Christmas as The Anchor of Reality 

this comment contains the entire reprentation of creation.

Italian Mangia! Manger As you might know, it's the imperative form of the verb mangiare, to eat, and it means “eat up!” No matter how old you are, Italians not just nonna, but the entire family will constantly implore you to eat more of everything if you're having a meal at their house, or with them at a restaurant. As Christ is giving his body to eat Eucharist Catholic mass. A manger or trough is , or a structure or feeder used to hold food for animals. The word comes from the Old French mangier (meaning "to eat"), from Latin mandere (meaning "to chew"). Mangers are mostly used in livestock raising and generally found at stables and farmhouses.

hahaha

@@kiss4god No it's Christmas ho ho ho.

@Joseph could you explain this to my leftist activist professors

@@puffball4484 Nah dont bother these subversives will just call him a bigot and have him arrested for hate crime by saying Christmas is Christian.

@@arnowisp6244 the thing is if people hate Christianity, fine. I think it's sad but all I can do is pray for that person. My gripe is the CONSTANT misinformation that these supposedly educated people spew constantly.

It’s a winter solstice feast just Like Saturnalia and the other pagan ones

@anthony cole I know the tree is pagan. And no, many cultures (including Russians and Germans) used to bring the tree inside before Christianity. This tradition predates Christianity. My point is that it's dumb to say that Christmas isn't Christian because it has pagan elements.

Can the two understandings not he held in harmony?

Sorry if that question was a bit direct. I would really like to talk to you. I am in evangelical myself, but find a lot of what Jonathan says extremely interesting and want to learn more

​@@felixwalne3494 I know you didn't ask me, but for what it's worth, I'd say yes. In the Catholic understanding, there are no less than five senses in which scripture can be understood. They run the gamut from literal to alegorical

Where?

I was telling this to my wife this very morning. I though I was an atheist until I saw what was hiding right in front of my eyes. amazing.

@@antropatico God bless you in your journey, brother

Philip K. Dick writes about that extensively in his Exigesis.

Roberto Sanchez Interesting point about Santa Clause and intercession.

@@TheRealRealOK yeah, I found it interesting that the modern idea of Santa Claus developed in majority Protestant countries and despite Protestant opposition to veneration of saints, this tradition of asking Santa Claus for gifts, which (to me) looks very similar to intercession of the saints, still developed.

St Joseph, patron saint of doubting atheists, indeed. Along with St. Thomas, of course

I see the incarnation as the unity of heaven and earth. coffeewithkierkgaard.home.blog/2018/11/17/what-is-truth-part-3-the-incarnation/

this is exactly what Pageau says. so you are 'onto something.'

Chibi how about you try metal-work icons? I'm not sure if it's an actual thing, but in the UK I have seen metalworked sacred imagery in 19th Century cemeteries

@@Xanaseb I'm very thankful for you sugestion, iron and steel is much more difficult to work on if you're doing art, while wood is much more maleable. I'll see what to do :), thank you.

Hope youre doing well chibi! Merry Christmas!

I would love to read this book, too

"How is it possible that the world exists?"!!!

Pageau, Matthieu - The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis Lewis, CS - The Discarded Image Tolkien, JRR - Fairy Stories Eliade, Mircea - Images and Symbols Heidegger, Martin - Basic Writings (Heidegger is obviously problematic for his political associations, but he nonetheless presents the phenomenological point of view necessary for a recovery of symbolism. His “Origin of the Work of Art” and “Questions concerning Technology” are very important.) Guenon, Rene - Symbols of Sacred Science Guenon, Rene - The Reign of Quantity and The Signs of the Times (Guénon is a problematic writer on many fronts and I hesitated to put him here. He became a Muslim, was a Freemason and retained several ties with occult thinkers, but nonetheless his insight on symbolism and his understanding of the crisis of civilization we are facing is unmatched in the 20th century, so read with caution.) thesymbolicworld.com/reading-list/

Through New Eyes - James Jordan

The Antichrist for Dummies (on youtube)

Sure, but where does the concept of cable plug come from?

@@L4sz10 the cable itself arises from the an infinite well of internal complexity, but the concept of cable must be defined from above, by an observer who categorizes, and/or else by something outside that relates laterally with the subject. The joining of the definitions from above, besides, and the accumulation of the lower objects are what define something. However, it is only the modularity and the autonomy of the subject that even gives the subject an opportunity to be recognized. For example, an apple charger is just as much of a legitimate kind of cable as a micro USB, but the apple charger retains the Apple identity because it has no use outside of the context of Apple product use. Micro USBs are used by the general conglomeration of Android phones as well as by other computer products and appliances. Micro USBs can be called Android chargers, but they have a greater identity than just that.

@@ekbergiw I am not sure I understand that, but I think both you and Jonathan is right here. I think the modularity you mentioned still leaves the question open that even though the cable is conceptualized by its relevancy toward other items, that relevancy is still a very small fraction of all the descriptors and attributes that item retains. There are an infinite number of ways that we can relate things to each other, and I am not sure that we can determine a specific axiom that we can use as point of reference for all things we perceive. But I might be wrong. Sorry if it is hardly understandable, English is not my first language, and this is not an easy topic.

Was that a distributist reference? You have to be really careful about what you say around them, they get triggered just as easily as the SJWs. :)

@jay furries

Russian Eastern Overture by Rimsky Korsakov

@Bethany Ramos yea, but why. Like, another medium is just another point for the pattern to show right? How can we have Christian imagery across time and space if it is only restricted to one and only one style

@Bethany Ramos hmmmmm. Thank you I'll have to ponder on this for a while. Personally I can't see why it must always be stain glass, craving or painting. if God works though various people such as an athlete or architect or philanthropist, I don't see why this couldnt be for art as well. But in any case I will ponder. Thank you again, God bless

Ce soir, Lundi le 3 décembre au Lobby Bar à Montreal, 7:30pm. je vais faire un débat sur le symbolisme et en même temps nous parlerons du symbolisme de Noël.

@@h.p6016 Thanks man!

H.P Dyonisius the Aeropagate...pseudo-Dyonisius is what non-Orthodox call him.

Indeed, and so is the liturgy, or praying, or crossing yourself

The fact that it is a microphone is NOT fully explained or concluded from an examination of its parts or elements. It is actually only in relation to its "user", its "god"; with a voice to transmit that it is REALLY a microphone of any consequence

That was never taken as negating other manners of the handing on of God's revelation till the reformers invented "Sola Scriptura," in fact the primary meaning in Christ's great commission of preaching the Gospel, "go therefore and preach the Gospel to all the nations") and handing on doctrine ("teaching them to obey all I have commanded you") is the oral preaching and teaching of authorities in Christ's Church beginning with the Apostles. As St. Paul says, "faith comes by hearing." The Apostles and their associates just happened in the fulfillment of that task to write down some of that preaching and teaching and that became the New Testament, they never meant it to be the only means that Christ's Gospel and faith came to nonbelievers or that the faithful would be instructed in Christian doctrine. Imagine if you could go back and tell Polycarp of Smyrna, Papias, Ignatius of Antioch, or Clement of Rome, all of whom were alive while the Apostles were still around and most or all of whom would have known them heard them preach and listened to and learned from them as they taught to only go by what they wrote down, not by what they heard from their lips, saw in their manner of living, their celebration of Christ's Eucharist etc. I don't think they'd take you particularly seriously.

Christmas was originally a holiday when Christians and pagans of the Roman Empire could come together in fellowship. Sounds pretty Christian to me.

Here we go. "Lemme tell u why Easter and Christmas have nothing to do with Christianity (which I know nothing about) because aspects of other cultures have been actively integrated into the tradition (which is a very historically Christian thing to do but again I know nothing about Christianity). Happy holidays!"

Puff Ball 🤣😂 Seriously.

Palmetto Paratrooper Demonstrably false, but don’t research Church history and learn. It might result in changing your mind.

@jay please see my previous comment about integrating other cultures. The orthodox particularly were notorious for doing this which is why you can't just go to an orthodox church, you go to a Greek church or Russian or French and so on. MANY cultures had traditions with trees around the winter solstice including Germans, Russians and Nordics. The Santa Claus thing comes out from a Turkish saint and was later commcerialized in the US by coca cola. The ancient church fused the cultures which surrounded it in with its own which Jonathan literally talks about in the q&a if you had actually watched the video.

He is expanding the teaching of Christianity, whereas you would prefer he only preach water to fish. Pride by exclusion is not Christian.

This is a bit strange to me. In my talk, I reference how the icon exemplifies St-Maximos and the theory of the Logoï, I quote St-Athanasius directly, I reference the acts of the 7th ecumenical council, I reference St-Gregory of Nyssa, I also refer to liturgical prayers and hymns. When I speak of the solstice for example, this was expounded by such fathers as St-Augustine: "Hence it is that He was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase." So I don't know how more patristic I could be in such a popular format.

@@JonathanPageau not talking about this presentation which is quite good and I've watched in entirety. More a general appraisal.

@@thingsweneverdid3782 I think you need to distinguish the two purposes of my videos. One is to show the meaning of our Christian, especially Orthodox traditions, those would be more like this one, in line with what you would want, and the other purpose is to show how this understanding can be used to look at the world around us and the culture we live in. Those other videos have a more loose flavor and might even sometimes not mention Christianity specifically at all. I will always continue to do both, and I think that is why there are quite a number of atheists who are suddenly reconsidering God, Christ and rediscovering a traditional worldview because they can see that it is not arbitrary, but rather shows them the very manner in which the world exists.

@@JonathanPageau I trust you know what you're doing. I personally find the whole dialogue very tiring, but that is my fleshly problem in this life. Just please I implore you, avoid the branch theory, ecumenism, baptismal theology, and the whole self congratulating academic haughty "orthodoxy" of guys like David Bentley Hart who inwardly are already apostate.