Word and Journey

Moses teams up with long time friend Rousseaux Brasseur for a deep dive into one of the greatest classics in the Protestant tradition - The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Written by 17th century preacher John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress is the allegorical tale of Christian and his journey from the City of Destruction, through many perils, temptations, adventures, and victories, on the way to the City of Zion.

Rousseaux first encountered the story as a young adult. Reading it once turned to reading it dozens of times for more than a decade. In our conversation, he shares how the Pilgrim’s Progress has been for him far more than entertainment; the story has been a major pillar of his spiritual formation.

Moses and Rousseaux discuss the literary form of allegory, the question of when the pilgrim is saved, Orthodox concepts of theosis and iconography, and they hold up the story as a must-read catechetical experience for every Protestant child. Most of all, they talk about Christian’s journey, and what every Christian can learn from him about their own spiritual growth.

Finally, and most exciting of all, we talk about Rousseaux’s own written work - a poetic retelling of the Pilgrim’s Progress for young people, now available as a dramatized audiobook.

For more information about Moses, subscribe at www.mosesbernabe.com, or support at www.patreon.com/mosesbernabe.

For more information about Rousseaux, visit his website at https://rousseauxbrasseur.com/ or email him at [email protected]. (Yes, his email has no R).

Best of all, check out Rousseaux’s published work here -  https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrims-Progress-Retelling-Bunyans-Classic/dp/0736979484/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11H2HG8QV8UV1&keywords=rousseaux+brasseur&qid=1643161373&sprefix=rousseaux+brasseur%2Caps%2C150&sr=8-1

Moses finally pitches his story! Details within.

At the same time, Moses and Jake begin the conclusion of the Great Divorce! Our protagonist continues to journey with George MacDonald and learn all sorts of thing about spiritual fame, spiritual formation, and, in the eternal sense, who really are the Great Ones? We talk about relationships that are based holding tight to one’s rights, versus relationships based on forgiveness and humility, and how these are the beautiful connections. Also, what is left in a relationship if I have nothing to provide to you?

We talk again about how real love has nothing to do with feelings, and everything to do with true and honest presence.

“Everything becomes more and more itself.” - Sarah, the Great One

All of life is a trajectory that changes us from the moment we choose it. The further we go, the more we become what we already are.

“Only the greatest of all can make himself small enough to enter hell. For the higher a thing is, the lower it can descend. For a man can sympathize with a horse, but a horse cannot sympathize with a rat. Only One has descended into hell.” - George MacDonald, as characterized by C.S. Lewis.

For more information about Moses, subscribe at www.mosesbernabe.com, or support at www.patreon.com/mosesbernabe.

For more information about Jake, contact him at www.jacobrayschwartz.com or @jacobrayschwartz

After a brief delay, we're back! Here we learn that Jake has a secret passion for Chinese cooking shows.

Here we also meet more ghosts and hear more stories! We learn about the difference between parental love and controlling obsession. We also learn, "We can't approach God as a means to something else."

Diving deeper, we wonder what it means for God to be a "God of Love" when the world is so full of pain and difficulty. And while we're on the topic of the Problem of Evil, we wonder about death of infants, sexual ethics, and humbly focusing on our own repentance.

We ponder the idea that, "You cannot fully love another creature until you love God."

Later we talk about how the Orthodox Church sees the Human Person as created with infinite desire, and only able to be satisfied by an infinite God, and only then can we love any other Human in any meaningful way.

Then we meet the Ghost with the Lizard and compare the deliverance from the Lizard as a brilliant depiction of breaking free of addiction. Moses takes any opportunity he can to talk about Blended Parts. We sit with the C.S. Lewis quote, "No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy in themselves; they are all holy when God's hand is on the reigns. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods."

Moses makes the statement, "The houseless person with addiction represents everything wrong with society all at once."

For more information about Moses, subscribe at www.mosesbernabe.com, or support at www.patreon.com/mosesbernabe.

For more information about Jake, contact him at www.jacobrayschwartz.com or @jacobrayschwartz

Here we are again, getting off the bus from hell.

This is the chapter where we see a division among the characters and rising stakes! Why do some people stay in the bright place and some go back to Grey Town?

Here we meet George MacDonald, and learn that heaven and hell are no mere states of mind, but an increasingly solid reality. If one reaches it, then everything will have been heaven leaving up to it. If one misses it, then even the best things of this temporal life will have been no more than hell.

We discuss the idea that, "Community is intrinsic to salvation." What does it mean to be in community with others? Related, what does it mean to forgive others?

We discuss the idea that when we are not able to forgive, we keep ourselves in our own cycle of hell.

And while we're talking about forgiveness and community we also talk about what does and does not constitute the true self!

Most intriguing of all, we mull over Lewis' George MacDonald character and his gut-punching observation that, "There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God, that they came to care nothing for God Himself."

For more information about Moses, subscribe at www.mosesbernabe.com, or support at www.patreon.com/mosesbernabe.

For more information about Jake, contact him at www.jacobrayschwartz.com or @jacobrayschwartz

Moses and Jake are back with more ghost stories! And Bright People stories. And metaphors and social commentary inspired by imagery provided by C.S. Lewis.

Here we meet the Hard-Bitten Ghost. He is jaded, and somewhat resembles a conspiracy theorist, but with a strong materialist bent. He seems to reject the ideas that anything is sacred, or that anything can be progressive. Neither heaven nor hell matter to him; he sees both as mere propaganda. The Hard-Bitten Ghost is opposed, most of all, to being controlled. He's not strictly an intellectual, just very guarded and mistrusting. We could say, disillusioned.

We also meet the Ghostly Lady who is so afraid to be seen. She is burdened by shame, and her plight is familiar to what I encounter in my office. People afraid to know themselves, know others, or in turn be known.

Sound like people these days?

If so, how do we struggle well? How do we suffer in a way that enriches our character, rather than dooms us to our own personal hell?

Your slightly caffeine deprived hosts tackle these and many other questions on this latest episode. Thanks for listening!

For more information about Moses, subscribe at www.mosesbernabe.com, or support at www.patreon.com/mosesbernabe.

For more information about Jake, contact him at www.jacobrayschwartz.com or @jacobrayschwartz

Blessed Nativity!

We are continuing our trek out of Grey Town into the land of the Bright Ones! Today we discuss our honest opinions! Did we really come by them honestly? What does that even mean? Can we be saved just by sincerely believing a thing? C.S. Lewis offers an intriguing dialogue between a Ghost and a Bright One and Moses Bernabe and Jake Schwartz take it upon themselves to interpret it unto the world.

Along the way, we talk about, “The fallacy of the true neutral,” and the value of being free to ask questions of what we believe. One time, Moses makes the argument that, while in pursuit of the Holy Grail of “True Neutral,” we ought to always remember that evidence always bows to bias.

As we are wont, we start talking about relationships. What if I could introduce ourselves with complete freedom from having to impress the other person?

We also ponder what forms our identity?

Then we talk about how boasting of our accomplishments and throwing them in your face is a sure way to create a little bit of hell in our hearts.

As we consider the weight of our accomplishments, we consider if they are more of an asset or more of a shackle. We mull over whether it is better to be wanted or needed in a relationship.

Also we go on a rabbit trail about how strong and profane language isn’t want you think.

Here’s a link to the song by the first composer that Jake mentioned- https://open.spotify.com/track/2OWzoQiL6VDTczQwBxmWVx?si=36b8a6c9a42147fe

For more information about Moses, subscribe at www.mosesbernabe.com, or support at www.patreon.com/mosesbernabe.

For more information about Jake, contact him at www.jacobrayschwartz.com or @jacobrayschwartz

Thanks, and see you next time!

We're back and on the road from hell to heaven! Just what is real here? Just what does it mean to be real? To be realer than real?

Moses and Jake take a brief tour through personal stories, how we are shaped by our faiths and impacted by our work and just what we bring to the reading of a story.

C.S. Lewis kicks off our metaphorical journey by introducing us to the contentious passenger manifest in this most mysterious flying bus. We talk about things are "more solid than solid," and what it means to be real in this country. We talk about "Space" as Lewis paints a country that is ever expanding, and as Moses shares what he is learning about Internal Space, which is the place of resilience, and also where God dwells.

We venture deep into philosophy and theology as we talk about what is salvation, does free will exist, what is death, and who does or doesn't go to hell. Turns out Death is a Being, and the only ones who end up "in hell" are the ones who want to be there and salvation is a very active process!

And of course, talking about reality leads to talking about sobriety and recovery work and how true sobriety is an embrace of being fully present in one's current reality.

Notes - The word Moses was trying to remember was Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

It's our first episode ever! We are delving into C.S. Lewis's famous allegorical tale, The Great Divorce. Moses and Jake share their initial thoughts on tackling one of the most intelligent(and very British) writers of the last century.

What's the story?

So a man gets on a bus in Hell, better known here a Grey Town. Said bus embarks on a voyage toward Heaven. The bus makes a few stops along the way, and every time, our narrator and the other passengers get out of the bus to interact with the ever more solidifying environment, and the residents of the land, The Bright Ones. One would think more people would be eager to be heaven bound, yet the passengers - the Ghosts - seem to find every possible reason to get back on the bus and head back to Grey Town. Will anyone make it to the end? What will they have to overcome to get there? What can we learn along the way?

Wouldn't you know it, in reading through a story about Heaven and Hell, we dive into "deep heady theological conversations around Theories of Atonement."

This leads into a conversation around Faith Deconstruction. A process of deconstruction always involves asking the hard and scary questions. It's a necessary process, but unnerving, especially for the well-meaning onlookers.

We cover the genre of the story, and how that affects how the reader enters the world. We discuss a synopsis of the world, the plot, the characterization, and work to acclimate to the fantastical and surreal world that Lewis has created or us.

Public transportation experiences have a way of challenging out isolationist mentalities, and bringing out the self-righteous parts of us. The more we criticize others, the more awkward a bus ride is.

The characters we meet in the first chapter are quarrelsome, isolationist, and insist upon lots of space in which to have their rights. Most eerily of all, we meet Napoleon, eternally pacing in his far away lonesomeness, obsessing over how everyone else failed him. Moses and Jake have a long thread about blame, fault, ownership and responsibility. There's a way that taking responsibility is scary because it requires more of us, but we feel stronger for having done it.

And speaking of the Great Divorce, we remark on how this story is very uncomfortable to read, because of the way Lewis draws us to closely examine us, in all our raw flaws.

Special shout-outs to Garry Friesen(Dr. G) and his house, Aslan's How, a modern day shrine to the Chronicles of Narnia, that once upon a time inhabited a house across the street from Multnomah Bible College.

Hi! My name is Moses Bernabe, counselor and healer by day, writer by early morning light, lover of stories all the time. And this is the Word and Journey podcast!

Word and Journey is a book club in podcast form. We're all about good stories about important ideas. Stories that shape us and make us think. Over time, we'll be reading books, both classics and cultural icons, and talking about what we bring to the story, and how the story shapes us. Read along with us and join in the conversation! Or feel free to just take in our conversations. We hope you'll step away with something worthwhile to ponder.

Check out this sneak preview of coming episodes!

My first cohost is Jake Schwartz, a dear friend with a shared faith background.

Our first book we will read is C.S. Lewis's classic allegory, The Great Divorce.

Check back here for full episodes in late November 2021! Thanks for listening, and joining the conversation!