00:00 Intro/Catching up together 04:48 Pairing Old & New Testament Icons 11:42 Fr Symeon tells a story 17:12 Adoption, grafting, Friendsgiving & the cherry on top 24:05 Saint Paul explaining the reality of Israel in Romans 34:07 The secret in The Nativity icon about Joseph & Mary 37:37 The presence of The Son at both ends of The Tree of Jesse 41:10 Saint Paul at Mars Hill, is the problem life or death 51:15 The importance of physicality & mental stillness 55:09 Closing thought...

00:00 Intro 02:04 Chapter 1 09:59 Chapter 2 20:11 Chapter 3 30:09 Chapter 4 40:10 Chapter 5 50:08 Chapter 6 61:13 Chapter 7 65:09 Outro The second half of our conversation about how a huge part of the problem with "politics" in The United States is both "sides" have the same underlying assumption: we can't live the good life until everyone agrees with us & the laws reflect our agreement. Fr Symeon's recent trip to visit his family provides an opportunity to poke holes in this assumption...

00:00 Intro/Back from China 03:56 Journalism in China & The West 09:51 Harmony, rancor, journalism, editorial & social media 19:49 Saint Paul to The Church in Rome on quiet living 23:07 Vacation vs daily life in a place 27:29 Nominalism cannot be the path to social harmony 35:57 To love neighbor & enemy we must participate in God's holiness 40:12 Humble repentance is the path to a just society 43:11 Christianity isn't convenient, look at Syria 50:10 Models of church & state 53...

As we continue our discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture, Jim & Fr Symeon take the opportunity to discuss "the other side". Last conversation we defined & critique "woke" as the civil religion of the so-called Left. This time we will define & critique "Make America Great Again" as the civil religion of the so-called ...

As we continue our discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture, Jim & Fr Symeon take the opportunity to discuss "the other side". Last conversation we defined & critique "woke" as the civil religion of the so-called Left. This time we will define & critique "Make America Great Again" as the civil religion of the so-called ...

Our ongoing discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture continues as Jim & Fr Symeon talk about the tower of babel as the proto-story of humanity's quest for control over our own destiny & God, repeatedly, making us aware we're not, He is. In this second half of the conversation we began in S7E9, Go Ahead & Lose Control, ...

Our ongoing discussion of the difficulty in integrating the journey on the way of the life of faithfulness to the evengalion of Jesus, The Christ, the Orthodox Christian way of life, into contemporary western culture continues as Jim & Fr Symeon talk about the tower of babel as the proto-story of humanity's quest for control over our own destiny & God, repeatedly, making us aware we're not, He is. Our culture is in the grip of two competing civil religions, two ideologies, which mani...

Part two of our conversation with friend of the show & Iconograhper Nick Papas, who is once again our most welcome guest for this conversation. Our previous discussion about Independence Day having individual meaning for Jim & Fr Symeon got Jim to thinking about how much this actually inverts the purpose of public holidays. This lack of unity as a country reminded him of an increasingly popular turn of phrase in our culture "my tribe" & his concern this trend is stark evidence we...

Don’t Go Back to Babylon - S7E7 Friend of the show & Iconograhper Nick Papas is once again our most welcome guest for this conversation, which will be presented in two parts, the second of which will be episode eight. Our previous discussion about Independence Day having individual meaning for Jim & Fr Symeon got Jim to thinking about how much this actually inverts the purpose of public holidays. This lack of unity as a country reminded him of an increasingly popular turn of p...

Following our two part discussion of artificial intelligence, we continue the discussion with another two part conversation returning to the right use & role of books in this episode followed by a discussion of the place of martyrdom in the way of the life of faithfulness. This is part two of this discussion, please excuse the awkward edit from the preamble (identical to episode 5) into the content, which picks up about an hour into our conversation. Reference materials for this e...

Following our two part discussion of artificial intelligence, we continue the discussion with another two part conversation returning to the right use & role of books in this episode followed by a discussion of the place of martyrdom in the way of the life of faithfulness. Reference materials for this episode: - Harken My Beloved Brethren, page 273 - St Sophrony the Athonite - “seeing God as He is” - Martyrdom, St Ignatius, the wheat God  ...

Part two of our discussion about AI, the collapse of Western knowledge structures, the final (fourth) nail in the coffin of The Enlightenment & why Eastern Orthodox Christianity shouldn't be all too worried about it. This will lead directly into episodes 5 & 6, a discussion about the right use of books, the crisis of authority in The West & the path of martyrdom as we saw it exhibited by an entire community in Damascus on Sunday June 22, 2025 Reference materials for this episode...

What to Do When The Lights Go Out Is artificial intelligence the fourth death of The Enlightenment & should Orthodox Christians even care particularly much? Part 1 of a 2 part conversation. Reference materials for this episode: - The future of AI - https://www.wired.com/story/ai-risk-party-san-francisco/ - AI is making us less smart - https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/ Scripture citations for this episode:  ...

Following on our last episode in which we ended with the celebration of the righteous triumph of the gospel, we felt it was important to point out the boundary which must be kept on how we understand this triumph. With the rise of nationalism in the USA, much of it Christian nationalism, as well as reflecting on such relatively recent tragedies as The Balkan war of the 1990's, it is crucial we understand winning as genuine participation in what God is doing rather than us going out int...

We start season seven off with by urging you to attend a [Orthodox] church you can't understand. Co-host Jim has realized he wasted 15 years of spiritual progress waiting for a local parish to be served in English. He traveled The Balkans enjoying all kinds of church services he couldn't understand a word of during early May & this dovetails with Fr Symeon's recent efforts to fulfill the wishes of Metropolitan Saba to teach Americans in the Antiochian tradition how to fully embrace & ...

The fifth Sunday of Lent, the veneration of St Mary of Egypt, is the subject of this season finale episode. Saint Mary did not leave us with insightful writings. Saint Mary left us with an exemplary life we can strive to emulate. Yet, we have almost no details about how she lived her day to day life & we couldn't emulate it anyway because we don't live alone in a desert. But she clearly spent her life cultivating a deep sense of her sinfulness, a deep repentance of her sins, a profound a...

The Fourth Sunday of Lent, The Veneration of St John Cassian, is the subject of this week's episode. Jim reflects on the core beliefs which come even before details about The Trinity, The Incarnation, The Virgin Birth, The Death, Resurrection & Ascension of this incarnate God, the singularity of the church which His apostles established, or the succession of bishops who have preserved the divine revelation which was given to those apostles by the incarnate God. There is someone we...

The third Sunday of Lent, The Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, is the subject of this week's episode. Jim reflects on the paradox of a device of torture & execution becoming the emblem of our military victory, our triumph, over sin & death. Reference materials for this episode: GOA Digital Chanters’ Stand - https://digitalchantstand.goarch.org/goa/dcs/dcs.html Antiochian Liturgical resources - https://www.antiochian.org/liturgicday Scripture citations for th...

The Second Sunday of Lent, St Gregory Palamas, is the subject of this week's episode. Considered a second triumph of orthodoxy, because just as the veneration of icons is necessary for Christian worship as we remembered last week, the prayer of a single thought, hesychasm, ceaseless prayer, through which we see the uncreated light of God within ourselves, is also necessary. St Gregory defended this tradition against scholastic innovations from the Latin West which rejected the capacity...

What Does It Mean to Be Orthodox? The first Sunday of Lent, The Triumph of Orthodoxy, is the subject of this week's episode. Originally remembering the Old Testament prophets, who spoke truth to power, now remembering the fathers of the 7th ecumenical council, which affirmed the necessity of the veneration of icons in Orthodox worship, Jim takes a few minutes to reflect on why it is Orthodoxy seems to triumph under adversity rather than flourishing when it is the established state religion.&...