The Roots of Everything

The "hero's journey" is essentially male; what is the female equivalent? Today we explore archetypes in folk stories, mythology, Orthodoxy, and pop culture alike. Why are these archetypal stories about girls still resonant, and what can they tell us about feminine virtue?

The religious conversation about "headship" and "submission" in marriage is confused by our modern narratives about oppression, power, and secular equality. But what if I told you that the fundamental element constituting hierarchy was love?

PARENTAL ADVISORY: This episode may contain some adult themes. Masculine and feminine are constantly portrayed in the Bible and mythology as fundamental aspects of the cosmos: creator and creation, heaven and earth, Yin and Yang, husband and wife. How do these dynamics work, and what happens when they go wrong?

Before we can begin to have the conversation about the role of women in culture or religion, we need to go back to the basics on sex and gender, because a female is not merely a biological reality; the feminine is one of the cosmic, enchanted elements of being itself.

Everyone knows that Tolkien started the fantasy literature genre, but it wasn't the fantastical that made it special; it was his moral, imaginative framework, especially in contrast with later disenchanted fantasy stories like Harry Potter.

In the transition from newspaper to radio to film and TV, the Western world transitioned to picture-thinking, the most powerful force in shaping our imaginative framework. Movies become profoundly influential, and Star Wars becomes a cultural phenomenon.

The early fathers of science had grand visions for the domination of the earth and the future utopia, but it isn't until the 20th century's pop culture that their ideas become firmly implanted in the imaginative framework of Westerners.

With the World and Cold Wars of the 20th century, Western culture sees the rise of something it had never experienced before: youth culture. But sex, drugs, and rock and roll aren't just pastimes: they become our new cultural mythology.

The 19th century was home not only to many brand-new American religions but also to a large philosophical movement towards esotericism, mysticism, and new-age thinking that would influence all the major social movements of the time.

America is the birthplace of an astounding number of new religions, but what's surprising is that many of them have their starting place, directly or indirectly, in a specific time and place: Upstate New York in the 19th century.

It's often admitted that America has a strong Protestant influence, but what were the actual beliefs of these colonial religions? Utopianism, Kabbalism, and the belief that America is a new Israel are just a few of the ideas that characterize early American Protestantism.

Is the United States a Christian nation? While the colonies mostly consisted of Protestants fleeing the European wars of religion, the answer is complicated by the strange new beliefs of many of these groups and the occult religious interests of the Enlightenment thinkers.

"Feminism" is a modern, secular ideology with many different, conflicting manifestations. Today we explore the roots of this movement, and contrast it with the way Orthodoxy defines and grounds the dignity of the person—male and female alike. Follow Dr. Zachary Porcu: https://zacharyporcu.substack.com/

Despite it's triumphant optimism, the Enlightenment and scientific revolution didn't lead to utopia, but instead to the complete breakdown of the idea of truth. How did scientific rationalism lead to postmodernism, neo-Marxism, and nihilism? Find out on today's episode.

While we often think of the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution as "unbiased" or "neutral", the reality is that, historically, the thinkers behind these movements were in fact quite biased and had a particular project in mind: destroying the past.

While modern secularism is famous for being skeptical, the Reformation actually played a central role in destroying the religious culture of Europe and paving the way for the Enlightenment. Martin Luther is doing the same sort of project as Descartes!

How do you know what you know? It's a simple question but trying to answer it reveals something very deep about our culture: an almost neurotic fixation on doubt. Why are we like this? Where did it begin? Join me as we embark on one of the most defining topics of our era.

For being supposedly non-religious, secular people are surprisingly interested in weird phenomenon, everything from A.I. worship to UFOs to drug-induced mystical experiences. It's almost like we're building new religions—but how new are they, really?

Can we build a god out of A.I.? As it turns out, the ancients were already doing much the same thing, and the "science of idol-making" is a recognized technique going back many centuries. Is what we're doing with A.I. the same? Are idols real creatures?

Because modern people tend to think of ourselves as irreligious or secular, it makes the rise of new religious movements based on worshipping computers seem almost wacky and unserious. But what if I told you that this was always the goal of the modern era?

Increasing technology has also led to increasing anxiety. It's not merely that all the dystopian science-fiction stories are coming true; it's the bizarre return of ancient, religious impulses and desires now fused to our tech development—a new frontier of techno-paganism.

Are sorcerers and scientists really aiming at the same thing? People from CS Lewis to Oswald Spengler have answered this question in the affirmative. Spengler in particular, characterizes our age as "Faustian". Are we really sorcerers? Find out on today's episode.

If the gods were real but fallen, where are they now? Given a very basic set of Christian assumptions, it's not that far-fetched to imagine that the gods are still around, still very much crave worship and slaves, and having been working with humans to build a new Babel.

The second element we need to understand in our relationship to knowledge and technology is the fall of the gods and all the stories about the fallen gods giving knowledge to mankind.

As our technological power grows, so do our concerns about the future. In this new series, Dr. Zac explores the historical and spiritual context surrounding man's relationship to technology, starting with the idea of the Dark Logos: an anti-Christ relationship to creation.

What is Marxism, really? Is it compatible with Christianity? Is it more freeing or less? What exactly is "real" Marxism? Today, we pull up the root ideas of the Communist Manifesto to see which ideas are at the core of Marx's thinking.

Fascism is always villainized by Westerners, but what did people like Mussolini and Hitler actually say about it? Did they have a good critique of liberalism and Marxism? And if so, what's actually wrong with fascism? The answer may surprise you.

Where did the Liberal Democracy come from? It's not enough to say that it's an Enlightenment-inspired society. At it's heart, liberalism is what happens when you take a Christian vision for reality and strip it of its theological elements.

Our latest series explores the concept of a secular state and its manifestations in liberalism, fascism, and marxism alike. For this first episode we explore the whole idea of the secular state, it's origins, and how these ideas have shaped our thinking about government.

Did the Enlightenment dream deliver on its promises of rational morality, utopianism, and prosperity, it did it all just lead to eugenics, global war, and nihilism?

Everyone's heard of the "Enlightenment", what exactly was it? Was it truly a triumph of reason and science, or was it the slave to its own prejudices?

What exactly ended Christendom and caused the whole world to become secular? It took a few centuries, but the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and even the World Wars are all part of the story we discuss on today's episode.

What if I told you that you are secular, that no matter how religious you are, the fact that you were born in the modern Western world means you've unavoidably inherited fundamentally secular ways of thinking about reality?

Do you view the world correctly? If you didn't, how would you know? In discussing everything from the definition of slavery to the collapse of arranged marriages, Dr. Zac explains how the great idea of Western civilization influence us today in ways we never think about.