Forging Ploughshares

Here is a repeat of an earlier episode on René Girard pointing to our upcoming class with Michael Hardin.  Paul and Frank have a conversation about the work of Girard, who has given us a tremendously useful and biblical understanding of the scapegoat mechanism which shapes all culture. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Jordan Wood answers a series of question on duality and nonduality, contemplation, embodiment, and time, in his explanation of Maximus the Confessor. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood delineates two forms of evil, privation and false incarnation in Maximus, and also discusses the object of human desire as the determinate good of incarnation. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

The Lamb sacrificed from the foundation of the world is the singular Logos from which creation proceeds and holds together.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood explains how it is that the processes of being human are exceeded by the telos of deification, the fulfillment or end but also the beginning of what it means to be human. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The comprehensible yet infinite depth of the universe grounding modern science and medicine arises both through the understanding that God is legislator and creator and that in Christ this person is working not only as designer and sustainer but healer and controller, such that the person and not the laws are in control. This understanding was extended into science by the philosophy of Michael Polanyi who saw the necessity of the personal in faith for understanding the world. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood, in this conclusion to the discussion on the person of Christ answers a series of questions on personhood and provides a unique insight into the foreknowledge of God in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood, in this lecture discusses the personhood of Christ, the role or meaning of such terms as natural, Logos, and hypostatic union, and he critiques the work of David Bentley Hart in failing to grasp the implications of the neo-Chalcedonian understanding. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood focuses in on the key passage in Maximus explaining the whole mystery of Christ as this pertains to all things, but particularly the role of personhood and identity in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood concludes the discussion of Maximus and synthesis, explaining how Christ, even in the midst of sin and false synthesis or through the passions, brings all things together in his life and the life of the Christian. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The Western tradition from Augustine and Descartes has developed focus on thought, propositions and doctrine separated from practice and ethics. This disembodied form of the faith stands in contrast to Paul's description of being embodied - living sacrifices and it contrasts with the Eastern understanding exemplified in Maximus the Confessor. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood introduces the controversies surrounding the life of Maximus and also introduces the framework of his theology as cosmic incarnation, providing a synthesis for all things.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In 2 Corinthians Paul describes the letter or scripture as deadly, as this unenduring reality is not an end in itself. Absolutizing the symbolic order in law or in some form of moral imperative leads directly to evil, not because this is a possible reality but because it obscures the truth that freedom comes from God and there is no autonomous realm of law, nature, reason, or will. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In this concluding discussion of Orientalism Jon, Tim, Jim, Simon, Brian, Jonathan, and Paul, consider how human understanding is subject to cultural and nationalistic ideology, shaping science, psychology, and impacting Christianity, particularly in Japan and the United States. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Peter says we are partakers of the divine nature, which the early church called theosis or divinization. This is a concept obscured by western atonement theories and the taking up of Greek philosophical thought, but which in G.W.F. Hegel is reappropriated and expressed as obtaining God's consciousness. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

John, Jim, Brian, and Paul discuss how Japan reversed western notions of orientalism, particularly in psychology, so as to create a unified national identity dealing in death in both inward self-identity and outward colonialism. Japan is a case in point of how cultures reify death and obscure the truth of what it means to be human. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In Philippians 2 Paul spells out an alternative picture of God and reality which is often thought to be an exception, but God poured out in Kenotic love on the cross is an alternative conception of God, reality, truth, thinking and consciousness. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt explains to Jon, Tim, Simon, Jim and Paul how Sergius Bulgakov's sophia provides and explanation for the wisdom to be found in the Gita and world religions. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Christian nationalism, the Trump Bible (including the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence in the Bible), and Christian Zionism, confuse the City of God with the city of man and the Word of God with the word of man. It is a blasphemous religion on the order of the faith of Judaizers who would displace the Gospel with law and with the anti-Christ John warned would infiltrate the Church. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt Welch, explains to Simon, Jim, Tim, Matthew, Jonathan, Brian, and Paul the work of Sergius Bulgakov on sophiology and how this provides an opening for understanding world religions.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.