For this week’s podcast, I sat down with Fr. Turbo Qualls and David Patrick Harry to discuss beauty and iconography in the Orthodox Christian tradition, why beauty is a part of the Church despite Christ leading a simple life, giving back to God, the meaning and purpose of icons in worship, balancing beauty and charity, the question of idolatry, the duality of externals, and more.

Fr. Turbo Qualls is the rector at St. Mary of Egypt, Serbian Orthodox Church in Kanses City Missouti, where he lives with his wife Juliana and their children. He has lectured in various parts of the United States in regard to the work of evangelization and cultural outreach.

David Patrick Harry is a religious studies scholar and has a YouTube channel called Church of the Eternal Logos that’s devoted to Orthodox Christian apologetics, his academic work, as well as addressing topics such as comparative mysticism, Gnosticism, world religions, esoteric traditions, the spirituality of technology, and much more.

Check out David’s channel: Church of the Eternal Logos: https://www.youtube.com/@ChurchoftheEternalLogos

Original YouTube version: https://youtu.be/awabHcHOY_k

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Coming up
0:50 - Intro music
1:16 - Introduction
1:46 - Aesthetics in the Orthodox Church
3:22 - Symbols and beauty in the Church
8:14 - Why the Church prioritizes beauty
13:12 - Give the best back to God
18:04 - An expansive view
20:47 - The beauty and the ascetic
25:39 - Synthesis vs confusion
33:33 - Reaching mankind through beauty
40:49 - Balancing beauty with charity
48:58 - The duality of externals
57:40 - A commodity
1:05:00 - A relationship
1:18:31 - The plateau
1:22:03 - A new context for beauty
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My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.