Deep Talks: Exploring Theology and Meaning Making
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
As someone who loves cultural theology, I’m completely fascinated by ancient and modern myths and how those mythological stories serve as guiding stories for entire civilizations. Whether it is the ancient tales of Zeus and the Greek Olympian gods or the myths of virtuous super-human heroes and lazer sword wielding wizards that fill our comic book pages & big box office movie screens, I’m fascinated by what these stories reveal about our views on God, reality, what is good and evil, and what the telos of life is all about.
The secular narrative has claimed that human progress is hindered by religious narratives, and that just as Christianity displaced the old pagan stories, secularism has come to displace Christianity and will bring about a better world. But the era of secularity may be approaching its end as more and more people begging to question that story.
The clues that we are moving towards a post-secular Western world are increasingly finding their way into being embedded into our popular cultural stories. Take the recent DC comics movie “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” where the death of God, symbolically represented by the death of Superman, awakens an ancient sinister force to come and fill the vacuum of power- a sinister force that was once kept at bay by the old pagan gods.
In today’s episode, we’ll try to step into the ancient pagan world and understand their relationship to their guiding stories, grapple with the early Christian responses to pagan culture & mythology, and begin to see why the secular goal of creating a religiously “neutral” cultural space never actually creates a religiously neutral space.
For the article on C.S. Lewis and paganism that I quote in this episode, see here:
https://www.sacredarchitecture.org/articles/god_the_father_of_lights_c._s._lewis_on_christianity_and_paganism
If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon?
Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection!
Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together.
https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast
To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159
Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at:
https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner
Ep 99: Paul Vander Klay - Did Blockbuster Video Kill Church?
Ep 98: Gods, Wizards, Witches, & the End of Secularity - HERE COMES THE NEW GODS (Part 2)
Ep 97: Fr. Kenneth Tanner- Discovering a Better Christian Story
Ep 95: Ted Kim, John Mark McMillan, & Andy Squyres- RE-ENCHANTMENT
Ep 94: In Christ Alone? Salvation in a Pluralistic World (Part 3/Conclusion)
Ep 93: In Christ Alone? Salvation in a Pluralistic World- For the Bible Tells Me So (Part 2)
Ep 92: In Christ Alone? Salvation in a Pluralistic World (Part 1)
Ep 91: Jon Guerra- When Beauty Disarms Our Cynicism
Ep 90: Dan Kent & Paul debate Open Theism, Satan & Spiritual Warfare, & The Problem of Evil
Ep 89- Dr. John Walton- Answers in Genesis? Creation, Evolution, & The Lost Biblical World
Ep 88: The Problem of Evil Finale- The Most Beautiful of All Possible Songs
Ep 87: The Problem of Evil (Part 17)- In Conclusion | The Bible, Right-Ordered, Non-Ordered, & Dis-Ordered Suffering
Ep 86: Ted Kim- Finding the True Story in a Post-Secular, Cross-Cultural World
Ep 85: American Civil Religion- How Did We Get Here? w/ Adam Russell & The Ferment Podcast
Ep 84: The Problem of Evil- Greg Boyd & Thomas Jay Oord Conversation. Open Theism Vs. Essential Kenosis/God Can't
Ep 83: John Vervaeke - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
Ep 82: The Problem of Evil (Part 16)- Open Theism
Ep 81: The Problem of Evil (Part 15)- Process Theism | Creative Solution or A New Gnosticism?
Ep 80: Special Q&A Episode- Paul's Journey, Defining Meaning-Making, Mind Software, Hyper-Objects & More
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Hello Heaven Podcast
Cast The Word
Let Me Be Frank | Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Podcast | Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
The Kingdom Power Fellowship Podcast
The Bible Recap
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)