Dialectics Deep Dive II: The Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza and God-as-Nature
Added 2021-06-12 23:06:14 +0000 UTCMatthew Furlong returns to the show to discuss the life and philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, the great 17th century Dutch philosopher, as a lens (no pun intended) through which to deepen our understanding of dialectics and the world in which we live.
Check out our first installment of "Dialectics Deep Dive" here: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/dialectics
Previous Episodes on Dialectics:
- Hegelian Dialectics: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/hegel
- The Principal Contradiction: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/contradiction
- Red Menace "On Contradiction": https://redmenace.libsyn.com/on-contradiction-mao
Outro Music: "You're So Cool" by Hans Zimmer
Comments
Hi Ryan, I only just became aware of your comments - sorry for my extremely late reply! Thank you very much for your kind remarks, they mean a lot. I'm glad that you've gotten something out of the content Breht and I have been producing. In terms of some of the Christian stuff I've discussed on the show, I highly recommend the work of Andrew Louth (https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/andrew-louth/), especially his books St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology (2002) and Maximos the Confessor (1996). I haven't read his Greek East and Latin West: The Church AD 681-1071, but I imagine that it's very helpful. With best wishes, and in solidarity!
Matthew
2021-11-07 20:25:20 +0000 UTCLeft a comment on the other Dialectics Deep Dive with Matthew Furlong, but to say it again, the recent string of content on spirituality and dialectics has been so wonderful for me. I was brought to communism because of Trump, trying to understand how that happened, talking to my friends (some of whom are communists), and a few other things. I was deeply involved in the Evangelical movement, being really close to some leaders of the movement and going to seminary to become a pastor. Throughout the Trump presidency, my faith tradition failed to explain the oppression or help people in need, causing me to investigate the tradition and eventually deconstruct out of it. I've read a little Jewish mystical literature, less Christian mystical literature, and even less of others. The deep dive on this stuff has been amazing. Matthew Furlong is an incredible guest and I've been getting every book he recommends and listening to all the podcasts he talks about. After the episode on The Art of Loving, I read the book, and my sense of "no self" has been developing. Spinoza is such a beautiful philosopher in relation to those things, and I am SO excited for more episodes on this kind of thing. Breht, thank you so much, and Matthew, you are an incredible guest. Solidarity
Ryan Spencer
2021-06-24 17:45:07 +0000 UTCAnd thank you Matt for your warm reply. As the vicissitudes of translation would have it, the concepts of blessed in the Jewish tradition compared to the Christian tradition are radically different. The Christian derives from the Latin, associated with the word good. Benedictus here means good speech, or good omen, or good pronouncement. In Hebrew, the name is a cognate of the word for the body part knee, and also for a pool of water. Considering the pastoral context of the ancient hebrews, to be knee deep in water was a connection to the Earth, the forces that move it. Weighed out in rushing water to your knees, and you'll feel what we mean by blessed.
judd
2021-06-14 11:37:26 +0000 UTC
