What are the points of resonance & dissonance between Christian theology & the latest in cognitive science surrounding personal meaning & spiritual transformation? In this series, we'll examine the work of one of the world's most important voices in the field cognitive science and in it's intersection with philosophy & religion- Dr. John Vervaeke at the University of Toronto. In this series,  I'm going to take you through some of the highlights of Vervaeke's popular "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" lecture series and examine where there may be harmony with historic Christian theology, as well as highlight places where I may have question or concern with it's compatibility.  In part one, we'll discuss the necessity of "disrupting the frame" in order for one to experience genuine metanoia (a change of mind/ the Greek word for "repentance" in the New Testament) and why "self-transcendence" can still lead to harmartia (missing the mark/ the Greek word for "sin" in the New Testament).  Plus, what about psychedelics? They seem to reliably produce altered states of consciousness & spiritual experience. Why have traditional religions been reluctant to incorporate them into their spiritual disciplines? I propose one theory.... ----------- John Vervaeke and I have two wonderful discussions in the past. You can check them out here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-cuaty-f7d11a and here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-q3ccv-107e94b   AS I MENTION IN TODAY'S EPISODE, there a free visual aides you can download here : https://www.patreon.com/posts/visual-aides-for-54677036?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare   ________________ TAGS: John Vervaeke, Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, Jordan Peterson, Cognitive Science, Psychology, theology and cognitive science, Paul Vander Klay, psychedelic theology, Christianity and psychedelics, theology and science, Christian mysticism, meaning crisis, meaning making ------------------ 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? 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. 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! 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

As the secular age approaches its inevitable demise, many who are dissatisfied with the claim that only what is immanent is real have begun to question whether immanence is real at all & considered pursuing transcendence through various forms of Neo-Gnosticism. We see this “red pill suspicion of immanence” in popular modern cultural stories such as The Matrix, WandaVision, and Loki.  In today’s episode, we’ll explore some of the symbols of those popular stories in the cultural zeitgeist and consider some of the practical manifestations of Neo-Gnosticism such as hyper-Charismatic theology, QAnon conspiracy culture, & the psychedelic resurgence.  Can one be re-enchanted by black magic not knowing of the true, white magic? ______ TAGS: Charles Taylor, James K.A. Smith, The Matrix, WandaVision, Loki, Secular Age, Lawrence Kraus, Paul Vander Klay, Jordan Peterson, John Vervaeke, Theology, Post-Secular, Meaning Crisis, Paul Anleitner, Nihilism, Theology & Film ___________ 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? 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. 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! 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

I’m honored to once again be joined by Dr. John Vervaeke. Vervaeke’s first appearance on this podcast was back in Episode 83, and it was one of my all time favorites. If you want to know more about his backstory and work, then I’d encourage you to listen to that episode. John Vervaeke is a renowned scientist and award winning professor at the University of Toronto. He’s produced groundbreaking research in the area of cognitive science & the experience of meaning. He has also become a cult internet sensation with his “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis” YouTube/podcast lecture series. That series is truly an absolute gift to the world- a gift I still can hardly believe that he just gave away! While I certainly don’t want to oversell this and I generally despise hype, this felt like one of the most thought provoking conversations I’ve ever recorded. I strongly encourage you to listen all the way through. We build towards some really important questions- questions that get at the very core of religion and human experience.  Some topics/questions covered in this episode include: - What is a psycho-technology? How do they change our experience of consciousness? -What is nature of consciousness? Can it simply be the result of “bottom-up” emergence in a purely material universe, or does consciousness require a “top-down” emanation from some transcendent source? -Is God “Ultimate Consciousness” or “Necessary Consciousness”?  -Does Vervaeke agree with his colleague Jordan Peterson on value hierarchies determining what is relevant and salient to us?  - Can science make value claims devoid of religion? Can science tell us what is wise or ethically good without consulting a higher layer of reality? How do we access that? -Are there intermediary agencies or forces between our conscious experience and the highest degree of consciousness (which Paul believes is “God”, and John is properly agnostic on) that can negatively affect our experience of consciousness and move us away from wisdom? Plus so much more at the intersection of theology, philosophy, and cognitive science… including some fun moments of charitable disagreement! Dr. John Vervaeke’s “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” is available on his YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/user/johnvervaeke 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? 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. 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! 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

Recently I was interviewed on the Behind the Image Leadership Podcast to discuss the role of our guiding stories and values in shaping the behaviors of individuals, non-profits, and businesses. I thought it was a fascinating conversation exploring points of application for cultural theology that I don't always explore on my podcast. Make sure to check out and subscribe to the Behind the Image Leadership Podcast, hosted by my friend Rick Guttersohn. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-image-leadership-podcast/id1464426816 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? 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. 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! 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

Paul Vander Klay returns once again for a discussion on the evidence for the looming end of the secular age in America. We talk: the link Comic book movies & ancient mythology, Fight Club & Mammon, The Good Place theology, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan & psychedelics , Jonathan Pageau vs John Vervaeke, hyper-woke culture and the French Revolution, & did Blockbuster Video cause church decline?   Paul Vander Klay’s YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/c/PaulVanderKlay 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  

The Death of Superman. Kingdom Come. Fight Club.  These are just a few of the cultural artifacts emerging from our collective cultural consciousness that give evidence to an imminent shift away from secularity in the West. Our modern myths are showing signs of a shifting cultural moment. We were told that if we killed God we'd have a religionless world, but what we got instead were new gods. Now, we're not so sure that we like these new gods better. Who or what are the new gods? Let's look at a couple of significant cultural stories to see evidence of this growing discontent with the new gods of the secular age.   Plus, I'll discuss what happened in the 1960's and 70's in the New Age phenomenon, the psychedelic counter-cultural movement, and the Charismatic renewal movements which poked holes in the secular frame and how that eventually led to the New Atheism in the mid-2000's; and we'll see how New Atheism spawned the contemporary counter-movements to the meaning crisis like Joe Rogan pscychedllic resurgance, Jordan Peterson's intellectual dark web, Sam Harris materialist meditation practices, and John Vervaeke.  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

Kenneth Tanner is the pastor of Holy Redeemer Church, a Charismatic Episcopal church in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He is also a writer who weaves theological insights from the ancient witness of the global, historic Church into contemporary issues. He’s written for Patheos, Christianity Today, Mockingbird, and the Huffington Post. You can read some of his articles over at his blog: https://kennethtanner.medium.com/ 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

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

My dear friends Ted Kim, John Mark McMIllan, and Andy Squyres are all back on the podcast this week to discuss a range of topics all centered around re-enchanting our secular (or post-secular?) cultural frame. Ted Kim is senior pastor of Evanston Vineyard. He did his undergrad degree at the University of Chicago and has Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. His first time on the podcast was in Episode 86. You can listen here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-tazax-fb65ff John Mark McMillan is a Platinum-selling songwriter & artist best known for his songs How He Loves, Future/Past, & King of My Heart. You can listen to the first conversation I had with John Mark back in Episode 40 here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-gm2i7-c15274   Andy Squyres is a singer-songwriter & pastor from Charlotte, North Carolina best known for his song Cherry Blossoms. Andy recently released a masterful record entitled Poet Priest.  Andy's been on the podcast twice before.  He was last on back in Episode 59: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ii4s6-db4a29   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? 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. 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! 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

This is the finale to our 3 part series on salvation in a pluralistic world. In part two, I made the case that Christocentric inclusivism makes the best sense of the Biblical narrative. In today's episode, I will show you that this was the belief of some of the earliest and most important church fathers and make the case that it was during the era of Constantine that the "no salvation outside of the church" doctrine perverted what the Scriptures and earlier Christians believed. The Roman Catholic church has since changed its ecclesiocentric exclusivist stance (since Vatican II). Should other Christian traditions do the same? Who were some others throughout history that held to this inclusivist hope?   Along with our discussion forum on Patreon, I will also be posting a resource list if you wanted to read more on this subject that you may want to download. (See the Deep Talks Patreon links below) f you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? 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. 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! 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