Sssymbolism and why the Sacraments don't make no sense

About this Episode

Luke and I do some quick check-ins regarding the news in DC, why Gomer doesn't watch the news, and how that can be healthy. Then we take a brief detour and talk Project 86, WandaVision, and such, then dive into Symbolic Representation, Mythology, and why the Sacraments just seem like bizarre add-ons to an otherwise rational faith.

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Episode Links

• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business: Postman, Neil, Postman, Andrew: 8601420133051: Amazon.com: Books — What happens when media and politics become forms of entertainment? As our world begins to look more and more like Orwell's 1984, Neil's Postman's essential guide to the modern media is more relevant than ever. "It's unlikely that Trump has ever read Amusing Ourselves to Death, but his ascent would not have surprised Postman.” -CNN Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
• Amazon.com: How to Watch TV News (Audible Audio Edition): Jeff Riggenbach, Neil Postman, Steve Powers, Blackstone Audio, Inc.: Audible Audiobooks — A guide to watching television news discusses the calculated programming, the viewer manipulation, and the big business behind today's news networks and shows readers how to interpret what they are hearing and seeing. Original.
• Secular Monks by Andrew Taggart | Articles | First Things — It seems that something outside the domains of economics and ­sexuality bears on the question before us. My hypothesis is religious. The men I have in mind are “secular monks” who embrace a secular “immanent frame,” ascetic self-possession, and a stringent version of human agency. This secular monasticism may be generating a new kind of celibacy. In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor coins the term “immanent frame” with a view to describing what it’s like to live in the modern world. “We come,” he writes, “to understand our lives as taking place within a self-­sufficient immanent order.” It is an order that requires nothing transcendent in order to function. It seems to arise out of itself and unfold according to its own internal, self-­perpetuating logic.
• The Reciprocity between Faith and Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy — 5. Secondly, scientific and technological knowledge, which is so prestigious today, tends to impose itself as a single model in all fields of knowledge and for all kinds of objects. Its radical orientation towards certainty of an empirical and naturalistic type is opposed not only to metaphysical knowledge, but also to knowledge of a symbolic nature. While scientific knowledge emphasizes the capacity of human reason, it does not exhaust all dimensions of reason or knowledge, nor does it cover all cognitive needs for a full human life. Symbolic thinking, with its richness and plasticity, on the one hand, collects and elaborates reflectively the ethical and affective dimensions of experience; and, on the other, touches and transforms the spiritual and cognitive structure of the subject. For this reason, together with all the religious traditions of humanity, the transmission of revelation, with its concomitant cognitive content, is situated in the symbolic sphere, not in the empirical and naturalistic sphere. The sacramental reality of participation in the mystery of grace can only be understood in the unity of this double dimension of the symbolic experience: cognitive and performative. Where the scientistic paradigm reigns, which is blind to symbolic thought, sacramental thought is obstructed.[8] 6. Thirdly, we must still point to a significant cultural change, proper to the new civilization of the image, which poses a new problem to the theological clarification of sacramental faith. While it is true that rationalist modernity minimized the cognitive value of the symbol, contemporary postmodernity nevertheless exalts with great intensity the performative power of images. Thus, it is necessary to overcome the rationalist (modern) prejudice against the cognitive value of the symbolic, without falling into the opposite (postmodern) excess, which reduces the effectiveness of the symbol towards the emotional power of representation, empty of reference. In other words, Christian intelligence must preserve the originality of the Christian sacrament from the risk of double emptying. On the one hand, there is a danger of reducing the symbol-sacrament to the status of a mere cognitive sign that just easily gathers the doctrinal meanings of the faith, without operating any transformation (elimination of the performative dimension of the symbol-sacrament). On the other hand, there is a danger of reducing the symbol-sacrament to the pure aesthetic suggestion carried out by means of its ritual staging, according to the logic of a mere representation that replaces the interior adherence to the symbolized reality of the mystery (suppression of the cognitive dimension).
• 2017 Maps of Meaning 08: Neuropsychology of Symbolic Representation - YouTube — In this lecture, I discuss the relationship between the basic categories of imagistic/symbolic representation and brain function, noting that the very hemispheres of the brain are adapted, right/left to the environmental or experiential permanence of chaos/order or unexplored/explored territory, with consciousness serving the Logos role of communicative explorer (a function related in one of its deepest manifestations to the function of the hypothalamically grounded dopaminergic systems).
• Big Fish (2003) - IMDb — A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
• Jordan Peterson - Harry Potter and the Jungian Shadow - YouTube — Jordan Peterson - Harry Potter and the Jungian Shadow
• WandaVision - Wikipedia — An Avenger who can harness magic, engage in telepathy and telekinesis, and alter reality.[2][3] Olsen said the series brings the character more in line with the comic book version, including depicting her mental illness,[4] and introducing the "Scarlet Witch" moniker that was not previously used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[5] Executive producer Kevin Feige added that the series explores the extent and origin of Wanda's powers.[6] Olsen felt her "ownership" of Wanda was strengthened during development of the series,[7] which allowed her to explore new parts of the character's personality such as her humor and sassiness.[8]:30 She was thrilled that WandaVision focuses on Wanda rather than telling her story "through everyone else's story lines" as in the films, and was sold on joining the series when Feige mentioned specific Scarlet Witch comic storylines that inspired WandaVision.[1] Olsen was influenced by Mary Tyler Moore, Elizabeth Montgomery, and Lucille Ball for her performance.[9]
• SEEK21 | February 4 – 7, 2021 — From February 4 – 7, 2021, we’ll gather across the country in living rooms, campus centers, and parishes for a four-day live broadcast event encountering the heart of the Gospel. There has never before been a Catholic conference of this magnitude focused on the Gospel message itself. Set aside the distractions and enter a space alongside thousands of others who are seeking a new encounter with the Lord, a new chance to pursue holiness, a new moment for our Church. Come away knowing Jesus Christ and have the confidence and tools to share and live the Gospel in your day-to-day life. Register Now
• Project 86 - Chapter 2 — "So let Your face consume my mind"
• Project 86 - Six Sirens (with Sonny from POD) — "I laugh at the strong man, who thought he had control"