This is the second episode of our monthly series where Sam and Hank discuss the church fathers. This episode is about Irenaeus of Lyon. He was the Bishop of Lyon in southern France but he had grown up in Smyrna. We discuss his biography, his importance in church history, his writings, his views on gnosticism, his Christology, and other facets of his theology. We also draw parallels and applications of his life and message for Christians today. We also mention Paul Vanderklay, Jonathan Pageau, John Vervaeke, Jordan Peterson, Bishop Barron, James Lindsay, Polycarp, Valentinus, Ignatius of Antioch, John Calvin, Martin Luther, and many more. I hope you enjoy and learn from our discussion. 

Parker is a theology student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the host of "Parker's Pensees" youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYbT...​ 

I ask him about his theological background. We talk about the importance of the doctrine of the trinity to salvation, how a church defines itself and he shares with me his argument for the Trinity based on our knowledge of concepts. We also discuss William Hasker, Paul Vanderklay, Jordan Peterson, Fred Sanders, Paul Gould, Chad McIntosh, Steven Nemish, John Vervaeke, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and more.

JP Marceau comes back for his second appearance on my channel. This conversation was spurred on by the recent conversation between Paul Vanderklay, John Vervaeke and JP regarding miracles and the logos. JP and I talk about that topic other how we can understand immanence, emergence, the logos together with a focus on Christ. We mention Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Keiji Nishitani, Plotinus, Bishop Barron, Jordan Peterson, CS Lewis, John Scotus Eriugena and more.   

You will benefit most from watching this recent conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGoil4zuQPc&t=84s 

This is the first conversation between Vervaeke, Vanderklay, and Marceau: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCeHJtdQ0fg&t=0s 

Check out JP's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZzlvx0HHYiPOJTEOU399WA

Jonathan Stewart is a Deacon in The Apostolic Johannite Church in Montreal. The Apostolic Johannite Church is a modern day church in the gnostic and esoteric christian tradition. Jonathan also is the host of "Talk Gnosis" on the Gnostic Wisdom Network youtube channel.   We talk about the history and emergence of Christian Gnostic. It's connections to the orthodox Christian tradition, it's beliefs and teachings, it's various historical manifestations and the state of Christian Gnosticism today. We mention Khalil Andani, Manichaeism, Valentinus, Marcion, The Apostle Paul, Paul Magnus, Philo of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Justin Martyr, Paul the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Baptist, Hermeticism, The Nag Hammadi Library, The Cathars, Meister Eckhart, Theosophy, Carl Jung, and more.   

Gnostic Wisdom Network youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GnosticNYC 

The Apostolic Johannite Church: https://www.johannite.org/

Dr. Chad McIntosh has a PhD in Philosophy from Cornell University. He has developed a model of social trinitarianism complimented by a deeper understanding of group personhood. I feel like his model is one of the best and most compelling articulations of social trinitarianism that many people could learn from.  He also challenges me with arguments against Biblical Unitarianism. We mention Dale Tuggy, William Lane Craig, Augustine, Larry Hurtado, and more.

Luke Thompson comes on my channel for his fourth appearance. We talk about how we agree and disagree on the trinity. We talk about Beau Branson, John Piper, Owen Barfield, Nathan Ormand, Neoplatonism, John Vervaeke, Paul Vanderklay, Jonathan Pageau, Richard Rohr, Jordan Peterson, Nathan Jacobs, Douglas Harding, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkein, Ross Douthat, Charles Taylor, Alisa Childers, Jacob Faturechi, John Behr, Stephen Freeman, Byrne Powers, Bishop Barron, and Preston Sprinkle.

Jacob Faturechi is an orthodox Jew with very interesting and unique perspectives on Jesus and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Jacob has a youtube channel where he teaches Hebrew interpretation of the Bible: https://www.youtube.com/user/faturechi/videos?view=0&sort=p&flow=grid 

Jacob and I have spent a lot of time conversing about these topic on Paul Vanderklay's discord server. This is our first recorded conversation. We talk about the Messiah ben Joseph, the Gospel of John, Monotheism, the Angel of the Lord, and many other topics.

Hank and Sam are starting a series of dialogues discussing the Early Church Fathers. The first Church Father that we are discussing in Justin Martyr. We talking about his life, his writings, his beliefs, church community, his faults, and what he means for Christians today. Hank Kruse is coming at this as a recent convert to Catholicism from Protestantism and Sam is coming at this from the perspective of a Biblical Unitarian. We also mention Plato, Socrates, the Stoics, Pythagoras, Gnosticism, the Apostle Paul, Paul Vanderklay, Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Jonathan Pageau, Brett Salkeld, Ulrich Zwingli, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jacob Faturechi, Irenaeus of Lyon, Arius, Luke Thompson, and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eid7JpqItM4

John Vervaeke is a Professor of Cognitive Science and Psychology at the University of Toronto. He has an excellent youtube channel and I would particularly recommend his series "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis".  

Awakening from the Meaning Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY&list=PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ 

In this conversation we talk about what Neoplatonism was, how it interacted with Christianity, and how it is relevant today. We mention Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Carl Jung, Pierre Hadot, Plotinus, Hypatia, D. T. Suzuki, John H Spencer, The Stoics, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Sir Roger Penrose, William Lane Craig, Alfred North Whitehead, Owen Gilbert, Keith Stanovich, Jules Evans, Polar Bears, Bret Weinstein, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Evan Thompson, Christopher Mastropietro, Pseudo Dionysius, John Scotus Eriugena, Heraclitus, Jonathan Pageau, Augustine, and Paul Vanderklay.

Here is the introduction video that should be watched first: https://youtu.be/azSNgWEv6R0 

Rivers o Feden is a self taught bible student who is very good at Greek. He has a very interesting interpretation of the prologue of gospel of John. In this conversation we do a in depth examination of his interpretation of the prologue and how that fits into the larger picture of the gospel. Rivers' interpretation is compatible with a Biblical Unitarian understanding of Jesus but it is different than the way most Unitarians have interpreted the prologue in recent times. In this episode I dig deeper with Rivers and we go through the prologue verse by verse.