Father Josiah Trenham, a prominent Orthodox priest and advocate for marriage, discusses the essential role of marriage as a cornerstone of civilization. He emphasizes its divine significance and how it contrasts with modern views of personal fulfillment. The conversation highlights the need to revive traditional marriage values to restore stability in society. Trenham also underscores the spiritual dimensions of marriage and its critical impact on family and childbearing, calling for unity among Christians to advocate for its enduring value.
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Marriage vs. Legal Contracts
Breaking a marriage vow is treated less seriously than breaking a pool cleaning contract in California.
This shows how society legally disregards the sanctity of marriage despite its profound consequences.
insights INSIGHT
Marriage and Monasticism Symbiosis
Marriage is foundational in Christianity and society but coexists symbiotically with monastic life.
Both are vital life paths; marriage is the natural context for most human flourishing.
insights INSIGHT
Marriage as Sacrificial Joy
Marriage is often misunderstood as self-fulfillment but is fundamentally a self-sacrificial offering with great joy.
Mature loves beyond erotic desire sustain a lifelong union that transforms hearts.
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In this episode, Father Josiah Trenham returns to the podcast for us to talk about the profound meaning and cosmic significance of marriage. We explore why marriage is a crucial civilizational cornerstone rooted in divine order, not only from a Christian perspective, but universally in all flourishing societies. We discuss how it compares to and co-exists with monasticism and the meaning of marriage and the wedding ceremony not just as a gate to self-fulfillment and a joyful experience, but also as self-sacrifice. We also discuss how rediscovering the beauty of marriage can help restore sanity in our fragmented secular world.
This conversation is also a preview of the upcoming Marriage Conference in Riverside, CA (Oct. 10–12), where I’ll be speaking alongside Father Josiah, Archbishop Cordileone, Dr. Brad Wilcox, and others. Learn more at https://www.themarriageconference.com/
Subscribe to Fr. Josiah's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PatristicNectarFilms
— NEW COURSE: Jubilees and the Nephilim, by Fr. Stephen De Young
- Catch the early bird special of 15% off with code: EARLYJUBILEES, valid until 11:59 pm EST (midnight) of August 8th. - Register now: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses/jubilees-and-the-nephilim - Course Length: 6 Weeks, 12 Hours - Dates: Live classes are on Tuesday at 7 - 9 pm Central Time, starting August 19th through September 23rd, 2025 - Participants will be given access to lesson recordings. - The course is hosted on the Symbolic World Circle Community platform. Sign up as a free member before making your purchase. - Price: 180 USD Step into the strange and revelatory world of the Book of Jubilees, an ancient retelling of Genesis that shaped ancient Jewish thought and still echoes through Christian tradition. In this course, Fr. Stephen De Young guides students through the book’s expansion of biblical history, unveiling the significance of the fall of the angels, the rise of the Nephilim, and the heavenly origins of the feasts of the Old and New Testaments. Along the way, he'll explore how Jubilees reinterprets creation, demonology, and the prophetic structure of time, and why these themes mattered not only to Second Temple Judaism, but to later Christian understandings of the unseen world.
— Timestamps: 00:00 - Coming up 01:00 - Intro music 01:24 - Introduction 04:01 - Marriage, monasticism, and St. John the Baptist 09:16 - The symbiosis between monasticism and marriage 12:32 - Why marriage fails 16:14 - The fruits of abandoning marriage 21:37 - Contract 24:15 - Acknowledge the ideal 27:53 - The nuclear and extended family 29:40 - The crowns 34:23 - A new independent union 38:03 - Aspects of marriage 43:19 - Refined love 45:42 - Pagan monogamy 50:39 - Marrying young 55:18 - 50s Housewife vs boss babe 57:01 - Having children 01:00:39 - Hopes
The Symbolic World 
