Dec 31, 2022·edited Dec 31, 2022Liked by Lewis Ungit
I'll have to check out "The Soul After Death," I agree it's important to get the Eastern perspective to help balance the West. Another way I've heard it explained is the West is heavy into WORD while the East emphasizes IMAGE. (Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination, by Godawa for example)
The best video I know from a Protestant that supports the Eastern metaphysics is Inspiring Philosophy's "Pan-entheism" (a lot of good early church quotes, his "Emergent Universe" is the good one for Christian quantum physics).
Regardless if it's precisely true or not, it helps give that metaphysical Eastern way of thinking I think is important as it combats materialism/naturalism but without going the gnostic/kabbalist or too heavy into neo-Platonic routes. For an Eastern Orthodox guy to explain symbolgy, Jonathan Pageau's "The Symbolic World" is good on YT (like symbology of the Garden of Eden as Cosmic Structure, how after sin there was a metaphysical fall, St. Ephrem the Syrian's writings).
All that being said, one has to be careful as C.S. Lewis went off track at times into the occult side of things, something he struggled with at times - http://harrypotterpower.com/lewis.html (I still really like Lewis and that article might be too hard on him, but the quotes he made about having that "lust" for the occult is posted there he struggled with, to me it shows the power of God in leading Lewis out of it and testifies that God is greater and more desirable when you really find Him. I'm reading The Problem of Pain now).
It's why sometimes I do get a sense of fearful caution even with the Eastern Christian metaphysics, as that lust for secret gnosis going too deep obsessing on IMAGE can take hold of you and you end up believing something off track easily; like Pseudo-Dionysius I can't handle, I start getting panic attacks the same way when I was looking into occult type stuff when I was into psychedelics (AND without them I started getting those visions). So I mainly only study the Bible now, even reading that Lewis article made my heart start racing because I know exactly what that man is talking about...
"Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future" by Rose was pretty good also on the UFO's being interdimensional demons and that leading into a New Age World religion in the future.
The Eastern Church gives a particular meaning to the contemplation of the icon.
This comes from the metaphysical base on which it is based, the tripartition of reality between the sensible world, the intelligible or divine, and between the two, the world of images symbolized in the church by the iconostasis.
This tripartition is essentially oriental, it is found among the Persians in the notion of alam-al-mital, and among the Arabs with the barzak.
It is about an intermediate, median reality, where the images have a role which overflows the approach which one has of the images in the sensitive world.
This is the zone of visions. Henri Corbin gave a contemporary approach to this in-between by naming it "imaginal", to avoid confusing it with the imaginary.
I'll have to check out "The Soul After Death," I agree it's important to get the Eastern perspective to help balance the West. Another way I've heard it explained is the West is heavy into WORD while the East emphasizes IMAGE. (Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination, by Godawa for example)
The best video I know from a Protestant that supports the Eastern metaphysics is Inspiring Philosophy's "Pan-entheism" (a lot of good early church quotes, his "Emergent Universe" is the good one for Christian quantum physics).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xki03G_TO4
Regardless if it's precisely true or not, it helps give that metaphysical Eastern way of thinking I think is important as it combats materialism/naturalism but without going the gnostic/kabbalist or too heavy into neo-Platonic routes. For an Eastern Orthodox guy to explain symbolgy, Jonathan Pageau's "The Symbolic World" is good on YT (like symbology of the Garden of Eden as Cosmic Structure, how after sin there was a metaphysical fall, St. Ephrem the Syrian's writings).
All that being said, one has to be careful as C.S. Lewis went off track at times into the occult side of things, something he struggled with at times - http://harrypotterpower.com/lewis.html (I still really like Lewis and that article might be too hard on him, but the quotes he made about having that "lust" for the occult is posted there he struggled with, to me it shows the power of God in leading Lewis out of it and testifies that God is greater and more desirable when you really find Him. I'm reading The Problem of Pain now).
It's why sometimes I do get a sense of fearful caution even with the Eastern Christian metaphysics, as that lust for secret gnosis going too deep obsessing on IMAGE can take hold of you and you end up believing something off track easily; like Pseudo-Dionysius I can't handle, I start getting panic attacks the same way when I was looking into occult type stuff when I was into psychedelics (AND without them I started getting those visions). So I mainly only study the Bible now, even reading that Lewis article made my heart start racing because I know exactly what that man is talking about...
"Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future" by Rose was pretty good also on the UFO's being interdimensional demons and that leading into a New Age World religion in the future.
The Eastern Church gives a particular meaning to the contemplation of the icon.
This comes from the metaphysical base on which it is based, the tripartition of reality between the sensible world, the intelligible or divine, and between the two, the world of images symbolized in the church by the iconostasis.
This tripartition is essentially oriental, it is found among the Persians in the notion of alam-al-mital, and among the Arabs with the barzak.
It is about an intermediate, median reality, where the images have a role which overflows the approach which one has of the images in the sensitive world.
This is the zone of visions. Henri Corbin gave a contemporary approach to this in-between by naming it "imaginal", to avoid confusing it with the imaginary.