Underland

Book 1: An Illumination of Matthew      Part 1: The Dark Ground of Christ      Chapter 3: Revolutionary Ferment      This episode concludes Part 1: The Dark Ground of Christ.  I look at the John the Baptist "moment" and the densely symbolic temptation sequence together as providing the final external and internal preparations for Christ to emerge.    1:03 – What John the Baptist represents     2:56 – The social position and values of the Sadducees    4:12 – The social position and values of the Pharisees    5:28 – The two-party governing body of the Sanhedrin    6:23 – The John the Baptist moment / movement    7:51 – The Jewish-Roman wars in the background of the Gospels     9:03 – The ambiguity of John’s vocation: “clearing the way”    9:56 – The transfer of authority & expectation at Jesus’ baptism    11:27 – Jesus’ need to become intimately acquainted with Satan    13:31 – What did Jesus do during his 20’s?     14:17 – Time to be born (an existential sermonette)     15:38 – The actuality of Jesus’ temptation    16:53 – Temptation 1: meet everyone’s concrete/immediate needs    20:09 – Answer 1: we live not by bread alone, but by every divine word    22:48 – Temptation 2: do a publicity stunt    24:31 – Answer 2: do not put YHWH (Being) to the test      26:34 – Temptation 3: give yourself to pursuing political power to do the “greatest” good     29:51 – Answer 3 is ultimately what Jesus actually did instead of pursuing power

Book 1: An Illumination of Matthew Part 1: The Dark Ground of Christ Chapter 2: Of Dreams & Magi This recording reflects my thinking process with respect to this chapter, which aims to be a commentary on Matthew 1:18-2:23. I open up a discussion of a psychoanalytic picture of dreaming, and of Christianity's debt to Zoroastrian religion. I have not clarified my theses yet, so the thinking here is circling around a center which remains dark. I am including headings below to aid in following the train of thought. I am looking for people to think with me, so please share any reflections or questions with me. 0:15: Joseph & Joseph: the dream of grandiosity & the grandiosity of the dreamer - 1:25: What does “dreaming” have to do with actual dream-specimens? - 2:15: Dreaming within Wilfred Bion’s metabolic model of ‘learning from experience’ - 4:05: Freud as pioneer opening up the terrain of dream exploration in the modern world - 6:02: The dream as the link, in the modern world, to myth and religion - 8:35: Teleology and trickery in dream life - 10:30: Jung and the creative unconscious - 11:20: Freud’s “historical-critical” approach to the sacred text of the dream - 12:32: The will to conceal and the will to reveal in the dream-intelligence - 13:30: Herod and the magi, Herod’s paranoia - 15:07: Who are the magi? Christianity’s relationship to the religions of the East - 16:41: The split between fundamentalism and “everything is the same” - 18:15: “We saw his star rising in the east” - 19:02: Magi & the Zoroastrian religious development - 21:58: Zoroastrian concept of “Asha” as precursor of the logos - 24:04: The Zoroastrian origin of the messianic golden age - 25:14: Duality and the differentiation of Yahweh and Satan - 28:16: The 'Ransom' view of atonement vs. penal substitutionary atonement - 29:57: Schelling’s ontotheological view and the “pre-temporal sequence” - 33:28: The East-West gradient of religion - 35:55: The heart of Zoroastrian dualism: the truth and the lie - 36:48: 2nd temple Judaism, “the teacher of righteousness,” and messianic expectation - 39:35: The radical humility & unusual self-interpretation of the exilic community

What is Underland? One way I'm answering is: that it is an experiment in living, breathing, systematic semiotics. Here, I take an initial stab at defining what I think that means. Ultimately, this will take its definition from what unfolds over time - what Underland becomes.

Book 1: An Illumination of the Gospel of Matthew Part 1: The Dark Ground of Christ Chapter 1: The Biblical Dialectic of History This episode inaugurates the show, the series, and the first part. I'm looking at Matthew 1:1-17, and exploring the question of history as it is framed by the Bible, reading Christ as the fulfillment of the classical Hebrew tradition. I'm attempting to reveal my thinking process in Fall of 2020 as I sit with the Gospel of Matthew and, in the background, Schelling's Ages of the World.