Welcome to More Christ. My name's Marcas. I'm an Irish teacher, storyteller, and tour guide. With my channel, I aim to discern and share the true, the good, and the beautiful for the glory of God and good of Man. My diverse guests can help us to appreciate God's claim over all areas of life.
"I always love talking with you Marcas. You are one of the gems."
- Jonathan Pageau
"I've watched some of your work. Keep it up."
- Dr Jordan B. Peterson
"I think your genuine search and questions can help you create valuable discussions in (Christian) orthodoxy, related to contemporary cultural issues."
- Fr. Stephen Muse
Channel Music:
Nyazura Mission Church Choir: Praise Him. (I Am Going There)
I went back to this, as I’m in the middle of his book right now. The ending of the podcast was indeed particularly powerful. I am inspired to try to get my students to use stories we read in a conversation, like he did with his children-as a way of showing mastery of the texts. Also, would love to see you do a CS Lewis school in Ireland. Apparently there are Chesterton schools in America. And thanks again to your guest for his book! I highlighted a bunch today, that I could use in the classroom, most notably the map vs the landscape idea under “the purpose of literature” section. - Jeff
I was only telling friends of mine about Paul Kingsnorth and John Moriarty last night ! Martin Shaw and Paul show up in my timeline this morning. Synchronicity? Tom Holland is excellent also. Thanks.
Very interesting guest and great interview. It was an insightful point about dance being left behind by the church. Dancehalls and nightclubs carry so much religious symbolism and are a great way to commune but the church seems to have given that space over to secularism. I also like the idea that Love can be explored through Soul music. Given God can be expressed as love it's nice to think listening to my Stax records I'm actually doing some theology homework. I hadn't even thought about the name "Soul" music much before but if course it carries such obvious religious connotations.
Amen, brother! Steve Turner from England has done lots of good work on this. I recently read his book on Johnny Cash, but he also has books on figures like Marvin Gaye and The Beatles, and even a lovely illustrated one on Gospel music, which I own. The Christian philosopher Douglas Groothuis has understood Jazz in a similar fashion - describing himself as a kind of 'chaplain' of his local jazz club. To borrow from The Blues Brothers, 'We're on a mission from God.' Everybody needs somebody to love!
When you asked him if he has a different approach from Vervaeke he proceeded to recapitulate one of John’s most central arguments 😆. Those two should talk.
Perhaps intentionally "Slipping the moorings" to re-read the Bible may have been an act of faith? Chesterton describes his conversion as feeling like he was a magnet rotating at just past the distance of attraction until one day it grabbed him. Then the rest of the journey begins...twenty years in as a Wiccan-to-Catholic and still learning every day. Great discussion.
This was an insightful and deep conversation, thank you so much for making this happen! The ART of the Hebrew Bible is simply sublime, and Robert is absolutely THE person to demonstrate this to us all. God bless.
Prof. Jacob Mitchell at Georgetown does a lot of work on how woke is based on religion. His book American Awakening is great on this. He said, the right can't effectively fight the woke, because its "canons" are pointed in the wrong direction - at socialism, not at woke as a religion. According to Mitchell, one way to beat woke is to expose it from the Christian point of view as a false religion, a lie.
What about telling some of your dreams Martin ..the mythic thinking you and JBP have the insight and courage to mention our connection to our inner nature,sensory functions . As it now proved even scientific that We dream Every night ,our creativity source the purest source of imagination ..
Loved that he mentioned the Hungarian myth in connection to Nimrod since I had just learned about that today. Providence. The source I saw indicated that this was probably to lay a claim to the lands of Attila the Hun, since they claimed Nimrods two sons were the founders of the Huns and Magyar
I sincerely enjoy your interviews. You ask thoughtful, clarifying questions in a gentle manner that is so healing to listen to. Like Holly, I grew up reading Tolkien (and Lewis) since the age of ten. I read the entire Hobbit and Lord of the Rings aloud to my dyslexic little brother the summer I was 15. I have never stopped reading him and collecting books, art, letters, maps and of course the wonderful Histories by his devoted son. I have just ordered Holly’s book and it will arrive tomorrow…I am 73 now and am looking at my grandchildren now reading, drawing and discussing Middle Earth. So happy to have passed the gift of reading and this treasure of a story to them. And I have a new addition to my library arriving tomorrow! Thanks to you and to Holly for such a satisfying interview. Namarië.
Tolkien's faith has always been an enigma to me, but I think it is the difference between his perspective on the work of Lewis and his own. If the Types are buried deeply they will instantiate themselves deeply. Of course the difficulty also stems from the Protestant and Catholic experiences of faith and all the misunderstandings that are produced. This biography is one I think I will have to digest. Thanks to you, both!
I think Fr Calvin is briilliant and good.i agree with him about race and Christianity and many thingx. There is a world language called Esperanto and you won't find rCially negative in Esperanto. It was created tohelp peace friendship and understanding. Many Christians are in it and thereare three Catholicism saints it in. All major religions approve of it. It is easy to translate into and out of it. It keeps down translation costs. The secod point is i approve of stay at home mothers. My mother was a teacher too and i resented her working. She didnt really care about me only my older brother who had isssues. She had no time for me as she was too wrapped up in her career. I stayed at home and talk the children sll i could beofre they went to school. I asl fed the children as nature intended for as long as i could because i belueved it was better. How can you do that if you are working.expressed milk in bottles is not as goid. I also cared for the extended frail in the nuclear and extended famiyl. I done believe in care homes and nurseries except in special circumstances. I hated my mother working but i didn't say because she'd have done what she wanted any way and only cared for my brother. I didn't bond with my mother although she thought all was fine. Ipicked up the slck from working mothers sho neglected their aged parents. The headmistress next door poured scorn on me being being at home with my bevy of children yet had the nerve to expect me babysit her children while at school meetings! Never mind if i want a doze through twice nightly night feeds and feeding every night for 1 to 2 years. WHO recommended if possible and so do I. Hosewives can be the salt of the earth. I was highly qualified but the most important path ibtook was being a housewife and doing voluntary work when i could.
Fr Calvin will not find racism in the Esperanto community. Many Christian all in it, in fact people of all faiths and nn. Their are three saints in it, two priests and one pope. I cannot separate my Christianity from Esperanto. This is the best way in combating racial inequalities. The more Calvin says I am convinced that Esperanto is a very good aid to world peace, friendship and understanding. I cannot separate it from my Christianity.
I saw an animated series lately called Vinland Saga. It follows English and Viking history and has many famous people in it but what really captured me was how they treated Christianity. It first Christians seem weak and pathetic, you feel sorry for them but as the story goes on the main character finds himself and others in an endless cycle of violence and the subtle teachings of Christ prove to be the only answer and response that can end the hate, the slavery, the murder, etc. I’m not sure that the maker of the cartoon had that as their purpose, but it was just so powerful to see.
Here's the thing. The countenance of sincere Christians is the telling thing. There is always such warmth and intelligence in their faces. Just something I've noticed.
And yeah Tom Woods is great - how I heard about Gottfried in the first place. I actually emailed Gottfried about something he said on Tom's podcast and he emailed me back! :-P
I love the phrase "the luminous present" reminds me of RH Thomas's poem The Bright Field "Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you."
I don’t see why the thelos cannot be happiness. I suppose one has to explain what is meant by it. Listening to Matt I agree with him about beauty but at the same time I do not need to deny that our goal is happiness.
Wow did I need this video; almost like God directed my Google results! I'm a retired 62 year old protestant minister. After pastoring a couple tiny established churches, I started a new church community in 2004. Starting with no money, no building and no people apart from me, my wife and adult children, we focused on millennials with little to no Christian church culture experience. The church never grew beyond a few dozen people which was OK but sadly once the pandemic hit and we were forced with lockdowns, we couldn't sustain things. I closed the church in 2020 and in 2021 I retired from my job. Since then I've been feeling like a failure in a variety of ways; like nothing in my almost 30 years as an ordained minister really mattered. I did succeed however, at being crazy busy and pouring myself out for others. I can't really point to anything that I did or was involved in that made much of a tangible difference (yeah I know most of the cold comfort cliches that ought to make me feel better LOL). I find myself in a space where I say, "been there, done that, don't wanna go back." Indeed I've become disenchanted. You couldn't have asked any better questions in any better way to where I feel like Richard is talking to me alone. I have Richard's "Old Scratch" book in my Amazon wishlist but after seeing this amazing interview, I'm going to order this one first. Your openness to God's direction 2 years ago has been a great help and blessing to me today. Thank You!
The theme of longing out of loss reminds me of the poet of the Wasteland who became the poet of the Four Quartets. “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting.” This also resonates with the word Christ gave to St Silouan: “Keep they mind in hell, and despair not.” Interestingly, St Silouan’s spiritual son, St Soohrony of Essex was a modern artist in Paris before becoming a monk and iconographer.
According to science our nervous system registers heat, pain, even sight by means of chemical reactions that is transmitted to our brain to process. This transmission according to Einsteins' theory move at a certain speed, perhaps near speed of light. I have to concede that accordingly we are experiencing the cosmos around us consciously in a past time. This to my understanding leaves room for miracles to happen that God can only do. God therefore truly exists outside of space and time. Love is something that is not connected to time and space, it is separate, it is part of the eternal image of God that we share in us. Our Logos, the Word of God, Jesus Christ is to be worshiped and has eternally had, has and is going to have the prominent place as the Ruler and Governor of all Creation. All glory to God.
This is a really beautiful comment, and having left the Catholic Church at the age of twelve , having seen and learned about all the wrong beliefs and witnessing firsthand the wrong doings of abrahamic religious leaders, I devoted my life to the study of the most ancient beliefs/religions as well as astronomy, physics, biology and geology due to an insatiable hunger to find God. Ultimately, I believe the man referred to as Jesus did in fact live, did in fact die for his unique oneness of being with the Creator, but I believe that we are all uniquely a part of the Creator, but due to false beliefs, indoctrination and fear, as well as mistaking our individual ego as our “self” most of us sadly don’t attain our highest iteration while in physical form. Also I feel quite certain that while Jesus is my experience of a human/God oneness, there have been countless human/God beings over the eons. I look forward to going home when my physical existence has let me loose. Peace.
