The Theology behind the Culture War

One of the big problems people face today regarding religion or the notion of God, is the problem of what I would call the reality of God VS the reality of the world. This might seem abstract at first, but it ends up manifesting itself in everybody’s life, whether they’re religious or not. It ends up manifesting itself in opposites; on the one hand there is the argument of transcendence; that God is completely above the world. While on the other hand there is immanence; that God completely fills the world. Understanding this problem can help us understand some of the discourse people are using, and how we often feel trapped in extreme opposites.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:50 Framing of the problem
09:48 How we are dealing with this
12:00 The solution
15:28 St. Dionysius the Areopagite
21:35 Conclusion
24:37 Outro

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My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

[DerekJFiedler]

One side of the room is dark, the other is light.

Symbolism happens.

[DrNoahofChina]

I've never clicked a video with such gusto.

[billtimmons]

I detect Plato in Pageau. I detect Plotinus. I understand why the early church used the Greeks because God used the Greeks, because God lays the foundation. It is such a beautiful way to look at Being. God is so rational, so structural and so beautiful. "Chairness" verses wooden chair legs .. the formal cause verses the material cause. IMO understanding the four causes really can help us navigate the world. The Word, the Logos, causing the world to rationally unfold brings me comfort. Pageau really can hit the Greek cylinders. I wish I had more classical education.

[anilmethipara]

This may be one the most evergreen videos on this channel, at least for me. Fractally true on different levels, across time, etc.

[KevinPaterson]

Nominality vs. Univocity are each praising only a single attribute of God and making it the Absolute. The former worships God’s Transcendence, and the latter worships God’s Immanence. They both cut off the head from the body and break communion between the Divine and Creation.

To let there be a bridge between the two, for movements up and down as Jacob’s ladder, where God communes with Creation, is to see the source of all identities within the patterns eternally unfolding across reality’s grand design.

The shape of God’s heart is the cosmos deified.

[matthewtenedero]

Your videos never fail to blow my mind. Thanks for your work Jonathan. God bless.

[jacobotajuelo]

Beautiful video. Regarding your usual example of the chair, I imagine you could say it is held together by its chair-ity.

[ryanshue]

You just solved philosophy in 25 minutes: "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

[bradspitt]

I'm reading The Orthodox Way right now and it's really helpful for breaking that dialectic frame.

[benwaardenburg]

Pageau: Theology of chairs.
VSauce: Do chairs exist?

[monicaibrahim]

I was putting an ikea chair together the other day, and I think I understand what you mean now! The symbol of the chair.

[ayonio]

Wow, epic video! Christ Himself is the ultimate example, transcendent God fully contained in humble man, never confused, fully both at the same time

[PaulVanderKlay]

This is where I often try to get to with my God#1 and God #2 language. It's why I keep telling people there is no #3. It's not a Trinity mapping. The decay of Modernity is resurfacing God #1 for people to understand once more if only for a taste...

[youbetyourwrasse]

Evocative of a ceaseless flow between the heirarchies .. earth-water-air-fire .. hell-earth-celestial .. bowels-heart-mind ... reminding us always have maintain high thoughts and seek holiness .. to RISE above as Christ has risen above

[EamonBurke]

Right after the feast of Dionysius, no less!

I feel like arguments about God in extremes like that are basically in need of someone to point out that we are talking ABOUT God to each other while He's right here in the room, which is very rude.

[AprendeMovimiento]

"Although corporeal things are said to be in another as in that which contains them, nevertheless, spiritual things contain those things in which they are; as the soul contains the body. Hence also God is in things containing them; nevertheless, by a certain similitude to corporeal things, it is said that all things are in God; inasmuch as they are contained by Him."
--
Summa Theologie Prima Pars Question 8, Article 1, reply to 2nd objection - Saint Thomas Aquinas

[haydenlukas]

Hans-Georg Gadamer handles this really well in "The Idea of the Good in Platonic-Aristotelian Philosophy"

[JediTony]

In my circle of Catholic friends, this is what we call the "Both And" aspect to our theology and religious prescriptions.

[superroydude]

"Only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life"- Carl Jung

[NuWatts]

Love your content. It's teaching more and more about embracing apparent "contractions" in Scripture and reality.