A philosopher and theologian podcast about great works of Catholic theology and philosophy, in hopes of helping listeners enter into their own dialogue with Reality. Works discussed: Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Gregory of Nyssa, Norris Clarke (St. T
This episode discusses Book 8 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode discusses Book 7 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode covers Book 6 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode covers Book 5 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode covers Book 4 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode covers Book 3 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode covers Book 2 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
This episode covers book 1 of St. Augustine's Confessions.
In this discussion I finish talking about Dickens' A Christmas Carol, by discussing Staves 4 and 5. The great gift Scrooge receives from the three ghosts is a awareness of the gift that had always already been given; this brings about a new life of gratitude in Scrooge. Life gets its full meaning only when one becomes grateful for what one has always already had - life itself. This is the meaning of the Christmas: the gift of Life Itself among us.
In Stave 3 of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, we find the ghost of Christmas Present, revealing to Scrooge the excessive abundance of the feast which is the present. I argue that it is gratitude that is the meaning of life, and hence the source of joy and happiness. The Crachit's feast is meager, but because the are grateful for it, it becomes more than they need and hence more than a meager feast, it becomes a great feast. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!
In stave 2 of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, we find Scrooge visited (haunted) by the ghost of Christmas Past - which is his own past. Our pasts can often haunt us, and perhaps they should haunt us. The root of this haunting is that we are able to judge our present lives in light (not the Ghost has a light shining forth from his head) of our past life...or better yet, in the case of Scrooge, we are able to judge our current death in light of our former life. This awakens us to what we once knew and experienced so clearly but have since forgotten - viz. that the meaning of life lies in the gratitude and joy of being.
In this first of five lectures, I offer a Christian existentialist reading of Charles Dickens's masterpiece A Christmas Carol. This work is about the meaning of Christmas, which is the meaning of the incarnation. The life of the world, the eternal, entering into the now, in order to redeem the past, present and future through his death. The incarnation isn't separable from the crucifixion, just as the meaning of life is not separable from the meaning of death, and the meaning of the past and future is not separable from the present. Scrooge's conversion must begin with the acceptance of his death - which he comes to accept in the person of Marley (who is himself; he never painted out 'Marley' from the "Marley and Scrooge" sign) ; with the fact that he is a "...covetous old sinner." Scrooge cannot approach the meaning of his life until he acknowledges that he - like Marley, or even more so - is truly a dead man, as dead as a door nail. The book opens with "Marley was dead to begin with," it could just as well began: "Scrooge was dead to begin with"...and unless we accept this fact "nothing wonderful can become of this story."
I talk about the importance of memory throughout the Brothers Karamazov. I also talk about the power of the Good to bring good out of all things, even trama, sin, and brokenness. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about fatherhood, and why Dimitri is a Job figure. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about the trial of Mitya. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about the first part of book 11, and especially Dimitri's discussion on the Hymns he will sing underground in Siberia. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about Kolya, Illusha, and the roll of children in the Brothers Karamazov. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
In this lecture, I talk about Dimitri's dream about the suffering of the "wee ones" and link it up with Ivan's suffering children, and Smerdyakov's hatred of the 'wee ones.' --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about Dimitri and the comparison with Zosima, and conscience as our ability to condemn ourselves as guilty so that we don't rebel against God's judgement. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about Dimitri as the incarnation of a man who is either hot or cold NEVER lukewarm. We also talk about his sudden decision to let go of his life. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about Alyosha's rebellion, the onion, and the wedding of Cana. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
This lecture is about Zossima's homilies/talks, sin, death, alcoholics anonymous, and St. Mary of Egypt. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
I talk about the life of Zossima. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
I talk about the Grand Inquisitor, the weight of freedom and conscience, and ideology. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about the need for a love that isn't contempt, the need for loving life with one's guts, and Rebellion. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We talk about Zossima's claim he is guilty before all and for all, and worse than all. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
I talk about "the sensualists." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
We discuss why it is only active love that can convince one of God and immortality, why I think Ivan is NOT an atheist, etc. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
I discuss Book 2, chapters 1-4 of the Brothers Karamazov. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
An introduction to "A Nice Little Family " which is the title of book 1. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Logic, v.1 - Truth of the World (ch. 3, pt. 2) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
Balthasar, Theo-Logic, v.1 - Truth of the World (ch. 3, pt. 1) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
This finishes up chapter two - "Truth as Freedom" of Balthasar's The-logic, v.1: Truth of the World. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
Ch. 2 of Theo-Logic; "Truth as Freedom" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
In this lecture I discuss the second half of the first chapter of Balthasar's Theo-Logic. I talk about the relationship of knowledge to creation, and how knowledge requires a knowing of another as other even in its receiving of the other into itself. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
I discuss the first half of chapter 1 ("Truth as Nature") of Hans Urs von Balthasar's book Theo-Logic, v.1: Truth of the World. In this lecture I focus on the first two sections ("A. The Preliminary Concept of Truth" and "B. The Subject"). I contrast Balthasar's approach to truth with Kant's Transcendental Idealism. The main thesis is that to be a knower (subject) is a loving servant of the object which allows the object to be known as other; the subject is an active receiver of objects, which allows them to be true in their unconcealment/disclosure - aletheia. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/creative-retrieval/message
Sienkiewicz and Jaeger talk about the dynamism of intellect and will towards the Infinite as found in the metaphysical thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. We talk about how man is self-determining in virtue of those capacities and how his mystery is a revelation of the Mystery towards which he yearns. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this last episode of our series on Plato's Republic, I discuss book 10, and the notion of imitation. I argue that the perversion of imitation lies in the fact that it presents reality as an external image which is divorced from reality's internal logos, this ultimately leads man into a pseudo-reality (a false world), enticing him to run and escape from reality by turning to pseudo-realities. I argue that these pseudo-realities are found now-a-days found not so much in "tragic poetry' but in online communities. The philosopher is the one who loves reality (which is ultimately in the image of God) over his own self-created pseudo-reality (which is in the image of fallen man). I also discuss what it would be required to profess believe in Christ not as an act of imitation but as a fruit of adhering to reality. I'm thinking about going through Plato's complete works on this podcast; would you be interested in listening and/or supporting? If so please email me your thoughts (creativeretrieval@gmail.com) and please consider supporting Creative Retrieval ! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode I discuss the nature of the tyrannical soul. The tyrant is lawless in the sense that he is unwilling to submit to any order (in this sense, he tries to live beyond good and evil), and for this reason he becomes enslaved to his own passions. I discuss the notion of creating needs which enslave us (e.g., social media can be experienced as a created need which we feel enslaved to). I also compare the tyrant to Raskolnikov from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode, I move into Book 8 of Plato's Republic, and discuss the way in which injustice is a perversion of justice wrought by the separation of the external and the internal. Once the appearance is cut off from the reality there is no longer ONE end/goal, and hence what was a single life is now split into two. I also argue that, for Plato, all deviations of aristocracy are different forms of tyranny. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode I discuss the notion of liberal education, and why this is something of a redundancy for Socrates since all education is liberating. I also show why without 'summoners' (a perception that strikes the relevant sense at the same time as its opposite) education would be impossible; hence, perplexity is a grace of Truth, since it awakens the soul to itself. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode, I discuss Plato's allegory of the cave at length, show its significance as an allegory of education as freedom. I compare the Platonic notion of education (which leads to a type of blindness) with St. John of the Cross's "Dark Night of the Soul" and show their similarities. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
We discuss the analogy of the sun and the way it is an image of the Good by being what gives knowables to knowers, and existence to "exist-ables." Moreover, the way the sun is beyond sight is also analogous to the way the Good is beyond knowledge and being. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode we talk about how - in one way - philosophy is powerless over sophistry, in that it cannot overpower and convince the sophist (on his own terms) about the value of philosophy and why the ruler should be philosophical. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode we talk about what the philosopher is, and why the philosopher must be the ruler of a just polis. We also talk about the fact that the philosopher is the one who can properly see the world they live in, because they are open to loving "the whole" and not just a part. This will play a key role in understanding Plato's allegory of the cave later in the dialogue. I finish by discussing the fact that belief is an icon/sign/sacramental of knowledge in that is shares in truth, but not fully - it's object is and is not...just like a sign communicates something that it isn't. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
Please subscribe and like to get notifications about future episodes in this series! Comments and questions below in the comment section! In this episode I discuss why the role of reproduction and the need for the many to share everything they have in order to share a single life...this is basically the description of polis as a political marriage bond. Questions and objections and thoughts welcomed (put them in the comments section)! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
n this episode I discuss why justice requires a common good, which entails that there must be a common happiness. To live in a polis is to share a single life - and hence a single happiness - with the other members of the polis. Questions and objections and thoughts welcome! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode I discuss how physical education (or training) is an image of and participation in musical education...both of which are about the harmonizing (or the making good) of that which would otherwise be discordant. This ultimately leads one to see that the body is an icon of the soul, and thereby they must be intrinsically (rather than extrinsically) related. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode I discuss what I call "Platonic Hylomorphism." Often Plato is thought to be a substance dualist, however, I argue that this is not the case. Rather, he should be thought to be in line with hylomorphism. Many know hylomorphism from Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas's works; however, I believe the basic idea of hylomorphism (the unity of two - body and soul - into a one - substance) can be found to underlie Plato's views on the diversity yet unity of education which he offers in book 3 of the Republic! Questions and objections and thoughts welcomed (put them in the comments section on youtube or email them)! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
I discuss the second half of book 2 of Plato's Republic. We will get into the question of the relationship between the individual and the city as images of each other - man is a microcosm of creation. I also discuss the often misunderstood passage about the noble lie and the role it plays in the education of the guardians. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
In this episode, I discuss the challenge raised by Glaucon concerning (a) the origin of justice, (b) that people are just only unwillingly, (c) the unjust life is more preferable than the just life. I also discuss the relationship between the city and the individual soul, the former being a macroscopic image (or icon) of the latter. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/creative-retrieval/message
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