All Things Are Full Of Gods by David Bentley Hart. A summary and discussion

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

32:12

DaQuane Cherry was once the kid who wore a hoodie to hide skin flare-ups in school. Now he’s an artist and advocate helping others feel seen. He reflects on his psoriasis journey, the power of small joys, and why loving yourself first isn’t a cliché—it’s essential. Plus, a deep dive into the history of La Roche-Posay’s legendary spring. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.…

about a year ago 29:33

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All Things Are Full Of Gods is David Bentley Hart’s philosophical case for an idealist and theist understanding of consciousness, understood as an intertwining of mind, language and life. As he puts it: “Mind and life, and language too, are possibly only by way of a kind of “downward causation” that informs their “upward” evolution in particular beings.”
The book is also a careful debunking of materialist alternative explanations such as that mind emerges from matter, that consciousness is an illusion, or that consciousness doesn’t really exist at all; it is a careful examination of everything from eliminativism to integrated information theory, from the ideas of Daniel Dennett to those of Philip Goff.
Personally, I also hugely valued the book because it is, in a way, therapeutic. A nihilist cosmos has become default and it is not only intolerable to live in, it is gaslighting. A thought or experience is only possible because we have capacities for attention and intention, desire and perception, communication and participation - and following those qualities through, leads to the realisation that consciousness is not born in us, but that we are born in consciousness.
As on of his characters, Psyche, puts it: the mind’s “transcendental preoccupation with an infinite horizon of intelligibility that, for want of a better word, we should call God; and that the existence of all things is possible only as the result of an infinite act of intelligence that, once again, we should call God.”
David Bentley Hart’s repeated point, as his interlocutors propose and take apart the materialist explanations, is that everything we might experience explodes with meanings. That is what mind does, in response to the life within which it is immersed.
That said, the book ends on a downbeat note. Psyche hopes the we humans “might yet learn to know themselves in a new way as spiritual beings immersed in a world of spirit, rather than machines of consumption inhabiting a machine of production, and remember that which lies deepest within themselves: living mind, the divine ground of consciousness and life, participating in an infinite act of thought and communication, dwelling in a universe full of gods and full of God.” The book is, of course, an invitation and nudge to do so.

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All Things Are Full Of Gods by David Bentley Hart. A summary and discussion

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published about a year ago

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188 episodes

#Religion #Mark Vernon

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Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

1
What is really known about consciousness? A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon 47:11

4 days ago47:11

47:11

You may agree that the so-called hard problem of consciousness exposes the deep inadequacies of a materialist worldview. But the alternatives - various forms of panpsychism, panentheism and idealism - raise rich and fascinating questions, too. In this episode of The Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore the leading edge of consciousness research, with Rupert just back from The Science of Consciousness Conference 2025 in Barcelona. They discuss the impact of Indian researchers of consciousness and the proposals of microchip inventor, Federico Faggin. They consider trainings in extra-ocular vision and questions thrown up by the hit podcast series, The Telepathy Tapes . One thing is clear: when the materialist paradigm passes, the science of consciousness will have only just begun. For more on Rupert's work see - https://www.sheldrake.org/ For more on Mark's work see - https://www.markvernon.com/…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Awake! William Blake and the Power of Imagination. A conversation with Jane Clark and Nikos Yiangou 42:44

15 days ago42:44

42:44

In my book, I want to draw out two facets of William Blake, which I think get routinely sidelined now. My conversation with Jane Clark and Nikos Yiangou enabled us to explore these dimensions. One is that Blake was a very sharp thinker. He had a very accurate and clear critique of the ideas that were beginning to bed down in his time and have really shaped our times in the modern Christian West. A second is that he is a religious figure, which gets sidelined in two ways. He lived daily with perceptions of angels and other entities: the divine, the dead. I don't explain that away by pathologising Blake. He is also a clear Christian mystic, a very important voice in Western Christianity since the Reformation - connecting us back to a mystical core, which again is very often sidelined. For more about my book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination see - https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination For more about Beshara Magazine see - https://besharamagazine.org A transcript is online here - https://besharamagazine.org/podcast/mark-vernon-awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-imagination/ 0:00 Introductions 1:57 Blake as thinker and mystic 5:20 The power of the imagination 14:40 Blake and science 21:12 The interconnection of music and poetry 26:04 Innocence and wisdom 32:29 Blake's Christianity 39:57 Blake the philosopher…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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An Implosion of Light. Talking mystical experiences with James Harpur and Mark Vernon 54:19

24 days ago54:19

54:19

James Harpur’s new book, "Dazzling Darkness: The Lives and Afterlives of the Christian Mystics", begins with an account of a mystical experience that happened to him - “an implosion of light”, as he describes it. That led to his book, Dazzling Darkness, in pursuit of the path that leads to ultimate reality: God. Mark Vernon’s new book, "Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination", is the result of Mark’s engagement with his local mystic, William Blake, as well as practices based on encounters and texts including The Cloud of Unknowing. In this conversation they explore the nature of mystical experience, as well as the mystics that speak powerfully to them, from Saint Columba to William Blake, via Marguerite Porete and Teresa of Avila, Ramana Maharshi and Krishnamurti. For more on James’s book, Dazzling Darkness - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/dazzling-darkness/ For more on Mark’s book, Awake! - https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/awake/ 0:00 Two books on mysticism! 01:55 James’s mystical experience 07:00 Mark’s encounter through contemplative practice 11:58 The Irish mystics that speak to James 18:00 Living the porous life 22:49 Mysticism after monasticism 29:30 Church life and mystical life 32:01 Seeking spiritual directors 33:00 The voice of Krishnamurti 40:32 The presence amidst the diversity 42:30 What happens after the ecstasy? 52:00 Sustaining the double vision…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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The most insightful poet that ever lived. Iain McGilchrist & Mark Vernon on William Blake 1:00:54

5 weeks ago1:00:54

1:00:54

Iain McGilchrist calls William Blake “the least cosy of poets and one of the most insightful that ever lived.” Blake is cited more often than most figures in Iain’s great book, "The Matter With Things". So what did Blake express that might much matter now? How did he understand key features of our humanity such as the imagination and inspiration, as well as the character of our day? In this conversation, prompted by the publication of "Awake!", Iain and Mark often land on wonderful quotes of Blake to unpack them. ”To the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” “As a man is, so he sees.” "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite." They explore Blakean imagery such as the spiral shape of Jacob’s Ladder. Contemporary concerns are central too, from architecture to AI. Above all, they celebrate Blake as a figure who can guide our desires, aid us with the contraries of modern life, and sustain our faith that life is good, for all the ills that surround us. For more on Iain’s work - https://channelmcgilchrist.com For more on Mark’s work - https://www.markvernon.com Mark’s new book on William Blake is “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination” - https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination 0:00 No-one has imagination! 05:27 The narrowing of imagination 08:36 Fantasy and uncoupling 11:55 The misenchantment of the world 13:08 Place, space and architecture 16:26 Spiritually aware consumerism 19:43 The glowing presence of infinity 21:13 Cleansing the doors of perception 24:38 Speaking from the outside in 26:38 The failure of empathy and need for the sacred 31:24 Primary connection not separation 33:10 Blake’s orthodoxy 34:37 Jacob’s Ladder as a spiral 38:12 The good can hold the bad 39:55 Data, memory and AI 42:33 Memory that inspires 45:44 The enlivening of ritual 48:10 Blake on divine science 53:37 The character of things and insights 57:17 Distinctions without difference 59:28 Illuminating Blake and Dante…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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How to Live like William Blake! 55:14

7 weeks ago55:14

55:14

A conversation from History with Chris Harding. In Mark Vernon's new book "Awake!", he argues that we’re missing something from our view of the great visionary artist William Blake. It’s that word - ‘visionary.’ Mark argues that Blake’s extraordinary art reveals an expanded experience of the world that Blake lived with every day: angels, fairies, realms beyond our own. Blake wasn’t, in other words, making it all up… Mark says that we shouldn’t be afraid of the ‘supernatural Blake.’ We should embrace him - and even aspire to live a little as he did. 00:00 Introduction to William Blake 02:45 Blake's Life and Context 04:32 Blake and India 08:45 The Nature of Perception 13:06 Childhood Experiences and Spirituality 19:50 Blake's Relationship with Institutional Christianity 24:43 The Role of Forgiveness in Jesus' Teachings 26:05 Blake's Vision of the Human Form Divine 28:00 The Sacrificial Nature of Spiritual Awakening 29:28 Blake as a Social Critic 31:30 Blake and Science 35:21 The Dangers of Abstraction 36:19 Blake and consumerism 43:06 What does Blake offer us now?…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Awake! Albion awake! And let us awake up together! 3:35

7 weeks ago3:35

3:35

Recorded in St James’s Piccadilly, the church in which William Blake was baptised, with his life mask also present. Thoughts on Blake’s great call to us today from the launch of my new book, “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”.

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Top 10 William Blake quotes! The full countdown 3:44

7 weeks ago3:44

3:44

A taste of Blake’s genius and what he might mean for us. Celebrating the release of "Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination" by Mark Vernon. The full countdown: 10. I’ll sing to you to this soft lute, and shew you all alive The world, where every particle of dust breathes forth its joy. 9. I give you the end of a golden string; Only wind it into a ball, It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate, Built in Jerusalem’s wall. 8. Monos ho Jesus 7. The ruins of Time build mansions in Eternity. 6. If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. 5. To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour. 4. How do you know but every bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five? 3. It is right it should be so Man was made for Joy & Woe And when this we rightly know Thro the World we safely go Joy & Woe are woven fine A Clothing for the soul divine Under every grief & pine Runs a joy with silken twine 2. He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise. 1. There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find, Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find This Moment & it multiply, & when it once is found.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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On the Right Track. Liberty from left-brained analysis. William Blake’s path of perceptual expansion 26:49

7 weeks ago26:49

26:49

Acknowledging that there are complementary modes of perception has become commonplace. But left-hemisphere analysis can diagnose the problem without offering much sense of how better to incorporate the right. Which is where William Blake comes in. He describes the narrowing of perception from the perspective of the wider involvement. The result is a guide to participation that is simultaneously a path of transformation. He speaks of the sometimes useful but confined view called Ulro, which might give way to Generation – a second mode of perception – and then Beulah and, finally, Eternity. In this talk, I consider how each is known and how the one might lead to the other. For more on my book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, see - https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Loosening the mind-forged manacles. William Blake in words and songs 41:20

8 weeks ago41:20

41:20

A live conversation with Mark Vernon, Katy Carr and Dexter Bentley from the Hello Goodbye Show. Who was William Blake? What might his music have sounded like? What did he say about the imagination? Why might he understand our predicament today? Mark Vernon and Katy Carr joined Dexter Bentley on Resonance FM to talk William Blake on Saturday 31st May 2025. Katy played six songs - her settings of the Introductions from the Songs of Innocence and also from the Songs of Experience, as well as The Lamb and TheTyger, and finally London and The Blossom. For more on Mark see - https://www.markvernon.com/ For more on Katy see - https://katycarr.com/ For more on the Hello Goodbye Show see https://hellogoodbyeshow.com/ For more on the Idler - https://www.idler.co.uk/ Mark’s book is Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination (out June 2025 in the UK, September 2025 in the US).…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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The saint who ripped reality and rose like a sun. Francis and the apocalyptic fears of chaotic times 42:42

9 weeks ago42:42

42:42

Saint Francis was born into a world in a panic. The stabilities of the feudal world had collapsed with the rise of mercantilism. The gap between rich and poor was unsustainable and a new underclass was tearing apart the fabric of society. Then, there were the looming presence of the Mongols to the east and the transformative impact of the Islamic empire to the south - both conquerors plunging Christian Europe into an existential crisis. Doomster prophets, ferocious disputes, wild hopes and messianic saviours were commonplace. So what did the man from Assisi constellate in the extremities of his way of life? Who was this figure, beyond the sentimental portrayal that can so easily eclipse his intense radicalism? This talk explores the discoveries made by his followers - the scientia experimentalist of Roger Bacon, William of Ockham and Duns Scotus whose Franciscanism embraced Aristotelianism. It asks how the contraries embraced by Francis and the impossible path he traced might much matter now. For more on Mark see - www.markvernon.com His new book is Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

1
Does nature really obey laws? A dialogue with Rupert Sheldrake 41:52

10 weeks ago41:52

41:52

The conviction that the natural world is obedient, adhering to laws, is a widespread assumption of modern science. But where did this idea originate and what beliefs does it imply? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues , Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the impact on science of the Elizabethan lawyer, Francis Bacon. His New Instrument of Thought , or Novum Organum , published in 1620, put laws at the centre of science and was intended as an upgrade on assumptions developed by Aristotle. But does the existence of mind-like laws of nature, somehow acting on otherwise mindless matter, even make sense? What difference is made by insights subsequent to Baconian philosophy, such as the discovery of evolution or the sense that the natural world is not machine-like but behaves like an organism? Could the laws of nature be more like habits? And what about the purposes of organisms, and creativity?…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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"Enemies of the Human Race" William Blake on the disaster of atheism 24:38

11 weeks ago24:38

24:38

William Blake opens the third part of his epic poem, Jerusalem: the Emanation of the Giant Albion, with an astonishing remark. “He never can be a friend of the Human Race who is the Preacher of Natural Morality or Natural Religion.” The declaration is shocking because today, two hundred years since he first printed these lines, naturalistic explanations of morality and religion have become standard. Even amongst champions of Blake. But what did he mean? What did he propose as an alternative? And why might that matter now? An earlier version of this essay is in the current issue of Vala, the magazine of The Blake Society . Mark Vernon’s new book is Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination - out in June 2025 (UK), September 2025 (US) . Pre-order now !…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Merely Christianity? Discerning the Spirit of a Revival. A conversation with Elizabeth Oldfield 42:35

12 weeks ago42:35

42:35

There is undoubtedly a new spirit of interest in Christianity abroad in the presumed secular world. Some increases in church-going are even showing up in the stats. But what can be made of the curiosity? Is it straightforwardly to be welcomed? Are there dark sides to newfound enthusiasms? Elizabeth Oldfield is the author of Fully Alive and host of The Sacred Podcast. She has been engaging with the presence of Christianity and religion in society for many years, not least when she headed up the think tank Theos. Mark Vernon is the author of Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination amongst other books. His work as a psychotherapist draws him towards the inner significance of these changing times. The discussion ranges over the varieties of Christianity that people might encounter from the evangelical to the Orthodox. They explore how they have encountered shifts in attitude and ask how to discern what is going on. Questions of the huge range of responses to Jesus emerge as does the widely different ways in which people read the Bible. What is ours to judge? What might the Spirit be up to? For more on Ellzabeth’s work see - https://www.elizabetholdfield.com/ For more on Mark’s work see - https://www.markvernon.com/…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

1
The Unity of Being and the very great things Ibn ‘Arabi made of it 33:38

14 weeks ago33:38

33:38

Ibn ‘Arabi is arguably the greatest philosopher in the Islamic world, though controversial; Seal of the Mohammedan Saints, as he is known, alongside Shaykh al-Akbar, he is becoming more important again, especially against a backdrop of fundamentalism. Born into a noble family in Anadalusian, Moorish Spain, he adopted the Sufi way of life after a revelation. He was to leave Iberia and travel east across the Islamic empire. But what was his core teaching and understanding? What can he teach others drawn to a mystical participation in life?…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Andalusia and machine anxiety. How new technology in Moorish Spain sparked insights that help us now 27:36

14 weeks ago27:36

27:36

The extraordinary spread of Islam after 632 - from Central Asia to North Africa in a century - reached Europe from the eighth century, generating issues still energising to this day. Not ones of religion, though, but of technology. Within a few generations, the devices of the new civilisation hit the Iberian peninsula: vertical axis windmills, the clocks of Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi, astrolabes. Anxiety about machines, remaining to the present say, was born. Were we becoming uncoupled from the cosmos? How might our existence relate to our essence? Can the human mind still fit the divine mind? But with the technology came ideas, those discussed and disputed by Al-Ghazali, Avicenna, Averroes, Thomas Aquinas - all drawing on “the first teacher”: Aristotle. Their questions about occasionalism, the eternity of the cosmos, and unified intelligence can help us now. These reflections reveal how existence flows from divine being, the momentary nature of time reflects eternity, many minds echo the one intelligence. Their work offers us imaginative, spiritual space to refind participation with spirit and God as the millennia-long story of the machine continues.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Jesus is the only God. And so am I and so are you. William Blake’s mystical Christianity 18:30

14 weeks ago18:30

18:30

The first in a series of talks I’ll be posting in anticipation of my new book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, out in June/Sept (UK/US). Do consider pre-ordering! (Thanks: it really helps early sales and so bookshop notice.) “The best overall study of Blake I have encountered in a very long time. A joy to read, well worthy of its extraordinary hero,’ says Rowan Williams.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Christ the turning point. Owen Barfield in a secular age. A conversation with Ashton Arnoldy 1:32:04

19 weeks ago1:32:04

1:32:04

Owen Barfield was the genius Inkling, said CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But why does he so much matter today? They consider how Owen Barfield addresses the idea of secularism developed by Charles Taylor and why that might matter in a cultural moment that feels like a folk in the road. They speak personally of how Barfield touched them and why his insights might matter to the psychedelic renaissance. A central idea is that of polarity - moving beyond the dualisms that trap people, on the left and on the right, in a flatland mentality. They ask how Barfield’s vision of final participation can be understood, even experienced, in language, in nature, with Indigenous traditions, in sacrament. They also consider how Rudolf Steiner, so important to Barfield, might be appreciated critically. Fundamental is the Christian insight that the transcendent is also immanent, the many are reflections of the one, and that humanity shares in divine purposes. For more on Mark, including his book on Barfield’s understanding of Christianity - www.markvernon.com For more on Ashton - https://ciis.academia.edu/ashtonkohlarnoldy 0:00 Barfield's relevance today 06:47 Monotheism and the singular self 12:02 Encountering worlds of spirit 20:26 The task of integration 27:49 The ongoing Christian revelation 32:34 Steiner and politics today 44:03 The experience of polarity 49:22 Barfield and ecology 53:03 Taylor's interspace and imagination 56: 29 The divine power of language 01:01:08 Poetry and the evolution of consciousness 01:06:54 The past in the present and the future 01:11:09 Questions of identity 01:16:44 The future orientation of Christianity 01:21:09 Residual unprocessed positivism 01:25:38 Critical readings of Steiner 01:30:42 Concluding remarks…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Living in an Age of Spiritual Crisis. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake & Mark Vernon 57:07

21 weeks ago57:07

57:07

Much of the modern world has become uncoupled from the transcendent in a cultural experiment Nietzsche called the death of God. But might this spiritual crisis prove to be a time of rebirth? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, recorded live at an event organised by the Temenos Academy, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the evolution of wisdom traditions from west and east alongside the great modern enterprise called science and its continuing development. As the materialist, progressive ideology that has dominated the sciences for two centuries wanes, and as scientific studies show that religious and spiritual practices have major benefits for physical and mental health, what insights might we cultivate, as we live in and through these times? For more on the Temenos Academy - https://www.temenosacademy.org For more on Rupert - https://www.sheldrake.org For more on Mark - https://www.markvernon.com…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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The Abolition of Man, That Hideous Strength, Till We Have Faces. CS Lewis as prophet of dark times 1:18:52

24 weeks ago1:18:52

1:18:52

A discussion with Jason Baxter, Nicholas Colloff and Mark Vernon. The Abolition of Man is a series of three lectures given by C.S. Lewis in defence of objective value, arguing that modernity has undermined our humanity by uncoupling intellect from instinct. With hearts divorced from minds, first the world empties of presence, then life empties of meaning and people become “men without chests”. That Hideous Strength is a fictionalised version of the abolition, exploring the impact of transhumanism, aggressive rationalism, absent gods, and an inability to contemplate and know reality as it is. Till We Have Faces also tells of a world in which humanity is veiled and power rules, though in which gods make unexpected appearances and humanity is restored by learning to bear the weight of being once more. How do these works account for today? What remedies do they offer? Why might we keep reading them? 0:00 Introductions 01:47 The core ideas of The Abolition of Man 04:46 All truths cannot be relative! 09:38 The need for an aesthetic education 12:13 Owen Barfield on objectivity and subjectivity 20:02 Chivalry and recovering spiritual practices 28:25 A time in which everything is real 30:56 The core ideas in That Hideous Strength 39:48 The uninvited powers of material times 41:48 The need for wisdom communities 44:25 Why the Arthurian weaves in the story? 49:10 Learning about and learning from 53:21 Lewis's violence and the eruption of power 56:48 The core ideas in Till We Have Faces 59:45 The retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche 01:01:52 When truth is too much to bear 01:04:07 The recovery of humanity and the face of God 01:06:02 The value of myth and moving from the linear 01:09:30 Remaking or merely copying? A thought on Notre Dame 01:11:17 Emptying and the fullness of divine presence 01:12:58 Jane and Mark in the bridal chamber 01:15:35 When everything is the face of God Jason is Professor and Director of Center for Beauty and Culture, Benedictine College. For more - www.jasonmbaxter.com For more on Nicholas Colloff - https://ncolloff.blogspot.com For more on Mark Vernon - www.markvernon.com…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Evolution. From natural selection to omega point. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake 35:13

26 weeks ago35:13

35:13

Darwinian evolution shapes modern biology, but the notion of evolution has a wider history, too. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore linear and cyclical conceptions of human and cosmic evolution and ask what they can mean in the modern world, where innovation and evolution appear to be escalating. They consider the significance of two main principles within evolution, that of diversity and creativity, and how these elements can be embraced. They also ask about the difficulty of talking about evolution today, given the presence of intelligent design and creationism. An inability to discuss evolution in a wider context is a loss because evolutionary theory itself is sophisticated and interestingly contested, both in the realm of biology but spirituality: the so-called evolution of consciousness. The discussion includes the ideas of Pierre Tielhard de Chardin and Owen Barfield, Karl Popper and Henri Bergson. For other dialogues - https://www.markvernon.com/talks…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Physics and reality. Francis Lucille on the nature of matter, the flaws of panpsychism & God 1:17:14

27 weeks ago1:17:14

1:17:14

Francis Lucille is teaching of Advaita Vedanta who brings together nonduality with science, amongst other subjects, his past having been in physics. Here, he talks with Mark Vernon about the universality of consciousness and how that fits with modern physics, theories of consciousness and the inspiration of wisdom traditions. For more on Francis see - https://francislucille.com For more on Mark see - https://www.markvernon.com/ 0:00 Francis’s career in science and how that led him to nonduality 10:05 From Krishnamurti to Jean Klein 13:59 The difference made.by quantum physics 19:52 How pioneers. In quantum physics drew on eastern ideas 22.39 The limits of science and where metaphysics begins 32:11 Is there a science of consciousness? 37:21 Consciousness as basic, matter as derivative 39:06 Panpsychism and the thesis of emergence 48:05 The difference between meaning and information 53:13 The complexity of things and the simplicity of consciousness 01:01:37 The One in ordinary things, everyday awareness 01:04:41 Emanation in Plotinus, the dance of Parvati and Siva 01:08:40 On being children of light in the gospels…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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On Mysticism. With Simon Critchley on his new book, inc. figures from Mother Julian to Annie Dillard 1:22:51

28 weeks ago1:22:51

1:22:51

Mysticism is a modern word, as Simon Critchley discusses in his tremendous new book, On Mysticism. And its novelty is not a happy intervention in the history of mystics and their significance, Fundamental aspects of the insights pursued by figures such as Mother Julian and Meister Eckhart are obscured by the focus on peak or exceptional experiences. Our discussion seeks to gain a sense of recovery. We dwell on Mother Julian, in particular, and her idea about sin and suffering, weal and woe, and what she really meant by all shall be well. We think about the role of surrender in psychotherapy, writing and music, and the role of what Simone Weil called “decreation”. We ask about how philosophy might move on from “bloodless critique” to “watering flowers”. I think On Mysticism is a great book. It manifests the attention that it advocates and the revelations that come with active waiting. For more on Simon’s book see - https://profilebooks.com/work/on-mysticism/ For more on my forthcoming book on William Blake see - https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination 0:00 What is mysticism, what is it not? 12:02 The role of experience in mysticism 23:49 Mother Julian on hazelnuts 35:57 Mysticism and psychotherapy 41:09 Mother Julian’s truly radical theology 45:58 Universalism and the mystical way 57:40 Selfhood and surrender 01:12:57 Socrates the mystic and modern philosophy…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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In Search of Wild Gods. Reflections on Nick Cave and Tom Holland in conversation about Christianity 30:19

29 weeks ago30:19

30:19

Nick Cave and Tom Holland discussed Christianity in an event organised by Unherd entitled In Search of Wild Gods on Thursday 9th January 2025. Chaired by Freddie Sayers, the conversation revolved around whether and why there is renewed interest in Christianity. Tom Holland’s book Dominion has become a staple of learned comment, with its thesis that pretty much all the values that shape our society are Christian values. Nick Cave is currently on a global tour with tremendous, joyous, hard won songs conveying a distinctly revival feel. But are we in a culturally significant moment? The answers they gave are much worth considering. What do they find in church? What do they not want to find? What is about the weird and wonderful that so appeals to Tom Holland? What is about the mystical and inexpressible that attracts Nick Cave? The discussion brought little comfort for Christians who seek success by numbers or ecclesiastics hoping a panic about cultural Christianity will save the church. Rather, both Cave and Holland point to a kind of Christianity that opens onto the unknown, inspires the imagination, and enlarges the capacities of the human soul. 0:00 Why Nick Cave went back to church 6:15 How Nick Cave imagines God 9:30 Tom Holland's love of the weird 14:23 Holland's thesis about Christian values 17:10 Is there a Christian revival underway? 23:28 Christianity at its most compelling 28:13 Music as akin to religious experience…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Meister Eckhart's Christmas Sermon One. Where is the Word born and how? 33:23

33 weeks ago33:23

33:23

Sermon One (in Walshe, Complete Mystical Works) has become known as capturing the essence of Meister Eckhart’s thought. “Here, in time, we are celebrating the eternal birth which God the Father bore and bears unceasingly in eternity, because this same birth is now born in time, in human nature.” And why does this lofty thought matter? “What does it avail me that this birth is happening, if it does not happen in me? That it should happen in me is what matters.” Eckhart, therefore, offers a corrective to the way Christianity and indeed Christmas is usually articulated today. Where does this birth take place? Not in Bethlehem, not in a stable, not around 4BC, not even from Mary, but primarily “in the very purest, loftiest, subtlest part that the soul is capable of”. Only, is this itself not only too rarefied a form of Christianity, but one inadequate to our times, in denial of moral imperatives or simply a gospel of spiritual bypassing? In fact, precisely the opposite is the case. Without that birth of the Word in the soul, Christianity’s moral meaning is lost, its injunctions become pathways to demoralisation, with the happiness promised transitory or elusive. Eckhart, therefore, has crucial things to say to a church dedicated to filling people up with experiences and demands, as well as a time keen on practices that miss the stillness and silence he argues is fundamental. Rather, alongside the author of The Cloud of Unknowing and Mother Julian, Eckhart preaches the direct and easy path, that depends not on our efforts but on a capacity to not know and stay before the ground from which the Word is born. Unity with God is the purpose and promise of life - the secret that I feel is regularly absent in presentations of Christianity, though so much sought and needed.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

1
Forms and the Reformation of Science. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake 39:15

34 weeks ago39:15

39:15

Forms are all around us: clouds, flowers, creatures, even systems of thought and logical relations. And yet the nature of forms is rarely part of the modern scientific conversation. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the importance of forms and how they work. The need for form to account for life as we know it has been eclipsed by the mechanical philosophy of modern science that turned instead to forces, extrinsic causes and abstract laws. But the case can be made that science needs to revisit the notion of forms. Rupert’s own work draws much from that imperative. The existence of forms also matters in terms of explaining our relationship to others and the world around us. If the cosmos is more mind-like than matter-like than that means our sense of participation and communion is real. Indeed, it might be said that when we study and contemplate, our minds meet the intelligence implicit in all things, which itself arises from the divine intelligence that shapes existence itself.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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"Enemies of the Human Race." William Blake on how to know God 11:38

35 weeks ago11:38

11:38

The new issue of VALA, the magazine of the Blake Society, is all about God. I've an article in it on Blake's mystical knowledge of God. "I am in you, you are in me, mutual in love divine." Blake could hardly have been stronger in his views that naturalistic explanations for religion, and what would now be called non-real theologies, are inadequate - and, indeed, insufficient in accounting for the human imagination and yearning for the infinite. Have a listen to the talk on what is misunderstood about Blake's view of God. And then read the article for why he thought non-theistic humanisms just won't do! You can download VALA here - https://blakesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/VALA-5.pdf My piece is entitled, "Enemies of the Human Race".…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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The gospel, sexual desire and the abuse scandals in the church. What has the erotic to do with God? 31:37

36 weeks ago31:37

31:37

The resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury has highlighted the horrendous nature of abuse in the church and also the church’s difficulties in dealing with these individuals. But is focusing on individuals enough or trying to address these matters through safeguarding and moral injunctions? Those elements are no doubt necessary. But I think also not sufficient. Recent events have reminded me of the extreme naivety around sex that exists in conservative Evangelical circles. And no doubt in other contexts as well. That can conceal deviant behaviour but is also a failure to understanding the nature of gospel, in my view. In these thoughts, I explore how in mystical Christian traditions, as well as those with an interest in inner life and the path to God, the erotic is understood as a key mode of awakening and energy. For if sex is about wanting to have and be had by another, that is but a reflection of the yearning to be one with God, the true promise of the gospel: “oneing” with the divine, as Mother Julian and the author of the Cloud of Unknowing put it. I turn to the insights of Plato, Origen, Dante and William Blake to draw out these themes. And also consider the parables of Jesus and his encounters with various individuals in the gospels as expressions of this deeper yearning, which he seems to have released in them and which might be foster in us, too - with discernment, honesty and wisdom. 0:00 My experience of Christian evangelical camps 2:50 Sex as a symptom of erotic desire for God 6:05 Plato’s insights about the body and why that is discarded 11:09 Origen on God’s kisses 14:09 The mystics understanding of “Onening” 15:05 Dante’s transformation of his desire for Beatrice 17:05 Blake on the erotic discovery that all things are holy 21:05 The erotic in the gospels and the notion of philia 21:40 Jesus’s encounters and his parables as desire for God 29:26 The abuse crises call for a lost Christianity…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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The Turn of the Tide. Martin Shaw & Mark Vernon talk about discerning the New Christian moment 1:21:59

39 weeks ago1:21:59

1:21:59

Martin Shaw and Mark Vernon return for a second conversation following Martin’s embrace of Orthodox Christianity. The first conversation, entitled The Mossy Face of Christ, can be found on my YouTube channel. They discuss what is happening with the apparent resurgence of interest in Christianity, not least in relation to Martin’s new course, The Skin-Boat and the Star. How can we discern the times and best participate in it? They explore the legacy of Christianity that can be such a block for people today and how the withdrawal of faith in contemporary culture may be a precursor to a rediscovery. They ask about the different styles of Christianity that are emerging amongst the so-called New Christians and how to discern the spirits. Martin discusses the way in which his quest has not ceased but become more focused, transformed by unexpected depths. Mark asks about living in modern times and resisting the temptation to invoke a negative energy, but instead . They explore the teaching of Jesus and being in the world whilst not wholly of it, as well as subversive acts of beauty that bring light and levity to the gravity of the moment. For more on Martin Shaw see - http://drmartinshaw.com/ For more on Mark Vernon see - https://www.markvernon.com/ 00:00 The unfolding of Martin's experience 02:32 The Skin-Boat gathering 06:44 Why Christianity puts people off 10:50 Understanding participation 15:07 Beauty and pinpricks of eternity 20:57 Being in the world and not of if 26:51 Political and spiritual power 32:04 What are you going to stand for 36:50 Finite life and infinite desire 40:40 Deepening the quest not ending it 41:39 The paths that lead to God 44:41 The centrality of devotion 49:01 Losing life to find it 55:47 Theosis in the western tradition 01:00:01 Mysticism and the Christianity of tomorrow 01:05:25 Injecting joy into the machine 01:10:10 The love that sees over horizons 01:15:17 Why Jesus stunned people 01:20:21 Dialogue and yearning for God…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Purposes in nature and minds. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake 30:06

40 weeks ago30:06

30:06

One of the premises of modern science is that nature is devoid of purposes. Instead, purposeless explanations for phenomena are sought. And the strategy has proved hugely productive. Except that allusions to purpose never quite fade from the scientific imagination. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon explore the ways in which the natural world is indeed full of purposes, both at the level of the so-called inanimate, as well as in the living world, and the reality we know most immediately and best, namely our own lives and consciousness. The discussion ranges over a range of matters, from the growth of embryos to the attractive nature of gravity and the tendency towards order and beauty. An implication of the presence of purpose in nature and minds is a need to rethink phenomena such as matter and power. And there is an obvious reason that purpose keeps reappearing in scientific accounts, namely that purposes are present in all things. Mark's discussion of David Bentley Hart’s book, All Things Are Full Of Gods, mentioned in the discussion can be found as an early post on this podcast.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Does the Consolation of Philosophy offered by Boethius, still work, 1500 years on? 34:30

40 weeks ago34:30

34:30

The 1500th anniversary of the death of Boethius more than likely falls in 2024. He asks a key question: how to find true, lasting, reliable happiness? His answer, The Consolation of Philosophy, was a mediaeval bestseller, massively influencial, and is also very readable. So what do Boethius and, in particular, Lady Philosophy tell us?…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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All Things Are Full Of Gods by David Bentley Hart. A summary and discussion 29:33

42 weeks ago29:33

29:33

All Things Are Full Of Gods is David Bentley Hart’s philosophical case for an idealist and theist understanding of consciousness, understood as an intertwining of mind, language and life. As he puts it: “Mind and life, and language too, are possibly only by way of a kind of “downward causation” that informs their “upward” evolution in particular beings.” The book is also a careful debunking of materialist alternative explanations such as that mind emerges from matter, that consciousness is an illusion, or that consciousness doesn’t really exist at all; it is a careful examination of everything from eliminativism to integrated information theory, from the ideas of Daniel Dennett to those of Philip Goff. Personally, I also hugely valued the book because it is, in a way, therapeutic. A nihilist cosmos has become default and it is not only intolerable to live in, it is gaslighting. A thought or experience is only possible because we have capacities for attention and intention, desire and perception, communication and participation - and following those qualities through, leads to the realisation that consciousness is not born in us, but that we are born in consciousness. As on of his characters, Psyche, puts it: the mind’s “transcendental preoccupation with an infinite horizon of intelligibility that, for want of a better word, we should call God; and that the existence of all things is possible only as the result of an infinite act of intelligence that, once again, we should call God.” David Bentley Hart’s repeated point, as his interlocutors propose and take apart the materialist explanations, is that everything we might experience explodes with meanings. That is what mind does, in response to the life within which it is immersed. That said, the book ends on a downbeat note. Psyche hopes the we humans “might yet learn to know themselves in a new way as spiritual beings immersed in a world of spirit, rather than machines of consumption inhabiting a machine of production, and remember that which lies deepest within themselves: living mind, the divine ground of consciousness and life, participating in an infinite act of thought and communication, dwelling in a universe full of gods and full of God.” The book is, of course, an invitation and nudge to do so.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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How does memory work? A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake 39:32

45 weeks ago39:32

39:32

No one knows. Repeated experiments have failed to locate where memories are stored in the brain, casting doubt on the conventional assumption that memories are stored as material traces. In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss various kinds of memory, from episodic memory to habits. They consider how memory is linked to emotion and place, drawing on insights from Aristotle to AN Whitehead. Rupert’s own work has led to the theory of morphic fields, within which all self-organising systems dwell. They also ask about Indian ideas of memory and how that is related to ideas about reincarnation and the possibility that everything that exists lives, in some way, in the memory of God.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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0:00 / 19:22 What did Socrates teach? Or why you only understand Plato if he is decolonised 19:22

48 weeks ago19:22

19:22

What Socrates taught is, of course, the wrong question. For, if there is one thing that Plato is quite clear about, it is that Socrates taught nothing. Something else is going on when you encounter this figure. So what is it? In this talk I look first at common errors concerning Plato, such as that he pitched body against soul or thought poets were best banned. Other mistakes include treating his philosophy as a training in eudaimonia and reading his dialogues as stages in his philosophical development - the early ones being close to the historical Socrates, the middle ones being the mature Plato, the late ones being the disillusioned Plato. Similarly, Socrates did not seek definitions. The irony, given the sensitivity to this charge often from philosophers who misread Plato, is that this is a colonial reading of Plato. Scholars like Julia Annas have shown that reading Plato changed during the period of the British empire, when texts like Plato’s Republic came to be treated as a manifesto for young minds in public schools being preparing to rule the world. Before that, Plato Plato was understood not to have a message but instead a path. Roughly speaking, the aporetic dialogues - the ones that end in radical uncertainty - offer a preparation in the form of an undoing. Then, next, into that space, the visionary dialogues speak. I'm indebted to the scholar Sara Ahbel-Rappe for so clearly stating that Socrates stands for a mode of being, thereby imparting a taste for it, stirring a love of it. Socrates can't give that presence, because it is already within you. This awareness actually already belongs to us, and we sense a distant yearning for it because of feeling separate from it, through ignorance or forgetting. The way back is to clear the space that makes us more ready to know it once more. This is the meaning of the message Socrates received from the Delphic oracle: knowing yourself means knowing yourself, at base, to know nothing because all your theories or assumptions or certainties will turn out to be limited or straightforwardly wrong. Take that on board and then, regarding yourself as poor, come to know the richness of life, which is not eudaimonistic but rather theotic: a participation by contemplation, or theoria, in God. That divine end, stressing the inadequacy of an isolated sense of our humanity, must be the fundamental reason why Plato is so widely dissed. He ready does offend, though in Socrates saw why that disquiet is so wonderfully worth undergoing.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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To see a world in a grain of sand. Poetry & philosophy for a civilisation in distress. A conversation with Valentin Gerlier 49:50

51 weeks ago49:50

49:50

What has poetry to do with philosophy? Why might poetry particularly matter now? How did figures from Plato to Einstein value the poetic voice? Valentin Gerlier and Mark Vernon return for another conversation about the manner in which we humans are gifted with symbolic as well as cognitive imaginations. They ask why we keep returning to poets such as William Blake and William Shakespeare, how the wellspring of a civilisation is found in its mythos, and whether a literal age might be recovering the age of sense of transcendence that is also immanent. In short, they ask why seeing a world in a grain of sand, and not just a grain of sand in a grain of sand, might matter. Their first conversation was released as Heaven in a Wild Flower.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

1
Hallam v the State, and free speech. The Just Stop Oil desecrations are calling to our humanity 26:52

1 year ago26:52

26:52

Just Stop Oil and the imprisonment of Roger Hallam and others has provoked an outcry, on both sides of the dispute. And the heightened emotions have made me think. What's going on here? What is at stake? I suspect that what’s being missed is something fundamental to human society and how we participate in a wider environment, and that can be discerned more fully by considering the true nature of freedom of speech. I draw on a talk given by Joseph Milne at the excellent Temenos Academy. The archive of talks can be found here - https://www.temenosacademy.org/main-lecture-archive/ The approach is to consider what freedom of speech meant to our ancestors, so as to cast a light on the present. Aristotle's thoughts in the Politics is key, as speech for him is what makes human society - speech understood as a sharing the wider rationality and intelligence of the animate cosmos. Justice, then, is an exercise in the bonds of friendship, which is very different from an exercise in rights and the will to power. The limits of social contract theories, the mainstay of modern understandings, are on display. And what we need to recover are other ways of speaking freely - modes of dialogue and discourse that aren't primarily about proposition or facts, but commitments, relationships, devotions, celebrations.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Chance and accidents, indeterminism and prayer. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake 38:19

1 year ago38:19

38:19

Randomness and luck, fate and providence. How do these facets of life relate to one another? Or is everything, actually, mechanically determined with synchronicities, say, being no more than coincidences? In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the ways in which philosophers and scientists, ancient and modern, have imagined and explored notions of causality and sympathy in nature, alongside fortune and calamities. The ideas of Aristotle and Boethius provide a striking background against which to consider more recent scientific work. Rupert also demonstrates how fields can influence seemingly random effects using a Galton Board - a remarkably profound analogue for, say, practices such as prayer.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Cultural Christianity kills. Taking Blake's Christianity seriously. William on Jesus 51:06

1 year ago51:06

51:06

At one level, Blake is clearly Christian. It’s even trivial to say so. And yet, his identification with Jesus is often sidelined, even written out, of accounts of the poet's work today. There are many reasons for this neglect: an understandable disillusionment with Christianity; the replacement of participative Christianity with cultural Christianity and its stress on moral law; the rise of atheism in the 19th century; the colonisation of literary studies with secular assumptions. But Blake is quite clear: without the divine vision, focused on Jesus the imagination and the centrality of the continual incarnation, the golden string he offers us today, will not lead to heaven's gate. So what type of Christianity does he champion? How does he communicated it? And why is it still so needed, 200 years on. This talk was originally given to the Blake Society. 0:00 Introduction 0:47 The centrality of a continual incarnation 6:00 His links with Orthodoxy and mystical Christianity 9:44 The place of Jesus 11:31 Transfiguration as a foretaste of Eternity 12:34 The divinity of the woman caught in adultery 14:36 Jesus in the poem Jerusalem 16:00 "I have power to raise from death" 18:50 The breath divine or Spirit in Blake 19:58 Union with Jesus 21:25 The purpose of forgiveness 24:00 The meaning of self-annihilation 27:54 Inspired by the Gita 29:31 A commodious Christianity 33:26 The failure of naturalism and the cosmos as a closed system 38:34 The inhumanity of atheistic humanism 40:33 Mystical Christianity and participation with nature 44:09 Ethical Christianity divides: religion hid in war 46:53 "Thy own humanity learn to adore". Restoring humanism 49:18 "There is a moment in each day". Blake's apocalypse is now…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Trans activism, transhumanising, economic transition. Proxies for vision & the lost soul of politics 17:40

1 year ago17:40

17:40

Three “trans” issues seem to be proxies for vision in contemporary politics, feeding the sense of despair and disillusion. Trans activism, which is not the same as trans pathology. Transhumanising, the techno-utopian dream of tomorrow. Transitioning the economy, moving from extractive consumption. All three are about qualities of relationship: - to our bodies - to our minds - to the rest of the natural world. And I wonder if all three are missing a common element: an understanding of soul. I draw on thoughts made by Rowan Williams at the Realisation Festival 2024. My previous thoughts on disillusionment in politics can be found in my feed, too, looking at Plato on beauty, Aristotle on ethics, Jesus on being in the world but not of it, Dante on civilisational decline, Blake on abstraction, and Barfield on literalism.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Cut off in the literal age. Owen Barfield & Carl Jung on alienation and political disillusionment 18:47

1 year ago18:47

18:47

There is a link between rising levels of mental-ill health and political disillusionment. Feeling cut off is not just an economic and psychological problem, but is a symptom of a wider alienation arising from modern consciousness. Owen Barfield argued that contemporary political problems are fundamentally due to estrangement not only from others but from ourselves, due to a loss of soul and spirit to materialism and literalism. As Carl Jung put it, the gods have become diseases – diseases of the collective as well as individual psyche. The pre-political must address this crisis of anthropology if politics is to be restored. This is the sixth thought in which I’ve turned to a guide to illuminate the overwhelming feeling of malaise in this democratic year. Look at others on my YouTube channel: Plato on beauty, Aristotle on ethics, Jesus on being in the world but not of it, Dante and civilisational decline, and William Blake on the rise of abstraction.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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To Generalise is to be an Idiot. William Blake on politics, disillusionment and abstraction 13:25

1 year ago13:25

13:25

William Blake lived during the period in which the modern world was born. A prophet, he detected the tendencies that now powerfully shape our age. The love of abstraction was high on his list of troubles. Such generalisations profoundly shape politics today. Politicians sell themselves on whether they will boost the economy, drive up growth, fight inflation, and I think the rhetoric is itself alienating, dumbing, dreary. Vision departs, imagination declines, disillusionment becomes the norm. Accept for when it doesn't - hence the rise of popularism, too. Abstractions infect the arts and humanities, as well. They have become a way of life. So what is Blake's analysis?…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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God, sexuality & the psyche. CS Lewis and Sigmund Freud tabletalk. Thoughts on Freud’s Last Session 22:49

1 year ago22:49

22:49

The new movie Freud’s Last Session is well worth a watch, particularly if either man is of interest. The issues you might expect are aired between them, not least belief in God. But also the more shadowy sides to their lives - Lewis’s relationship with Janie Moore, Freud’s with his daughter Anna. I enjoyed it, though also wondered if they might have discussed other things and found common ground. There’s more about the film here - https://www.sonyclassics.com/film/freudslastsession…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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The fullness of life. A conversation with Rupert Sheldrake 34:29

1 year ago34:29

34:29

At school, we learn that being alive is to possess certain functions, from respiration to reproduction. But what is life and why can the word “life” be used more widely than referring only to biological life? In the latest episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon consider the meaning of saying that stars have a lifecycle, and that rocks and atoms can be ascribed a biography, in that they undergo processes of becoming. They discuss A.N. Whitehead’s argument that so-called inanimate objects need to be considered as organisms and that life must also include the experience of being alive, which is to say consciousness and mentality. The powers of nature and the connection of all life, not least in terms of the idea of Gaia, lead them to ask how God can be said to be the origin and sustainer of life. Asking what life is dramatically expands the notion of life and the awesome nature of being alive.…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Rendering to Caesar. Jesus on politics and the kingdom that is within 13:31

1 year ago13:31

13:31

I've been thinking about politics and disillusionment that seems most characteristic of now, in the West at least, and thinking about the prepolitcal - what politics needs to work well. I've thought about Plato on beauty and Aristotle on ethics in previous posts. Now a third guide, Jesus on... which isn't immediately easy to say. And that's the point. Some would say that Jesus and politics is easy to define. - a preference for the poor - the prosperity gospel - or Christian exceptionalism and oppressive regimes. But the heart of Jesus and politics is not in practical policies or polities, I believe. He was in the world but not of the world. He stood for something more than was immediately obvious or practical He constantly acted so as to respond to the moment but so as to allow more to come in. That was why he talked of the kingdom that is near, revising apocalyptic expectations and ushering the transformation of the self. I mentioned David Lloyd Dusenbury's book, I Judge No One - see here https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/i-judge-no-one/ And my book, A Secret History of Christianity - see here https://www.markvernon.com/books/a-secret-history-of-christianity…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Beauty and the failure of politics. An election dispatch from ancient Athens 11:40

1 year ago11:40

11:40

Disillusionment with politics is probably the most obvious feature of the current mood. This is, in part, because politics has collapsed onto anxiety about material improvement and lost sight of much more. In a secular society in which this facet of wellbeing is increasingly hard to deliver, politics appears therefore to be failing. So now is a good moment to consider what is sometimes called the pre-political - the more that politics needs. And a first thought comes from Plato, who would highlight the matter of beauty. He felt that if you lose touch with that, you lose touch with too much, and a loveless, ugly society would follow. Why does beauty matter? How come it is so unfashionable now, even embarrassing? What is it to be educated in beauty? Where can it be found?…

Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts

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Ethics and the failure of politics, or why ethics is part of the problem. A dispatch from Athens 12:57

1 year ago12:57