How to Read William Blake: Imagination and Flourishing Beyond Reason Alone / Mark Vernon
For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture
Blake as Christian Mystic
Mark situates Blake within Christian tradition, emphasizing incarnation and 'God becomes as we are' theology.
What does it take to put a fractured world back together? Philosopher and psychotherapist Mark Vernon joins Evan Rosa to explore William Blake as the great counter-Enlightenment guide for our anxious, divided age.
"The world comes to be seen as it truly is, which is infinite, and that can embrace distinction difference as much as similarity and sharing."
In this episode with Evan Rosa, Vernon explains how to read William Blake, and reflects on Blake as the most important post-Reformation Christian mystic—a poet, painter, and philosopher offering not just a diagnosis of modern division but the beginnings of an antidote. Together they discuss Newton's long shadow and the withdrawal of inner life; the fragmentation of humanity from itself, nature, and the divine; the marriage of heaven and hell; cleansing the doors of perception; imagination as abundance rather than scarcity; desire rightly ordered; and Blake's Christ, who acts from impulse rather than rule.
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Episode Highlights
"I think he's the most important post-Reformation Christian mystic."
"We need these oppositions in order to create the dynamism of life and hence the Marriage of Heaven and Hell."
"The task is to align, align with the goods in the melee, and see how that which is seemingly different for you, might have something to offer you."
"The world comes to be seen as it truly is, which is infinite, and that can embrace distinction difference as much as similarity and sharing."
"The fullness of the love, the fullness of the goods, paradoxically, it can seem, is only revealed when it reaches out to that, which seems to be the opposite of it."
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About Mark Vernon
Mark Vernon is a writer, broadcaster, and psychotherapist with a private practice in London, and a former Anglican priest. His studies began with a physics degree at Durham University, followed by two degrees in theology and a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy from the University of Warwick; he has also worked at the Maudsley Hospital. He contributes to the BBC, the Guardian, and Church Times, and podcasts frequently. His books range across friendship, wellbeing, ancient philosophy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and the Inkling Owen Barfield. His most recent book, Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination (Hurst, 2024), has drawn praise from Rowan Williams and others as among the finest recent studies of Blake. Learn more and follow at markvernon.com, his Substack A Golden String (markvernon942268.substack.com), and @platospodcasts on X.
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Helpful Links and Resources
Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, by Mark Vernon: https://www.markvernon.com/books/awake-william-blake-and-the-power-of-the-imagination
A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling and the Evolution of Consciousness, by Mark Vernon: https://www.markvernon.com/books/a-secret-history-of-christianity-book
Dante's Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey, by Mark Vernon: https://www.markvernon.com/books/dantes-divine-comedy-book
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, by William Blake (The William Blake Archive): https://www.blakearchive.org/work/mhh
Mark Vernon's website: https://www.markvernon.com
A Golden String (Substack): https://markvernon942268.substack.com
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Show Notes
Underappreciated, often typecast visionary
1827—approaching the 200th anniversary of Blake's death approaching
Tumultuous age: Seven Years' War, American and French Revolutions, Napoleonic Wars
London quadruples in size; Hindu, Islamic, and global ideas arrive
"I think he's the most important post reformation Christian, mystic"
Polymath—poet, painter, philosopher, didact
Counter-Enlightenment response to rationalism
Isaac Newton's influence "can't be overstated"
One law binds falling apple and orbiting moon
Locke, Bentham, utilitarianism, calculation as the moral measure
"withdrawing the inner life of human beings"—the objective as gold standard
Fragmentation: dividing humanity from itself, nature, the gods
Reading Blake now offers "the beginnings of an antidote too"
Feeling and imagination complement reason; imagination as the shape of energy
Marvel superheroes analogy—one superpower detached goes wrong
Bacon's dream: tools to restore Eden, and its tragedy
Magnet's two poles—the marriage of heaven and hell
Angels grow complacent, devils too dastardly; tension creates beauty and exuberance
Cleansing the doors of perception; a world in a grain of sand
"align, align with the goods in the melee"
Division never purifies society—"it just leads to a mess"
"embrace distinction difference as much as similarity and sharing"
Heaven and hell as states of mind; participative epistemology
Education that teaches students to divide themselves from learning
Imagination as abundance, not scarcity
Desire rightly ordered—"less than all cannot satisfy man"
Blake's Christ acts from impulse, not rule
Fountains of living water; the closing lines of Jerusalem
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#WilliamBlake #MarkVernon #ForTheLifeoftheWorld #Imagination #MarriageOfHeavenAndHell #CounterEnlightenment #ChristianMysticism #Theology #Poetry #DoorsOfPerception
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