There is something of a cult following of Jonathan Pageau that he steadfastly tries to stamp out, but it continues to crop up despite his strenuous efforts. On his regular Q&As for his Patreon supporters, which he occasionally posts to his free channel, where I see them, people reveal their struggles and ask Jonathan his …
Continue reading The Trouble with Priests Is Their Parishes (or Monks, Their Buddharams)?
This week I listened to a round table discussion about the Ten Commandments. Jonathan Pageau was at the table and talking about the commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” He was explaining how the ancient gods manifest themselves in today’s world, and the fact that we no longer believe that the gods …
When I listened to Phil Ford and J.F. Martel defining the weird and contrasting it with the strange, my mind wandered into thinking about the Lord’s Supper. The idea that we are actually eating Christ’s Body when we eat the bread is, after all, quite weird. And I found their discussion of weirdness provided a …
I’m generally a fan of Neil Gaiman’s work. His Christmas story, Chivalry, about the holy grail, is a must listen every December. My first Gaiman book was Anansi Boys, which was quite enjoyable. I am also a big fan of Good Omens, a silly story about a bad angel who wants to be good and …
This essay will largely consist of a transcription of part of a conversation when Jonathan Pageau was a guest on the “Your Mate Tom” podcast. Pageau is an icon carver and student of symbolism, and his podcast and YouTube channel focus primarily on his insights into symbolism in everyday life. Unfortunately, his work is somewhat …
I want to revisit an incident that I’ve commented on before, but add a new chapter. It was the 90s. I was on staff at 1,600 member church. It was well known as a congregation where both theological and political liberals and conservatives sat and studied side by side with relative comfort. That was achieved …
Over the last couple of months I have been trying to write about the Orthodox understanding of the person. But every time I go back and look at what I’ve written, I abandon it because without a broader context, it sounds like propaganda, or even hate speech. Recently Jonathan Pageau posted a forum discussion with …
Continue reading The Cultural Kitsch of Contemporary Personhood
A couple of weeks ago I saw the most remarkable Q&A by Jonathan Pageau, the Quebecois iconographer, carver, and philosopher of Christian symbolism, entitled The Symbolism of Technology in Christianity. At the time I thought of it as odd rather than remarkable. It’s about the symbolism in the Book of Enoch, a very weird pseudopigraphal …
Continue reading The Symbolism of Technology in Christianity
Big fan of Jonathan Pageau, the Quebecois iconographer and intellectual. He's the guy, by the way, who introduced me to Jordan B. Peterson, for better or worse. Even if you, like me, kinda hate to have to sit down and watch a video (or t.v. or movie) and would rather read or listen, this lecture …
Just Another Jim 