - Jacques Ellul's warning
00:05:40 - Ellul's influences
00:06:56 - Biblical images of the city
00:09:03 - Ellul's suspicion of imagery
00:10:45 - Reconciling the word and image
00:12:41 - Ellul: Principalities and powers
00:19:10 - Symbol and the lie
00:24:55 - The positive Image in Scripture
00:31:34 - Ellul now: The Technological Bluff
00:37:26 - The Tower of Babel
00:41:10 - That Hideous Strength phrase
00:43:12 - The divine council
00:50:50 - Ted's work and advice in the modern world
00:56:17 - Closing words
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
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Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

How conspiracies work.
It's time to change how we think about conspiracies and get a more nuanced view. While secretive conspiracies also exist, many of them emerge quite spontaneously and openly according to incentives and common attention. You don't have to imagine top-down control at every level of operation for the conspiracy to still be in effect.

Original YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/FLxU33EPJWk

Follow my brother Matthieu Pageau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PageauMatthieu

My discussion about conspiracies with Mary Harrington: https://youtu.be/D__CrY3FaWA

💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
🔒 BECOME A PATRON
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Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/pageauvideos
📱 SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheSymbolicWorld
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pageaujonathan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathan.pageau

Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

This is a discussion from the Princeton Scala Foundation conference that took place in April 2023 with the title, “The Transfiguration: Glory and Grace in the World”. I sat down with Margarita Mooney Clayton and iconographer and author Aidan Hart to discuss the Transfiguration of Christ, how God's glory fills the world, and that the ultimate goal of the spiritual life is encountering God face to face.
Original YouTube version of this episode: https://youtu.be/J3u9jWeA6BM

- A previous discussion I had with Aidan Hart - The Dance between Sacred and Secular: https://youtu.be/hzQkolwWkwE
- My talk at the conference - The Role of Art in Identity: https://youtu.be/mfDm4VefkJg
- Aidan Hart’s talk - Liturgical Art as Prophecy and Priesthood: https://youtu.be/07KxzJABskY
- Playlist of all the talks at the event: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZHnw30gpFeBFtZE-wsj5or0BdQtIMjh
- Scala Foundation website: https://scalafoundation.org/
- Aidan Hart's icons and books: https://aidanharticons.com/
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Preview
00:00:45 - Intro music
00:01:10 - Introduction
00:01:58 - The value of images
00:03:08 - Principles of liturgical art
00:04:25 - The Nous
00:05:57 - How do I know this isn't just imagination?
00:07:32 - The Transfiguration and Light
00:10:04 - The culmination of symbolism
00:12:38 - Poetry and Typology
00:13:46 - Clothes of glory / The Feast of Tabernacles
00:16:17 - Anti-Symbolism
00:17:09 - The point of symbols
00:19:31 - Word/logoi
00:21:48 - The basic elements of the Transfiguration icon
00:24:27 - What are Moses and Elijah doing there?
00:26:04 - Peter, James, and John
00:27:29 - The sandal falling off
00:30:03 - The person and the divinity of Christ
00:32:26 - Divine Darkness
00:35:12 - His garment is transfigured
00:44:37 - The tension between extremes
00:51:41 - Scala
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
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Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

This is a talk I gave in April at the Scala Foundation's April 2023 conference on Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good held at the Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Featuring in-depth discussions with artists Jonathan Pageau, Aidan Hart, and Rifle Paper Company Co-Founder Anna Bond.
In this talk, I address art and its relation to memory and identity, especially as applicable on the civil level. Public art forms part of and is a reflection o our common identity. I also discuss the unique opportunity in sacred art, which connects us not only to each other but also objective reality, the ultimate source of all identities.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/mfDm4VefkJg
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Original post by Scala Foundation: Jonathan Pageau at Scala Conference 2023: "Memory and the Role of Art in Identity" - https://youtu.be/VvQH04Mhc2k
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Warmup discussion: The Mother of God - Scala Foundation webinar - https://youtu.be/A68n2M4iFFY
Playlist of all the talks at the event: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZHnw30gpFeBFtZE-wsj5or0BdQtIMjh
Scala Foundation website: https://scalafoundation.org/
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Preview clip
00:01:17 - Introduction
00:03:38 - Start of talk: The start of his icon carving career
00:05:29 - The current perception of art
00:08:46 - A more universal vision of art
00:14:22 - Ancient art and coming together
00:17:54 - Art binds us to what's most important
00:20:01 - Secular participative art
00:22:53 - The breakdown of public art
00:27:10 - Identity and opposition
00:31:17 - Remembering the origin
00:34:57 - Art gone wrong: Babel and propaganda
00:40:21 - The Christian vision of art
00:50:03 - The final image
00:53:05 - End of talk
00:53:13 - Question: Heavenly Jerusalem
00:58:03 - Q: Are the arts up to the task?
01:07:35 - Q: What does repentance look like civically?
01:10:00 - Q: Connecting te Church and the home
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
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Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

Paula Boddington returns to the channel for us to discuss new developments in artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, ethics, healthcare, the meaning of intelligence, and how AI is exposing how some of our current ways of doing things don’t work, and maybe they haven’t been working for a while.

Paula Boddington is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Healthcare at the University of West London where she works with a research group concerned with the quality of care for hospital patients who are also living with dementia. She has held academic posts at the Australian National University, Bristol University, Cardiff University, and Oxford University, and has degrees in philosophy, psychology, and law from Keele, Oxford, and Cardiff Universities. She has a long-standing interest in ethical and social questions in new technologies, including artificial intelligence.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/jj69RnoE9qI
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Previous discussions with Paula Boddington:
- How Artificial Intelligence is Reshaping Humanity - With Dr. Paula Boddington: https://youtu.be/jti77KQKYuc
- Digital ID and Control | with Dr. Paula Boddington: https://youtu.be/a9VeKqd6szA
- Biotech Creation Myths - with Dr. Paula Boddington: https://youtu.be/a9VeKqd6szA
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Her recent book on this topic, AI Ethics: A Textbook (Artificial Intelligence: Foundations, Theory, and Algorithms) by Paula Boddington:
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Artificial-Intelligence-Foundations-Algorithms-ebook/dp/B0BSGKRYTW
- Springer: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-19-9382-4
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Preview clip
00:00:46 - Intro music
00:01:11 - Introduction
00:01:52 - Various aspects of AI
00:04:12 - ChatGPT
00:09:36 - Power and intention
00:11:02 - What it means to do something
00:12:52 - Imposing limitations
00:13:44 - Paula's book
00:17:35 - Intelligence is only one part of us
00:19:35 - Public trust in AI
00:26:37 - Embodied living
00:29:32 - Medically assisted dying
00:31:39 - Machine doctors
00:32:21 - "This is going to save time"
00:33:58 - A return to embodied experience
00:43:35 - Keeping the passions under control
00:49:57 - Fetishize
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
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Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

I had a wonderful discussion with writer Mary Harrington about conspiracies, myth and memes, the internet, artificial intelligence, and meaning-making.
Mary Harrington is a columnist and editor for UnHerd and runs her own weekly Substack Reactionary Feminist. She's interested in the political and cultural side-effects of globalization, the replacement of class politics by identity politics, the joy of limits, and women’s rights in the biotech age, which is the subject of her first book, Feminism Against Progress.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/D__CrY3FaWA

- Mary's Twitter: https://twitter.com/moveincircles
- Substack: https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/
- UnHerd articles: https://unherd.com/author/mary-harrington/
- Book: https://www.amazon.com/Feminism-against-Progress-Mary-Harrington/dp/1684514878

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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Introduction to the video
00:00:40 - Intro music
00:01:05 - How to understand conspiracies
00:05:17 - Eating babies
00:06:59 - Lizard elites
00:09:26 - Why myth is coming back
00:16:48 - Meaning-making and money
00:19:28 - Oral culture
00:21:28 - Artificial intelligence
00:22:40 - How does Mary see Ai and writing?
00:25:56 - Writers VS ChatGPT
00:28:28 - Teams and nation-states
00:31:58 - Crowdfunding and Crowdfeeding
00:34:09 - Weaponizing the conspiracy label
00:43:10 - Anti-normativity
00:46:38 - Making normal mainstream again
00:49:19 - There will be suffering
00:52:23 - Government and Ai
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
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Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

This is the last video in the fairy tale series I am making public from my patron archive. This fascinating fairy tale has a lot to tell us about money, power, credit, turning death into glory, and resurrection.

Support our Snow White and the Widow Queen Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/symbolicworldpress/snow-white-and-the-widow-queen

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/73Olkr2y45Y

Related videos:
- Credit, Interest and the Acceleration of Time: https://youtu.be/gYc3pi01TH0
- Beauty and Meaning Today - with Andrew Gould: https://youtu.be/5TvJiSb0YHQ
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💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🗣 Join The Symbolic World Community for discussions about symbolism: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
🔒 BECOME A PATRON
Website: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/pageauvideos
📱 SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheSymbolicWorld
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pageaujonathan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathan.pageau

Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.
The Snow White promo video was made in collaboration with Dirt Poor Robins

This is the fourth video of a series of fairy tale analyses I did for my patrons a few years ago. I meditate on the meaning of the story of The Princess and the Pea.

Support our Kickstarter for the Snow White storybook: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/symbolicworldpress/snow-white-and-the-widow-queen

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/QRXNV_bQzWk