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July 9, 2025 • 197 mins
In this stream I cover the incredible life of St. Photios the Great and his famous work the Bibliotheca which he reviews 280 books he had recently read. Make sure to check it out and let me know what you think. God bless Superchat Here https://streamlabs.com/churchoftheeternallogos Donochat Me: https://dono.chat/dono/dph Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH8JwgaHCkhdfERVkGbLl2g/join Buy ALP Nicotine Pouches Here! : https://alppouch.com/DPH If you would like to support my work please become a website member! There are 3 different types of memberships to choose from! https://davidpatrickharry.com/register/ Support COTEL with Crypto! Bitcoin: 3QNWpM2qLGfaZ2nUXNDRnwV21UUiaBKVsy Ethereum: 0x0b87E0494117C0adbC45F9F2c099489079d6F7Da Litecoin: MKATh5kwTdiZnPE5Ehr88Yg4KW99Zf7k8d If you enjoy this production, feel compelled, or appreciate my other videos, please support me through my website memberships (www.davidpatrickharry.com) or donate directly by PayPal or crypto! Any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Logos Subscription Membership: http://davidpatrickharry.com/register/ Venmo: @cotel - https://account.venmo.com/u/cotel PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/eternallogos Donations: http://www.davidpatrickharry.com/donate/ PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/eternallogos Website: http://www.davidpatrickharry.com Rokfin: https://rokfin.com/dpharry Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/COTEL Odysee: https://odysee.com/@ChurchoftheEterna... GAB: https://gab.com/dpharry Telegram: https://t.me/eternallogos Minds: https://www.minds.com/Dpharry Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/W10R... DLive: https://dlive.tv/The_Eternal_Logos Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dpharry/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/_dpharry

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
All right, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. This is David
Patrick Carey but Church of the Eternal Logos, and today
we're going to be diving into the Bibliotheca of Photius,
also known in English as the Library of Photius. We're
gonna be talking about a saint that honestly deserves way
more recognition on this YouTube channel than he has received,

(00:39):
and that is Saint Photius the Great of Constantinople, Patriarch
of Constantinople, Photius the First. And this is a man
of incredible erudition, a scholar, an academic, a philosopher, a theologian.
He served, he was a soldier, served in the military,
became went from a reader to bishop to patriarch within

(01:03):
the matter of six days by Emperor Michael the Third.
So just an incredible, incredible and important figure. I mean,
he's often referred to, if not the one of, but
often the greatest mind of Byzantine theology and philosophy. I mean,
right up there with the Cappadocians and Saint John of Crisostom.

(01:24):
He's often referred to as the as the the brightest
light since Saint John of Saint John Crisostom regarding to
his importance concerning Byzantine history. And so what I have
for you today is something that actually I discovered when
I was writing my dissertation. I came across this, uh,
because I became obsessed with going on archive dot org

(01:47):
and finding old text doing this and that. And one
of the things that I discovered winding through this rabbit
hole was an English translation of the Library ofs And
it's actually this library, this collection of books, which is
really just him referring to what he's read.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
So in fact, let me just pull it up real quick.
And then because I got notes, we're going to get
into some notes. We're going to get into a little
bit of an intro of who Saint Photius was in
his importance before we dive into But this is the
main thrust of today's stream right here, is diving into
this book right here, it's called the Library of Photius,

(02:30):
and in it this is why, for example, we've talked
before about Clement of Alexandria, and he talked about the logos,
and he's come up in conversations about logos theology and
being an apologist and stuff like that. But he held
some heretical beliefs, and I didn't know. The way in
which we historically came to understanding of what Clement of

(02:54):
Alexandria actually believed is in this work right here. So
this library of Photius, it was actually his brother asked Photius,
who again was considered even by his enemies, the greatest
mind of his time. And this is in the eight hundred,
so this is the ninth century. Again for historical context,
remember that the Carolingian Empire, the founding of the Holy

(03:17):
Roman Empire, Charlemagne the Pope, that's the year eight hundred,
So the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, the attempt
of essentially the Western bishop, the Pope of Rome, attempting
to create his own empire to rival the Byzantine Empire.
And that's going to come up because when we talk
about Photius the Great, we're talking about the Phodian Schism,

(03:41):
in which there was a sort of brief council in
which he rebukes the pope for the phillyoqua papal supremacy.
Then we have the Robber Baron Council where they then
condemned Photius, and then he comes back, and then we
have what we refer to as the eighth Ecumenical Council
of Constantinople, which essentially reaffirms Icons and the opinions of

(04:04):
Phodias regarding the West, the Bishop of Rome and everything
going on. So his life, he's also he was the
man who selected Cyril and Methodius in regards to creating
the goal Gothic language, the script, the Cyrillian script for
the Slavic language when they converted the Bulgarians. And that

(04:27):
was part of the contention with in Photius's life is
that the Rome they wanted to claim Bulgaria as Catholic,
they wanted to bring Bulgarian part of their territory, and
Constantinople in the east, particularly Phodias, that hell, no, what
are you talking about. You have no right, you have
no jurisdiction over in Bulgaria. And this idea of papal

(04:49):
supremacy and universal jurisdiction, that's not gonna fly. And so
he put he basically put an end to this. And
this is really what then leads to the Cyrillic language
in the full conversion of all the Slavs. And so
Photius is an incredible, incredible saying, and we're going to
dive into a little bit of his life, but it's

(05:10):
it's this book, and this is what we're gonna do today.
So if you guys are interested, let me know when
you When you pull this up, you can see everything
against the Jews. We're definitely gonna read this one. Uh,
you know, Tatius, arian Athanasius, and then Clement, Clement Bishop

(05:34):
of Rome, Clement Presper of Alexandria, and so it's it's
fascinating to read the library of Photius. I mean, this
is a snapshot. Many of the works here we don't
even have access to anymore. There've been lost to history.
The only thing we have of these ancient works, and
this is covering philosophy, Christian theology, Patristic writings, and then

(05:57):
secular secular writings as well, and his oracle writings. He's
got a thing here on Herodotus that we're gonna read.
And this was because his brother, because again Photius was
considered the greatest mind of his time to write about
the things that he had read. And so when you
read this, it's just it's incredible. I'm going to just
pull something up. So the whole thing is like this,

(06:23):
read the History of Nanansas, containing a description of his
embassy to the Ethiopians, Amrites and the Saracens, then a
most powerful nation, as well as to other Eastern peoples
at this time Justinian the emperor of the Romans, and Cassius,
chief of the Saracens. This Cassian was the grandson of Aretheus, himself,

(06:47):
a chief to whom Nanansas's grandfather was sent as ambassador
during the reign of Anastasius to conclude the Treaty of Peace. Anyways,
this goes on and on and on. Some of it
is absolutely hilarious, like here's one on origin. Read Origins
four books on first Principles. The first deals with the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and his statements are

(07:07):
often blasphemous. Thus, he asserts that the Son was created
by the Father, the Holy Ghost by the Son, and
that the Father pervades all existing things, the Son only
those that are endowed with reason, the Holy ghosts only
those that are saved. And he also makes other strange
and impious statements, indulging in frivolous talk about the migration
of souls, the stars being alive, and the like. This

(07:31):
first book is full of fables about the Father Christ
as he calls the Son the holy ghosts and creatures
endowed with reason. In the second book he treats the
world and created things. He asserts that the God of
the Law and the prophets of the Old and New
Testament is one and the same that there is, that
there was the same Holy Spirit in Moses, the rest

(07:52):
of the Prophets, and the Holy Apostles. He further discusses
the incarnation of the Savior, the soul, resurrection, punishment promises.
The third book deals with free will, how the devil
and hostile powers, according to the scriptures, wage war against mankind.
That the world was created and is perishable, having had
a beginning in time. The fourth book treats the final end,

(08:14):
the divine inspiration of the scriptures, and the proper manner
of reading and understanding them. Read fifteen books of the
Preparatorio and Evangelica of Eusebius, and this thing just goes
on and on and on. It's like, I read this,
this is what it's about. I read this, this is
what it's about, and it's incredible. Again, many of these works,

(08:36):
these are even secular Greek works that we have no
access to. The only thing that we know and this
is why Clement of Alexandria is condemned. The Church condemned
him solely bays on Photius's review of his works, which
we don't have access to. So it's it's gonna be
fun actually going through here. Some of it is just

(08:58):
it's literally laugh out loud funny when he's talking about
various people he doesn't like in the in the writing styles,
like he critiques the writing styles. And so I found
a Wikipedia page that actually discusses this book that we're
going to be looking into. So The Ten Thousand Books
was a ninth century work by Byzantine patriarch of Constantinople Photius,

(09:21):
dedicated to his brother and composed of two hundred and
seventy nine reviews of books which he had read. The
Bibliotheca was not meant as a reference work, but it
was widely used as such in the ninth century, and
as one of the first Byzantine works that could be
called an encyclopedia. Reynolds and Wilson called a fascinating production
in which Photius shows himself the inventor of the book review.

(09:44):
So this is actually a novel piece of history that
I think even most orthodox Christian probably haven't heard of
or even looked into, and say, it's two hundred and
eighty sections, very in link from a single sentence to
several pages. Is The works he notes are mainly Christian
and Pagan authors from the fifth century BC to his

(10:05):
own time in the ninth century AD. Almost half the
books mentioned no longer survive. These would have disappeared in
the sack of Constantinople by the Catholics, by the Roman
Catholics who worship the same God as Muslims, during the
Fourth Crusade in twelve oh four, in the fine final
fall of and in the final fall of Constantinople to

(10:27):
the Ottomans in fourteen fifty three, or in the following
centuries of Ottoman rule, during which wealth and literacy contracted
dramatically in the subordinate Greek community. So anyways, this list,
like all the different stuff that he discusses, and all
the different works he claims that he's read, but it's
just an incredible And you know, we've talked about how

(10:50):
technology is actually atrifying abilities of us, and I don't
know if I mentioned this in a stream, but we
certainly talked about a little bit in one of our
things tank meetings for premium members is the atrophying of
innate capabilities, you know. And Socrates was critical of Plato
because of writing and argued that we were going to
be we were going to lose our memories, which again

(11:14):
is kind of true. And every technology is a give
and take, and so is writing bad. No, of course not.
And and the creation of books is that bad. No,
that is a form of technology. However, what I think
is interesting is when you read something like from Photius,
I mean the memory he has, the recall, he has,

(11:36):
his ability to understand the arguments and recite what he
had just read. And it may have been a year ago,
may have been recently, We don't really know how recently
he read these two hundred and eighty works that he
mentions in the library of Photius. But I'm excited to
kind of read through some of them. And I want
you guys to get a good look at the at

(12:03):
who's actually criticized here, because we can go We're definitely
going to do Origin. We're definitely doing Clement of Alexandria
because that one's pretty funny. Philo of Judaea that I
went to this one and found a couple little excerpts
on Herodotus and another historian, which one of them is
very critical of. So if you guys see anybody in

(12:26):
here Amblogus, the Neil Platonist. Again, here's Herodotus and his
his history, Eunomius, heretech Basil the Great was on the
other side, Cyril of Alexandria, justin Martyr the Apology. So
we can go into any of these that you like.

(12:46):
Obviously we can't read all of them. But the premise
of today's stream is kind of to introduce you guys
to a saint that we have not talked about much,
Saint Photius the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople. So I put
together document that kind of just goes over the importance
of him from an Orthodox Christian perspective, his life, his contributions.

(13:07):
We're going to quickly go over to that to begin with.
And then I have this video by Father Josiah Trinham
on the value of education and books Saint Photius the Great,
and he is trying to explicate and educate the audience
of why Saint Fotios is such an important saint, and
anybody who's a scholar, anybody who's really interested in being

(13:29):
a learned person and his humility. I mean, like again,
Saint Photios. He was a patriarch, yet he was also
a soldier, he was a statesman, He was a philosopher,
he was a professor, he was a tutor, he was
a theologian. He was all these different things in one person,
you know. And so many of there are saints, you know,

(13:49):
many of them are monastics, and they lived a very
ascetic monastic life. Obviously he was patriarch, so he was celibate.
But this man lived like a full life. I mean,
he lived in the military, he was a politician. He
came from a wealthy family that his parents were actually
killed by the Econoclast and so Photius and that was
at age like seven or eight. So Photius grew up

(14:13):
already with this immense desire to defend the historical faith.
And that's why he has epithats of you know, the
great equal to the Apostles, this type of thing, because
of again how important his defense of the faith was,
and that he lived through it. He lived during the
Econoclastic period. His parents were killed because they were in

(14:33):
favor of Icons, and he defended the rest of his life.
So we're gonna watch this video. This was another a
quick little video. We're not gonna watch it. It's four
minutes and forty five seconds by the Greek Orthodox Christian
Society at Sydney. But it was pretty decent. And then
this is the ortho Wiki description of Photius so like

(14:57):
in regards to this life. So it says Photius his
parents were wealthy and pious Christians. His father was attacked
to the I'm sorry, attached to the Imperial court with
the office of guardian of the Emperor in the palace.
They belonged to the party which venerated icons, but the
current emperor wasn't aconoclast and thus was against the use

(15:18):
of icons in the church. They were exiled when Photius
was seven, their wealth disposed of and were eventually martyred.
Photius referred to Patriarch Tarasius as uncle from his father's side,
and he was also related to John the seventh Grammaticus.
He was known as one of the one who was
inclined to be quiet, prayerful and monastic life. Byzantine writers

(15:40):
report that Emperor Leo the sixth once angrily called Photius
kazar face, but whether this was a generic insult or
a reference to his ethnicity is unclear, and so I
looked into this and one of the things regarding Leo
calling him in Kazar face, obviously Leo wasn't a fan,
even though I think he tutored him. I think Photius

(16:02):
was his tutor. The speculation that Photius may have been
of Armenian descent ethnically, and this is why he called
him Kazar face. Obviously Kazars were the Turkish tribe that
converted to Judaism. I did a whole stream actually on
the forgotten Empire of Kazaria. Interesting theories regarding Ashkenazi identity

(16:25):
in Eastern Europeans, Eastern European Jews, I should say, And
how exactly they got into Eastern Europe. Did they come
from the West or the East. I'm not going to
dive into that, but it gets into the whole Kazar theory.
I'm sure most people in the chat know what I'm
talking about. So anyways, like it says, we don't know
if that was a generic insult within the Byzantine Empire,

(16:47):
you know, it is calling somebody a Kazard face. Maybe
he was claiming that Photius was deceitful or dishonest or
something we don't really know. Anyways, it says as soon
as he had completed his own education, Photius began to
teach grammar, rhetoric, theology, and philosophy. The way to public
life was probably opened for him by, according to one account,

(17:08):
the marriage of his brother Sergius to Irene, a sister
of Empress Theodora, who, upon the death of her husband
Theophilus in eight forty two, had assumed the regency of
the empire. Photius became a captain of the Guard and
subsequently chief Imperial Secretary in eight fifty five, at age
thirty five years of Again, imagine this, So Photius at

(17:30):
thirty five years I'm thirty five years old, was recognized
for his political skills and made the Byzantine ambassador to
the Persian Caliph in Baghdad, with the charge to negotiate
an end too Christian persecution in the Muslim territory. So again,
this guy becomes one of the most important patriarchs, I mean,

(17:52):
one of the most important theologians and saints of the
Byzantine era. Easily argued easily, and the dude was a
served in the military, served as a political ambassador, he
was the tutor to many of the would become emperors
or the aristocratic elite in Constantinople. Came from a wealthy family,

(18:15):
came from a family that was martyred because they defended icons.
So very very interesting backstory regarding him. Anyways, let me
I got a quick little overview that I put together,
so instead of reading a Wikipedia link or something like that,
just for anybody who's not totally familiar with Saint Photius
the Great, this is a little full overview. We're not

(18:38):
going to read the whole thing. This will be available
for members as always. But Photius born eight ten to
eight ninety three. So, as we said, ninth century really
important time. Ninth centuries, the development of the Holy Roman Empire.
This is where we fully can see the political not
only a theological but the political and imperial directions of

(19:01):
the Latin West and the Greek East begin to move
in opposite trajectories, right, because the founding of the Holy
Roman Empire is essentially the pope trying to create his
own empire to rival the patriarch of Constantinople in regard
to the Byzantine Empire. So, as I said, he was
born in Constantinople, prominent devout Christian family. His uncle was

(19:24):
Patriarch Tarasios of seven eighty four to eight oh six,
who had presided over the seventh Ecumenical Council, that's the
council of the second Council of Nicea, which condemned a conoclasm.
So again a view that was held within his family.
Photios was raised in the context of high learning, receiving

(19:45):
classical Hellenic education, excelling and rhetoric, philosophy, grammar, logic, medicine, astronomy,
and theology. He held high ranking positions in the imperial bureaucracy,
including a chief Imperial Secretary and professor at the Imperial University.
Photios was regarded even by his enemies as one of
the most learned men of his age, earning admiration for

(20:06):
his mastery of both Greek classical literature and partistic theology.
So a little bit about his patriarchate. There's actually two,
because he actually is sent into exile after the first one.
So in eight and eight fifty eight, under Emperor Michael
the Third, Photios was installed as patriarch of Constantinople within
six days. Now imagine that he is a layman. He

(20:28):
is a professor, he is a politician, he is, you know,
revered as an intellectual in his in the Byzantine community
there in Constantinople, and Emperor the Michael the third, because
he didn't like Patriarch Ignatius, decides, you know what, Phodios,

(20:51):
it's I'm going to elevate you to become patriarch of Constantinople.
And he's like, dude, I'm a layman, what are you
talking about. And according to tradition, Podio swept when he
was when he was brought into the priesthood, and that
his vestments were covered in tears, and this was because
of his humility, It said, I found multiple articles that

(21:14):
I read claiming that he never believed that he was
worthy to become clergy, let alone patriarch of Constantinople. And
so again recognizing like his immense humility, because this guy
had like all the accolades. Everybody believed he was like
the smartest, brightest dude around. And so within six days

(21:34):
after being tonsured, he was ordained through all ranks and
consecrated bishop. This rapid elevation was due to the deposition
of Patriarch Ignatius, who had fallen into disfavor with the
imperial family. This non canonical deposition of Ignatius and photius
elevation calls major controversy, particularly with Pope Nicholas the First,

(21:55):
who refused to recognize Photius as patriarch of Constantinople, and
this led to his conflict with Rome. In eight sixty seven,
Photius excommunicated Pope Nicholas the First, citing papal interference in
the East, again particularly that the Western Latin Church was
trying to take over the Bulgarian Church. Now, the Bulgarians

(22:17):
weren't even fully Christian, yet the effort to missionize and
evangelize them was was under in the works. And again
Photius is the one who selects the brothers Cyril and
Methodius to actually go and convert the Bulgars to Orthodoxy.
And of course the Catholic Church thought, oh no, oh, no,

(22:38):
we need to expand our territory into Eastern Europe and
we need to make sure that Bulgaria's ours, and Photius
wasn't really having it. He also was a major major
critic of the Phillyoque, and so the Philioqua clause, which
was increasingly being inserted by the Western Church and the
Nicene Constantinople creed without concilier authority and responds to the West.

(23:01):
Held a Roman sonod that deposed Photius, and then a
local council on Constantinople in eight sixty seven, called again
the first Photian Council, condemned Nicholas claims to universal papal
jurisdiction and defended the Orthodox faith against doctrinal innovations with
the assassination. So then you have more than Aga. This

(23:22):
is why Byzantine history is so freaking interesting. So you
have Emperor Michael the Third, who then is really you know,
promoting Photius to elevating him to patriarch, allowing him to
speak on behalf the Orthodox Church, allowing him to even
condemn the Bishop of Rome and all of the Roman Church.

(23:44):
And then he gets murdered by Basil the First, and
so Emperor Basil the First actually murders Michael the Third.
Photius was then deposed and former patriarch Ignatius as this
elevated to the patriarchate of Constantinople, so he's restored in
eight sixty seven. During this period, Podios is actually exiled,

(24:11):
exiled to a monastery there's a couple of works we
have that he wrote during this period, and he'll actually
be exiled later in his life, of which he's basically
we don't hear of him again in history. It's believed
we don't know exactly which monastery he's sent to at
the end of his life. It's kind of like John
Crassostom right, he's exiled at the end of his life,

(24:33):
and both in the area of Armenia, so we don't
know it's I saw one speculation that maybe Photius was
actually exiled to a monastery he found it somewhere around Armenia,
but I didn't find like super credible support for that,
so I've just thrown it out there. Maybe it's true.
I'm not sure. So anyways, Photius is sent in exile.

(24:57):
Ignatius is now re elevated back to patriarch of Constantinople,
and so after the death, eventually eventually Phodios has called
back from exile back to Constantinople. Now Ignatius is still
the patriarch of Constantinople, and Basil the First, who murdered
Emperor Michael the Third, is still Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
But they call Photius back, and why do they call

(25:19):
him back? Because he's so damn educated. They need him
to tutor the emperor's family. How could you not? So
they exile him, and then like, oh, you know, it
would be really good if Photios could educate my children. Phodios,
can you come back? And so he comes back to
the imperial court, and apparently Ignatius or Ignadios, Ignadios and

(25:43):
Photios they reconcile their differences, and Ignadios formally declares that
Phodios will be the patriarch after him. So, after his death,
Phodios was then reinstated as patriarch with broad support both
clerical and popular. Then we have the official Council of Constantinople,
what we call the athecumenical Council, and it then affirms

(26:09):
Fodios as legitimacy as patriarch, condemns the Philioque, explicitly reaffirming
the Nicene Creed without addition a rejection of Roman papal supremacy.
So again to any of the papists out there going
to hate that, you know, Photius the Great was they
already beat him to the punch before the Great Schism
and the restoration of peace between Constantinople and Rome, which

(26:32):
as I wrote down, was temporary and so missionary activity.
As I said, he's the one that commissioned Saint Cyril
and Methodius to undertake missionary work among the Slavs. They
developed a goal Gothic alphabet, translated the Gospels and liturgical
texts in the Old Church. Slavonic Photios does ensure that

(26:52):
the Orthodox Christian orientation of the Slavic world, shaping future
Orthodox cultures in Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia. And then here's
some of his major works. I would argue the most
famous is the Mistagogie of the Holy Spirit, but a
close second is the one that we're diving into today,
the Bibliotheca again, the vast compendium of two hundred and

(27:13):
eighty reviews in summaries of classical and Patristic texts. And
though then you have them Amphilachia and the letters in homilies,
So those are kind of the four. We don't have
tons of his stuff, unfortunately, and there are, like I said,
a bunch of letters in homilies that we do have

(27:34):
that have survived history. You can find books of that.
In fact, when we watch the Father Josiah Trindam Video.
He has a book that is a collection of the
letters that we have, the historical letters we have of
Saint Photius. Again, he's venerated as a saint obviously February sixth.
He's often recurred to, often referred to as Photius the Great,

(27:56):
one of only three patriarchs of Constantinople honored with that title,
Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Tarrasios his uncle actually
and regarded as a church father, an ecumenical teacher, and
the last great figure of Byzantine Patristic theology. And obviously
his arguments were going to be reinforced and were a

(28:18):
great influence upon the Great Schism. So this gets into
a little bit more details on the Photean schism and
why exactly and how exactly all that transpired. I've pretty
much given you a quick summary, so if you want
to dive deeper again, you can get this on the
website for members. But the main theological issues. The first

(28:41):
one is the philioque. So Photios argue that the addition
violated the canons of the ecumenical councils, which forbade modification
through the creed. Theologically, it distorted the monarchy of the Father,
and he refers to the in apologetics to the Philioquay,
he uses the monarchy of the of the Father over

(29:03):
and over again, and that the Philioquay diminishes the unique
role of monarch of head of the Trinity that the
Father occupies, and therefore undermining the personal distinctions within the Trinity.
And it leads to a double procession which confuses the
Son and the Spirit, implies a subordination of the Spirit.
You've heard me make these arguments as well, so he

(29:26):
wrote in the Misgogi of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit
proceeds from the Father alone, as from a cause, and
not from the son papal supremacy. So obviously he was
arguing for the historical first millennial conciliatory framework, the sonodal
framework of the church. So the Church is governed by

(29:49):
ecumenical councils, not by one bishop. The pentarchy, as you
guys know, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem preserves balance
and Catholicity, and the pope has a primacy of honor,
not supremacy of power. The Church is ruled by synod
and by tradition, not by domination Saint Photius the Great,

(30:12):
and also he condemned them for a missionary competition in
Bulgaria and essentially claimed it as Orthodox territory. And so yeah,
this gets into the Photian schism and such. One of
the last things that I want to cover, though. Oh,
these are some interesting stories about his life. So this

(30:34):
was about him being elevated to patriarch in six days.
So this was a story I put together I found
online and what is perhaps one of the most controversial
and striking episodes in church history. Photius, a layman at
the time. Now men again, he's a politician, he's a
former soldier, and he's a professor at the Imperial University.

(30:55):
A layman was suddenly ordained through all ranks of the
church in just six days from reader to patriarch. This
took place after Emperor Michael the Third and his powerful
uncle Bartas deposed Patriarch Ignatios. Now Bartis he was in
an adulterous relationship, and so Ignatios, for probably right correct reasons,

(31:17):
was not going to bless Bartas for his adulterous relationship. Well,
Bartis wasn't have a fan of it, and that's why
they actually confined and deposed Patriarch Ignatios. And so, despite
being a scholar and a devout man, Photios initially refused
the role and protested his unworthiness and lack of episcopal experience,
assisting that he preferred the life of contemplation and learning. However,

(31:41):
he was compelled by imperial pressure and the insistence of
clergy and laity who viewed him as the most qualified
man to lead the church spiritually and politically at a
time of instability. So this episode is often compared to
Saint Ambrose of Milan, who's a layman suddenly elevated and anyways,
you get it. Excommunication of Pope Nicholas the first we

(32:04):
kind of covered it in a bold historic act. Saint
Fodio's convened a council in Constantinople in eight sixty seven
and responds to Pope Nicholas as the first meddling in
Eastern church affairs, particularly the papal attempts to take jurisdiction
over the Church of Bulgaria. In this council, Phodios excommunicates
the Pope, stating that he had introduced innovations into the

(32:25):
faith and his interference in the Eastern Church was a
violation of the canons and contrary to the tradition of
the pentarchy. He famously wrote a detailed encyclical to the
other patriarchs of the East, accusing the Latins of heresy
and asserting that the pope had no universal jurisdiction over
the Church. Number three his imprisonment in exile. So after

(32:48):
Emperor Basil I murders Michael the Third and rises the
power in a coup, he reinstated Patriarchy Nadios as patriarch
and banished Photios to a monastery and later into exile
in Armenia. Many expected that this would silence Phodios permanently. Instead,
during his exile, Photios devoted himself to studying and writing,

(33:09):
composing large portions of the Amphilachia and the Mystagogia of
the Holy Spirit. These works demonstrate not only his brilliance
but also his deep inner life even while he was
politically marginalized, and a letter to his friend am Philachios,
he wrote, for the love of the Word of God
is a consolation in all afflictions. His role in the

(33:31):
Slavic Missions when the Slavic peoples began seeking religious instruction
and political alliance. Phodios personally selected the two brothers of
Cyril and Methodius. According to later traditions, Fodios commissioned them
to go to Great Moravia, and the brothers requested a
translation of scripture into the Slavic tongue. Photios approved their

(33:51):
mission and likely oversaw their training and preparation. Cyril and
Methodius later invented the Galgothic script and translated the Gospels
and liturgy and Slavonic and laid the foundation for Orthodox
Christianity in the Slavic world. Reconciliation with Rome. We already
talked a little bit about that. His final years in death.
After Basil's death, Emperor Leo the sixth the Wise deposed

(34:15):
Photius once more, this time peacefully. Photios retired quietly to
a monastery, possibly one he had founded. He died around
eight ninety three, likely in peace and contemplation. According to
some traditions, his body remained incorrupt, and miracles were reported
at his tomb. His sainthood was later formally recognized in
the tenth and nine eleventh centuries by the Orthodox Church.

(34:39):
And so here's some things about the book that we're
getting ready to dive into the library of Photius. So
what is it? We are kind of already giving you
an overview. It's again the collection of two hundred and
eighty reviews and summaries, likely compiled by Photius. This was speculating.
I heard somebody say different, but I put it in

(35:01):
here potentially during his first exile when he wrote The
Infocalia and the Mystagogi of the Holy Spirit, although it's
not certain, and I suspect I don't know just when
I read it. I suspected that he was around the
library because he's referring to so many different books, So
I possibly during his time as an imperial official and scholar.

(35:24):
I think that's very possible as well. But again, the
reason why he composed it was a literary guide for
his brother Tarasios, who is entering public life as a politician.
Video sought to provide a manual of intellectual and theological
formation through exposure to key works. And this is in
actually the opening of the book. Since you asked me,

(35:46):
my dearest brother Tarasio's, to summarize the contents of the
books I have read, I have done so with pleasure.
And so what are some of the things that are
the contents that are in it again, classical Greek literature,
Christian writings, critical remarks on style, theology, philosophy, orthodox heresy,
authorial clarity often includes quotations, corrections, and comparisons, classical authors, historians, Herodotus, Theodorus, rhetoricians, origin, heretics,

(36:15):
origin Eusebius, aaron Ais, wasn't a heretic, Clement of Alexandria.
All this different stuff talks about gnostics, aryan sympathizers, apollinarians,
and the such. So preservation of lost works. Over half
the works we're going to be looking at are now
lost in their entirety, So like the summaries of the

(36:39):
Ptolemaic historians and the historian polemicists, and gnostic texts lost
to history. Only references in the library of Photius that
we're going to look at. And here's some of the
more interesting facts and insights. I want to get to this.
So his condemnation of Clement of Alexandria. His this is
again we're going to read this whole section, but here's
an excerpt. His style is loose and vers bo but

(37:01):
more seriously, his doctrines are riddled with unorthodox speculation. He
mingles Christian doctrine with Hellenic philosophy in a way that
leads to confusion, and so this criticism of Clement of
Alexandria is actually the basis for the Church's condemnation of
Clement as a heretic. And so he criticizes Clement for

(37:21):
allegorizing too freely mixing platonic and Stoic ideas with the Gospel,
suggesting salvation may be possible outside the Church of you.
Photius finds dangerous, and this condemnation is one of the
earliest formal critiques of Clement's orthodoxy, and it had influence
on how Clement was perceived in the East for centuries later.

(37:42):
Photios calls Origin full of errors and several entries. Photius
criticizes Origin for specuative theology, subordination, and his subordination as
trinitarian views, universalists eschatology. Podios is fair and acknowledging origins learning,
but regard him as heretical, reaffirming his condemnation by earlier councils,

(38:05):
pagan historians and novelists. He summarizes the works of Tessius,
Diodorus Heliodorus. He reviews include stylistic critique, how good their
rhetoric is, how good their Greek is, literary analysis is
moral judgment, criticism of historian writings, and multiple entries. He

(38:26):
condemns Historian Christology and critiques Eastern Syrian writers, accusing them
of dividing Christ into two subjects. Photios divins the Chalcedonian
Christology in the language of one hypostasis and two natures. Again,
talking about he uses these words attic, asianic, barbaric. He's

(38:48):
referring to pure classical Greek, floored and rhetorical or non
Greek and non rhetorical, offers a Byzantine standard of literary
esthetics rooted in classical training, and then his theological significance.
Although it's not a theological book. The Bibliotheca expresses a
commitment to orthodox Batriistic tradition, a rejection of heterodoxy, especially

(39:12):
speculative and philosophical distortions, and the importance of education grounded
in both Hellenic and Christian learning, and so he discerns
truth from air, even in ancient sources. He sets a
model for Orthodox scholarship intellectually rigorous, theologically discerning, and spiritually
grounded and then modern scholarly used. The Bibliotheca is a

(39:34):
primary source for many now lost works. It is a
key witness tone ninth century Byzantine literature, culture, and orthodoxy. Historians,
theologian and classicists rely on it to reconstruct early Christian heresies,
lost pagan literature, reception of Greek philosophy by Church fathers.
And that's how I actually came across this book is

(39:55):
because I was doing I forget what it was I
was doing, looking up some like weird rabbit hole detail
on gnosticism and like Christian heresies. Somehow I found something
regarding Clement of Alexandria. And then I found a little
excerpt feels like in a footnote in a book that
said something that Saint Photius or it said something it

(40:19):
wasn't even a Christian as a secular scholar, something about
Photius's condemnation of Clement of Alexandria, and the Bibliotheca. I
was like, huh, and it made a reference like this
was the one of the earliest condemnations of Clement, and
I thought what, So then I went on a I
went on a hunt online and that's where I found, uh,

(40:39):
the archive dot org book that we have in English,
So that's where we're going to get into now, guys,
smash that lie. Thank you all for being here again.
It's kind of a historical stream today. It's a little deep,
you know, deep dive or sort of stroll down a
Byzantine memory lane, because this really is a sort of

(41:00):
snapshot of the greatest Orthodox mind in the ninth century
Byzantine world. Christopher Scott throws in five, no comment. Thank
you so much, Christopher, God bless you brother, really appreciate that.
Screwed Up Nevsky throws in five, says this one is
going to be so good. Thank you and God blessed
eph Well. I hope so. Screwed up Nevsky, thank you

(41:21):
so much for the support, and thank you guys already
for the three super chat. Try to If you guys
can't help me reach my goal today, I'd greatly appreciate
that and support my work and the preparation it takes
to do some of these streams. So thank you very much.
Screwed up Nevsky. I hope you do enjoy it. I
promise you. When we start getting into photios on some

(41:42):
of the heretics, it's funny it's good stuff, and Dork
Jansen throws in five says great stream, Thank you very much,
Dork God bless you brother. Let me just double check
on the other ones real quick, okay. And over here

(42:03):
on stream labs, we got a super chat that came
in shout out to oh Victor Z. Victor Z throws
in ten and says, Hi, Patrick. I looked up the
image and likeness of God but found a lot of

(42:24):
different interpretations. How would the Orthodox define these? How does
the Orthodox define the image and likeness of God? I mean,
depending on how detail I mean, that can be a
whole stream in and of itself. I suffice it to say,
I'll do it in a roundabout way. Is the image

(42:49):
and likeness. Being made in the image of likeness of
God is essential for how we participate in theosis. Theosis
is made possible by Christ taking on human nature, fusing, uniting,
bridging human nature and divine nature. Right, So the being
made in the image of God is what allows us
to do all these behaviors and have these capabilities that

(43:11):
animals don't have. And we would say most of them,
if not all of them, are indicative of the uncreated energies.
So like truth. Can an animal actually apprehend truth? No,
it cannot truth, love, compassion, mercy, honor, glory, logic. Can
an animal be logical, No, it's instinctual. It may do

(43:32):
something that we could then deem as that is a
logical thing for the animal to do, but the animal
is not wondering about the law of identity. Every day
it goes, you know, goes out to feast. So we
would argue that the energies, which are the ways in
which we directly engage with God, having free will, right,

(43:53):
having the ability to participate in these energies is essential
for us having the Amago day that's Latin for the
image of God. So without the Amago day, we wouldn't
be able to participate in the noetic reality of the
uncreated energies of God and have direct community communion with Him.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
So the whole idea is that God created us because
He loved us, created us with a peace of Him.
We are the pinnacle of creation, and yet we are
inspired by Divinity. We're you know, it's like a creation
as a as a pyramid. We kind of set at
the at the top and we then are trying to
orient ourselves toward the transcendent God. So I would say

(44:37):
the Imago day from an Orthodox perspective, is essential for
differentiating all the capabilities we have that animals don't have.
And we would argue as Orthodox that that's tied with
having a soul. And this would be also the orthodox
theological argument why advanced artificial intelligence or artificial general intelligence

(44:57):
can never be fully sentient or can never occupied the
status of what we would consider personhood because it has
no soul. It's a mimicking of pattern recognition. And to
define personhood as purely IQ is a diminishment of our
being made in the image of God, because God is
more than just IQ. God is more than infinite IQ.

(45:18):
And the fact that transhumanists relegate our personhood and our
our anthropological identity to pattern recognition is really a diminution
of the Amago day and who we are. Obviously, having
a high IQ is not, you know, not bad and
of itself, it's a great thing. But who we are

(45:38):
as people are way more expansive than just pattern recognition
or IQ. And if you play that game that you
just limit people to IQ because IQ is different based
on races, you know, allah the bell curve. But if
you just limit people to pattern recognition, you are playing
a dangerous game in which you will not be able

(45:58):
to compete with the AI. And if you'd label people's
just pure IQ that's the only value and recognition of distinction,
well then you're playing a losing game and you've already
diminished yourself to a state in which you have to
compete with the machine. So it's a long and roundabout way,
but I hope that I hope that kind of suffices

(46:20):
the question of what means to be MAGO day. Again,
it's a much much bigger, much grander topic. But anyways,
thank you very much Victor Z for the support, and
Dan throws in a generous twenty dollars says, I love
these streams. Well, thank you so much. Dan.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
I hope you.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Enjoy the rest of today's stream. And with that being said,
let's actually get into the rest of today's stream. So
guys smashed that, like, I do want to say, if
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(46:56):
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Speaker 2 (47:02):
There.

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Oh, there goes to the membership. And by the way,
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(47:25):
It's an incredible resource. So the show notes for today,
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I recommend getting a premium membership and you'll be included.

(47:47):
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(48:08):
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(48:28):
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If you have to get a nicotine fix, I do
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(48:49):
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(49:32):
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me out. So check out orthodox depot dot com. Okay,
now let's get into our Father Josiah Trinum video. So
first thing I want to show again, we're gonna be
diving into this book here. It's a great, great, great

(49:52):
snapshot of history that again most Orthodox people have never
even looked at, but I highly recommend it. We're gonna
watch this video on education and books because one of
the things that Fathers be trying to highlight is that
books aren't something that we should shy away from. Actually,
Saint Fodios encourages Orthodox Christians of your if you're of

(50:16):
a particular ilk right. We're not saying that everybody needs
to read philosophy and theology, but if you're one of
these brainiacts, if you're one of these fast boys as
Dire calls them, if you're one of these heads, Saint
Fodio says, he encourages you to learn the faith, learn
the Orthodox Faith, and encourages people to read the heretics,

(50:37):
read the pagans, read the philosophers that disagree with us,
so that you can be a better apologist and you
can defend the faith better. This is this is reiterator.
He's reiterating, essentially the sentiment of Saint Basil the Great, Uh,
you know, one of the Cappadocian fathers, and in Saint
John of Damascus who says that philosophy isn't the source

(50:58):
of ultimate truth, but philosophy, even though it's not revealed scripture,
it's not theology of the church, it's not tradition, is
incredibly useful. And why what does Saint John Damascus say?
He even talks about it in this book right here,
which I recommend. This is a three parter. It has
the fountain of knowledge, which is why I'm talking about

(51:19):
the philosophical chapters and heresies on the Orthodox faith, in
on all the Orthodox faiths. Anyways, and here he says,
you need to read this stuff again if you have
a particular ilk, you're of a particular kind of mind,
because this is how we defend the faith and being
able to articulate and defend the faith in secular philosophical

(51:40):
terms is actually a necessity. It's not something to be
shied away from. And so he's rebutting other clergy that
we're telling Orthodox Christians do not read anything that's not
Orthodox Christian. And I would say probably for people first
getting into the church, that's probably a good idea. I've
seen too many people, you know, bring in their esoteric

(52:01):
or a cult or New Age baggage or Catholic Protestant
baggage into Orthodoxy. It's like, dude, just chill, learn the
faith for a little bit, you know, at least just
for a whole year. Just read Orthodoxy so that you
can get a grasp on it and then you know,
start getting into the apologetics. But again, Saint Fodio, Saint Basil,

(52:22):
the Great Saint John of Damascus, we have. Those are
three church fathers telling you, look, if you have the
skill set, it's actually incredibly beneficial to learn philosophy, read
the secular and the what they called the Pagans, we
call them secular now we're post enlightenment. For them, they
would say, read the Pagans and read the heretics, because

(52:44):
it's only by knowing what they're saying, and why they're wrong.
For how you can defend the church and make sure
that the church thrives into the future. Yeah, absolutely, philosophy
is useful. How I limited my knowledge in order to
make room for faith ro corps Well yeah, yeah, I
mean that's the point that Saint John Damascus makes, is that, Yeah,

(53:04):
philosophy isn't the source of knowledge, but philosophy is incredibly useful,
and if you're of the right person, you should pursue,
pursue those skills and use them for apologetic purposes for
the church. So, yeah, screwed up. Nephti says, Yeah, I
can't read or listen to anything pro heterodox for now.
It's a good idea, really, I mean it's a and

(53:27):
once you are immersed in like Orthodox literature and the
Orthodox frotoma, let's say for a year, just theoretically to
throw out a random number there, when you engage in
heresies or you engage in heretical or pagan thought, you
can feel it immediately. It just rubs against the grain
that's been grooved by Orthodoxy and so and that's part

(53:49):
of the discernment that develops in your journey. Right, So
you know, I know, we all love Dire, we all
love Andrew Wilson, we all love our Orthodox content creators.
But just because you become Orthodox doesn't mean you have
to debate and be an apologist. Learn the faith, and
maybe that is where you're going to go, but you
got to learn the faith to be an apologist first.

(54:10):
So anyways, sorry for that. Let's get into Here is
Father Ziah Trinam on Saint Photius the Great talking about
the value of education and books and why books and
literature and reading is so important to the Christian life.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
Here the contours of his life. Then you can listen
to his life on the sinnox Sarian, on the PNP
app or on the website. This reflection I've en titled
Saint Photius the Great on Education and Books. Let me
mention a few things about Saint Photius's life. This is
ninth century Constantinople. He is this great pillar of Orthodoxy

(54:50):
who defended the Holy Faith against Latin innovations, especially of
the hideous Pope Nicholas. The first parents, Sergius and Irene,
were confessors for the faith. In fact, their feast day
is the thirteenth of May. His maternal uncle Sergius was
a patrician and he was married to Irene, the sister

(55:11):
of Empress Theodora. Another uncle was Patriarch Terrassius, Saint Terrasios.
This is patriarch seven eighty four to eight o six.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Are you late?

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Are you hearing this? Like Potios comes from like elite
Orthodox Byzantine family genetics. Like they're all right around the
imperial throne. They're all they're in the social circles, right.
This is the this is the stock that Photios is
coming from.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Who presided over the seventh Day Medical Council. Saint Fotius
the Great was a great scholar, the great scholar of
the Empire. He was a professor and an author who
wrote magnificent books at the University of Constantinople, very ancient university,
older than the great universities of the West like Oxford,

(56:03):
Sorbone and others. He loved the church. Was an extremely
devout man, cherished celibacy and friendship. He was a man
of immense friendship, absolutely devoted to his students, to the
formation of educated, mature Orthodox Christians, and he wanted in
his life to remain what he was, which was a
devout scholar and professor. He never wanted to be a priest,

(56:29):
but he was forcibly ordained. He was commandeered by the Emperor,
the clergy, and the faithful to become patriarch of Constantinople
at that time, one of three patriarchs who had become patriarch,
having been a layman. He went through all the orders
in one week reader, subdeacon, deacon, priest, bishop, and then

(56:53):
elevated to patriarch. This happened also, of course, to Patriarch
Terascio Senter Patriarch niki Foros a little bit later after
tarst was around eight fifteen. The account in his life
says that when he was being ordained and investments were
being put on him, he covered himself and his beautiful
investments in tears because he was so grieved at becoming

(57:15):
a priest and a bishop. He never considered, he says, himself,
ever worthy of being ordained. That's how humble he was.
The people beg to differ, of course, and he also
knew that it meant the end of his scholarly life,
as he knew it the end of his friendships. He
had to now be a father to all, and he
accepted ordination, he said, as the will of God for

(57:37):
his life, as a punishment for his sins. This holy Man,
which we could even with a magnifying glass of great
barwer we couldn't find sins in. He has so much
to say. Of course, he is most famously known for
his mister Gogie of the Holy Spirit, his defense of

(57:57):
the Orthodox faith against the Philioque in the But I'm
wanting to share it with you two of his beautiful
teachings with regards to education and books, and how Christian
should cherish Christian education and cherished books, especially the scriptures,
the writings of the saints and the Fathers, in all
great soul nourishing literature. In a collection of letters we

(58:21):
have I think fifty two of his letters, I want
to read to you a word from Saint Foltius the
Great about education, the preciousness of education. This is a
letter thirty six, Letter thirty six. This is written to
Michael on the subject of education. So please allow me

(58:42):
to read this to you. The acquisition of education becomes
for one who has grown old, the strongest staff of life,
and it transports without pain, one who is in the
bloom of youth to the beauty of virtue. Therefore, educate
your children in wisdom and virtue in order that not
only when they are young they may possess a beautiful

(59:02):
conduct of life, but also when they have grown old,
they may not need the help of others. Here he's
addressing parents about the need to make sure that their
children are educated in a classic Christian way in wisdom
and virtue. Of course, the sadness for us, you.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Know, And one of the things that kind of popped
in my mind re listening to this again was I
actually just had a conversation with father, Deacon, doctor and Anaias,
and we were talking about the kind of state of
online debates and the difference between historically, so whether it
be in ancient Greece or even let's say during the
Byzantine earrow with you know, Photius the Great is that

(59:47):
when debates occurred, the audience was actually somewhat educated, knew
the kind of basics of philosophy, and could follow the arguments.
And we were talking about how now it's like our
the population is so dumb down that if you actually
make a good, coherent, articulate, but let's say, sophisticated argument,

(01:00:10):
and you're on one of these major platforms, a lot
of people just it's gonna go over their head. And
so we were talking about how the context of debate
and apologetics now versus you know, Athanasius versus Ariyan. You know,
at the first Council, it's like those people actually they

(01:00:31):
were arguing, but everybody kind of knew what was going on.
And now we live in such a we live in
a society now nobody really can follow much and it
seems like the people who are philosophically sophisticated tend to
line up on similar sides. You know, obviously I'm biased
regarding the Orthodox apologists, but you know, this is why

(01:00:55):
it is important because when we look at the NPC
of our culture, the mp SEE is educated in the
sense of our state and doctrination right the primary schools,
even the universities. This is these are forms of inductrine indoctrination.
These are not critical thinkers. And to have Christian discernment
in Christian wisdom means to some degree you have to

(01:01:17):
be a critical thinker. Doesn't mean you have to be
a philosopher and like, uh, you know, logically analyze everything.
But being educated having again, God can use you when
you have more skills. We as Orthodox Christians, the whole
point of theosis is that we are conduits for God
in the world and for that to occur being educated,

(01:01:38):
having skills. Maybe you're maybe education, maybe philosophy is not
your thing. Maybe you're really good with your hands, and
it's carpentry, it's woodworking, it's it's sculpting. Like you just
have a skill with your hands, dude, even in your
spare time, if that's a passion, develop your skills. Because
you have no idea how God can use you. He

(01:01:59):
can only use the faithful Christian who has the skills
to accomplish the task, right And I think that's part
of the inspiring thing about being an Orthodox man right
now in twenty twenty five is I firmly believe, like,
go learn a skill and God's providence is going to
put you in a place to utilize it. I firmly
believe that, even though the trajectory and the state of

(01:02:22):
the world will be rocky for sure. But anyways, I digress.
Let's go back to Father Josiah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
This is that most education today as an education in
stupidity and vice. God grant us Christian education. The second
reflection that I want to read to you is his
word about the love of books and how we should

(01:02:51):
cherish books. He was exiled, brutally persecuted, deposed and reinstate,
dated to post and reinstated exile. He spent many years
in exile, and he found the worst form of punishment
in exile to be not beatings, not having access to

(01:03:15):
decent food or doctors. He found it to be a
separation from books, his books, from the sacred scriptures and
the holy writings.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
I love that as a bibliophile myself. My wife always
makes comments about how many books I have and shout
out to the Escaton Vigil. I just got a new
book for reading today. He sent me this one AI Unexplainable, Unpredictable,
Uncontrollable by romanosk Umpolski, and so shout out to the

(01:03:47):
Escaton Vigil. God bless you brother. I really appreciate it.
But I'm always getting books. I'm always gathering new books,
and my wife's like, gosh, you need more books. It's like, baby,
it's the library. It's a lifetime endeavor here, right. It's
not just about one book for one thing. It's about
having a generational library for my children come on, So

(01:04:11):
she gets it. You know, she has her own stuff.
She likes to buy. I like to buy books. So anyways,
hearing the story about Saint Photius the Great from follow Dresaiah,
it probably resonates with us bibliophiles right that he's get
you know, he's in exile, and the things he's complaining
about is, my captives are taken away, my scripture and
my theological works. I can't stand it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
This is from letter eight. He says, in fact, while
they have blocked up our eyes, why what can one
surely say when one can neither see anyone at all,
nor yet consort with books, and especially in the case
of those whose great and primary consolation is reading. Here
in letter eight he's mourning about how terrible the persecution

(01:04:55):
is that he's receiving because it has removed him from
his great and primary consolation, which is reading. And then
another letter, this is letter seventeen, to the emperor who
was persecuting him. He points out to the emperor a
history as only he could describe it, of imperial persecutions
of great churchmen over the years, and even a bad
churchman like heretics to point out that it's unheard of

(01:05:18):
that an emperor would persecute a churchman by removing his books.
Listen to this beautiful word he says. As for us,
we are leading a life more bitter than death. We
have been made a prisoner. We have been deprived of everything, relatives, servants, friends,
and in a word, of all human consolation. And yet

(01:05:39):
the godly Paul, at least while he was being led
about as a prisoner, was not deprived of the routine
of his acquaintances and friends. But even while he was
being led away for execution, he found human kindness on
the part of the Christ hating pagans. Who's writing this,
of course, to an orthodox emperor who's acting worse than
he's saying than a pagan emperor. But perhaps time in
its length revealed that, even if not the high priests

(01:06:01):
of God, still at least some criminals have suffered such punishments.
But the fact that we have been deprived even of
our books is novel and unexpected, and a new punishment
contrived against us for what reason? In order that we
may not hear even the word of God. May the
fulfillment of this curse not occur during your reign namely,

(01:06:22):
in those days there will be a famine of bread
and a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.
Why then, have books been taken away from us? For
if we have done any wrong, more books should have
been given to us, and in fact even teachers, in
order that by reading we may be benefited more, and
by being proved wrong we may correct ourselves. If, however,
we have done no wrong, why are we being wrong?

(01:06:43):
No one of the Orthodox has suffered such a thing,
even at the hands of the heterodox Athanasios. The great
saint Athanasios, who suffered much, had often been driven from
his see, both by heretics and by pagans, but no
one passed the judgment that he be deprived of his books.
Stops the admirable endured the same treachery at the hands

(01:07:03):
of the Arianizers, but his books were not, as in
our case, taken away from him. The impious Nestorius was
exiled in turned Dioscorus, the wretched petros Severus, and many others,
none of them suffered captivity of books. But when he
drove away the great named niki Poros from his see
and exilium, not only did he not exile him from
his books. He did not even starve him to death. Remember, Emperor,

(01:07:27):
that you are a human being, even if you are
the emperor. Uh Saint Photius, Saint Photius on the value
of education, the preciousness of Christian education and wisdom and virtue,
and the preciousness of books. May Saint Photius's character and

(01:07:48):
his loves be ours. May God stir us to love
Christian education and despise false education, which is no education
at all. And may he stir in us a great
love for books, sacred books, the scriptures, the writings of
the fathers, the saints, all soul nourishing literature. Never allow yourselves,

(01:08:13):
dear ones, if you can help it, to be exiled
from either Christian education by the embrace of education unworthy
of its name, or to be distracted from soul nourishing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
Books and reading.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Happy Saint fotheus the great day and stay tuned because
soon so that that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Kind of does it. But I love again that ending
about allow us to be pious for Christian learning, Christian education,
Christian you know wisdom at these books that sat Podios
is going to be discussing here. But also condemn false education,

(01:08:55):
heretical education and So with that, now we're going to
dive into uh, what I'm excited to read with you, guys.
I just did this privately one night. When I found
this book the library of Saint Photias or the Bibliotheca,
I thought I started reading it, I thought, wow, this
is so cool. So the first thing I did was

(01:09:18):
I realized, Okay, this is the first condemnation of Clement
of Alexandria. Okay, and so I went here, let's see
Clement of Alexandria. Let's see. Let's where does it begin? Okay?

(01:09:43):
Here it is so and again we can do way more. People.
I got a few that I'm going to show you.
And if you want me to do keyword searches, like
there's one on against the Jews, Uh, we'll read it.
This is saying this is wisdom from Saint Fodias, guys.
So here's the the first one. This is this is
the what led to the Church's condemnation of Clement of

(01:10:05):
Alexandria as a heretic was due to Photius the Great
reading his works in this review. Now, remember this review
is of two hundred and eighty books that Saint Photius read.
We don't know the exact date it was written in,
but we do know it was written for his brother,
who is also entering into public life in Constantinople as

(01:10:26):
a politician, and he wanted him to. He asked, Photius,
could you give me a review and summary of all
the books you've read, so I could know what to
read and what not to and furthering his own education.
And so here's the one. Here's the section on Clement.
So I again everyone begins with read Read. Three volumes

(01:10:47):
of the works of Clement Presper of Alexandria, entitled Outlines
the Miscellanies the Tutor. The Outlines contained a brief explanation
and interpretation of certain passages in the Old and New Testaments,
although in some cases what he says appears orthodox, and
others he indulges. He indulges in impious and legendary fables.

(01:11:08):
For he is of opinion that matter is eternal and
that ideas are introduced by certain fixed conditions. Right, So
what is that saying fixed conditions ideas a sort of determinism,
and that the material world itself is eternal, that nullifies
the creatio x nilo right, the creation out of nothing,

(01:11:29):
God freely choosing to create creation. He's saying, Look, that
contradicts basic Orthodox teachings. He also reduces the sun to
something created. He talks about prodigious nonsense about the transmigration
of souls and the existence of a number of worlds
before Adam. So he's like, dude, this clemon of Alexandria

(01:11:51):
believes in reincarnation and the multiverse. What's going on here?
We're claiming this guy's Orthodox endeavors to show that Eve
came from Adam, not as holy scripture tells us, but
in an impious and shameful manner. He idly imagines that
angels have connection with women and beget children, that the

(01:12:13):
Word was incarnate but only appeared so so docetism. He
is further convicted by monstrous statements about two words of
the Father, the lesser of which appears to mortals, or
rather not even that one, for he writes, quote, the
Son is called the Word of the same name as

(01:12:33):
the Word of the Father. But this is not the
word that became flesh, nor even the word of the Father,
but a certain power of God as a word eflux
from the word itself, having become mine, pervaded the hearts
of men, unquote. So this is why. Again, the fact,
the fact that he's quoting these books. It's like this, dude, Photius,
I don't know if he's doing this from memory. If

(01:12:55):
he is, it's fantastic. But he's got to have these
books somewhere around, because you will quote whole sections from him. Okay,
so he just read this quote from this weird like
concept of two words and Clement of Alexandria and so
what Then he says, we're's the end of the quote.

(01:13:20):
Oh here it is. Gosh, dang it, I'm trying to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Okay, and.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Right here, So all this he had he attempts to
support by passages of scripture. He talks much about blasphemous nonsense,
either here or someone else under his name. These monstrous
blasphemis are contained in eight books, in which he frequently

(01:13:53):
discusses the same points and quotes passages from scripture promiscuously
and confusedly, like Unpossessed. The entire work includes notes on Genesis, Exodus,
and Psalms, Saint Paul's Epistles, the Catholic Epistles, and Ecclesiasticus.
Clement was a pupil of Pantinaeus, as he himself says,

(01:14:18):
let this suffice for the outlines, and then this is
the next work of Clement of Alexander that he's read.
The Tutor is an elaborate work in three books, containing
rules for behavior and conduct. It was preceded by and
combined with another work in which he refutes the impiety

(01:14:40):
of the Heathen. These discourses have nothing in common with
the outlines, since they are entirely free from idle and
blasphemous opinions. The style is florid, rising at times to
an agreeable and moderate loftiness, while the display of learning
is not inappropriate. In the last book, something is said

(01:15:01):
about images, and then the miscellanies. The miscellanies in eight
books contain an attack upon heresy and the Heathen. The
materials arranged promiscuously, and the chapters are not in order.
The reason for which he himself gives at the end
of the seventh book, and the following words quote, since

(01:15:22):
these points have been thoroughly discussed, and our ethical formula
has been sketched summarily and fragmentally, as we promise, teachings
calculated to kindle the flame of true knowledge being scattered
here and there. So that the discovery of the sacred
mysteries may not be easy to any one of the
uninitiated unquote, and so on. This, he himself says, is

(01:15:45):
the reason why the subject matter is so unsystematically arranged.
In an old copy, I have found the title of
this work not only given as Miscellanies, but in full
as follows miscellany of Gnostic notes, in accordance with the
true Philosophy Books one through eight. The first seven books

(01:16:05):
have the same title and are identical to the other copies.
The title of the eighth, however, varies, as does the
subject matter, and some copies it is called who is
the rich Man that is scared? And begins quote those
who laudatory speeches unquote, etc. And others it is called
the Miscellanies the eighth book like the other seven, and

(01:16:28):
begins quote but not even the oldest of the philosophers, etc.
The work in some parts is unsound, but not like
the outline, some of whose statements it refutes. Clement is
said to have written several other works, of which the
following are mentioned. In other writers, on Easter, on fasting,
on evil, speaking on the ecclesiastical canons, and against those

(01:16:51):
who follow the erroneous doctrine of the Jews. Dedicated to Alexander,
Bishop of Jerusalem. He flourished during the reign of Servius
and his son Antonius at Rome. And then here's one
on Clement of Rome. So bishop read two volumes of

(01:17:11):
the works of Clement, Bishop of Rome. One is entitled
the Apostolic Constitutions by Clement, containing the synodical canons ascribed
to the assembled Apostles. The other is the form of
a letter is dedicated to James, the Lord's brother, and
contains what are called the acts of the Apostle Peter,
his conversations with Simon Magus, the recognition of Clement and

(01:17:34):
his father and his two brothers. Hence, in some copies
it is entitled the Recognition of Clement of Rome. As
we have said, a letter is prefixed to sent to James,
the Lord's brother, but not always the same nor from
the same person, according to some copies, being sent by
Peter the Apostle, and according to others, by Clement to James.

(01:17:56):
In the first case, Peter would be would seem to
have compiled an account of his own acts and sent
it to James at his request, and the second, Clement
compiled it by command of Peter, and sent it to
James after Peter had passed to immortal life. It may
be conjectured that there were two editions of the Acts

(01:18:18):
of Peter, and that when one, in chorus of time perish,
that of Clement alone survived. For in all the copies
which I have seen, by no means, a few after
those different epistles and titles, I have unvaryingly found the
same treatisy beginning Quote I, Clement, etc. The work is
full of countless absurdities, and of blasphemy against the Sun,

(01:18:40):
in accordance with the Aryan heresy. The Constitutions appear to
be liable and to ensure on three counts clumsy fiction,
which is easy to remove, the abuse of charges against Deuteronomy,
which can easily be met, and its arianism, which can
be refuted by a vigorous attack. But the Book of
the Acts of Peter, and its distinctiveness in earnestness, it's purity,

(01:19:04):
it's viminence, its general linguistic excellences, and its great learning,
is so superior to the Constitutions, that, as far as
language is concerned, no comparison between the two works as possible.
It is this Clement of whom Saint Paul speaks in
the Epistle to the Philippians. To the Philippians quote with

(01:19:27):
Clement also and other my fellow laborers whose names are
written in the Book of Life unquote. He also wrote
an important letter to the Corinthians, which was so highly
thought of that it was read in public. A second
letter to the same is rejected as spurious. And also
the lengthy discussions of a dialogue between Peter and Apion.

(01:19:51):
Some say that Clement succeeded Peter as Bishop of Rome,
others that he was the fourth bishop Linus an Eccletus
in her and that he died in the third year
of Trajan's reign. So interesting stuff. I want to now
move to uh. So let me get some feedback. I'm
not looking at the chat. Uh. What do you guys think?

(01:20:13):
What do you guys think of this? Are you guys following?
I think it's fascinating to see what Photius is reading
and describing in the ninth Syndrome mid again, this is
like mid eight hundreds here. So I want to move
over to Filo, and I want to move back a
couple of pages. I was reading and found these, Oh

(01:20:43):
what the.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
Where is it?

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Filo filo, filo filo judaeis here we go? Here? I
wanted to again with Zosamis. I thought this one was funny.
I was reading it. Read the history of Count Zossamus,
ex Advocate of the Fisc. I'm not sure that is

(01:21:20):
Fisk in six books. Being an impious heathen, he frequently
yelps at those of the true faith, he frequently yelps,
he barks like a dog. His style is concise, clear
and pure, and not devoid of charm. He begins his

(01:21:41):
history almost from the time of Augustus and glances rapidly
at the emperors down to Diocletian, merely mentioning their proclamation
and order of succession. From Diocletian, he treats at greater
length of his successors in five books. The first book
contains the emperors from Augustus to Diocletian, and the sixth
book ends at the time of Alaric, who was besieging

(01:22:05):
Rome for the second time. When the citizens were reduced
to desperate straits, raised a siege and proclaimed a Talus emperor.
Soon afterward, he deposed him because of his incapacity and
sent an embassy to Honorious, who was then at Ravenna,
with proposals for peace. But Sarahs, himself a Goth and

(01:22:28):
an enemy of Alaric, who with about three hundred men,
attached himself to Honorious, and promising to do his utmost
to assist him against Alaric, succeeded in making the negotiations unsuccessful.
Here the sixth book ends. It may be said that
Zosimis did not himself write the history, but that he

(01:22:50):
copied that of Unopius, from which it only differs in
brevity and in being less abusive of Stilocho and other respects.
His account is much the same, especially in the attacks
upon the Christian emperors. I think that both these authors

(01:23:11):
brought out new editions, although I have not seen the
first edition. But it may be conjectured from the title
of the new edition which I have read, that, like Eunapius,
he published a second edition. He is clearer and more concise,
as we have said, than Eunapius, and rarely employees figures
of speech. Here's the history of Herodian. Read the eight

(01:23:35):
books of the History of Herodian, beginning with the death
of Marcus Aurelius. He relates how his son Commodius, who
succeeded him, having shown himself utterly degenerate and completely under
the influence of flatterers, was put to death by his
concupined Marcia, as the result of a plot by Lettaeus
and Eclitas. He was succeeded by per per Tenax, an

(01:24:01):
old man of high character, but the Pratorian guards, who
hated virtue, slew him in the palace. Julian, who obtained
the throne by bribing the praetorians, was soon afterwards put
to death by them. Niger, who appears to have been
an estimable man, was declared emperor while Julian was still alive. Severus,

(01:24:26):
keen witted, astute, and resolute in the presence of dangers.
Having defeated and put to death his rival, ascended the
throne and removed all who resisted him. By open violence
and ensnaring craft. He treated his subjects with the greatest haughtiness.
He died of illness while waging war against the Britons. Antonius,

(01:24:47):
the elder of his two sons, having made a treaty
with him, returned to Italy. He unwillingly accepted his brother
Getta as his partner in the empire, and soon afterwards
murdered him in his mother's arms. Eager to surpass all
the vice and cruelty, he fell a victim in Syria
to a plot set on foot by Macrinus, who was

(01:25:10):
himself threatened with death by the emperor and was anxious
to prevent it. Macrinus, an old man, dilatory and lacking
and self control, but in other respects a worthy person,
became emperor after the death of Antonius. Mosaica, the sister
of Julia, had two daughters, so Maaeus and Mameya. The

(01:25:30):
former had a son named Bassania Basanius, and the later
a son named Alexinus, both reputed sons of Antonius. The army,
on one slight pretext, proclaimed Bassanius emperor in the camp
and bestowed upon him the name Antonius. Macrinius, defeated in battle,

(01:25:51):
fled to the borders of Phoenicia and Syria and retired
to Chalcedon, intending to make his way there to Rome,
but he was intercepted by the emissaries of Antonius, who
cut his head and carried it back with them. Anyways,
it goes on, Where's Philo. So here we go. Read

(01:26:16):
the Allegories of the Sacred Laws and on Civil Life
by Philo Judaeus. That's all he says. Read also his
description of the lives of those amongst the Jews who
led a life of contemplative and active philosophy, thees Scenes
and the Therapeutie. The latter not only built monasteries and
holy places, but also laid down the rules of monasticism

(01:26:37):
followed by the monks of our present day. Read also
the two tractates Centre of Gaius and Centre of Flaccus,
in which, more than in his writings, he shows vigor
of expression and beauty of language. He is frequently ers
by changing his ideas and in describing other things in
a manner of variance with Jewish philosophy. He flourished in

(01:27:02):
the time of Emperor Gius, to whom he states that
he sent a deputation on behalf of his own people.
While Agrippa was king of Judea, he was the author
of numerous treatises and various subjects, ethical discussions and commentaries
on the Old Testament, mostly consisting of forced allegorical explanations.

(01:27:24):
I believe that it was from him that all the
allegorical interpretation of Scripture originated in the church. It is
said that he was converted to Christianity, but afterwards abandoned
it in a fit of anger and indignation. Before this,
during the reign of Emperor Claudius, he had visited Rome,
where he had met Saint Peter, chief of the Apostles,
and became intimate with him, which explains why he thought

(01:27:46):
the disciples of Saint Mark, the Evangelists, who was a
disciple of Saint Peter, worthy of praise, of whom he
says that he had led a contemplative life. Amongst the Jews,
he calls their dwellings monasteries and declares that they always
led an asthetic life, practicing, fasting, prayer, and poverty. Now,
I found this fascinating because I talked to you guys
about Filo of Alexandria, right. Why is Filo of Alexandria

(01:28:09):
of interests? Alexandria was a Hellenic Jew that lived during
the time of Christ, and he was the Hellenistic Jew
who argued for the second Power in heaven theory that
the Logos the Word of God is present in the
Old Testament. He was a Hellenic in that he was
a Middle Platonist. He was very much Greek minded in

(01:28:32):
his philosophy, and the logos plays a central role in Platonism,
as you guys know. And so he found a way
to read the Old Testament and from his perspective exegy
the existence of the logos, the Greek logos in the
Old Testament. That's why Filo is of interest for us Christians.
I had never heard that Philo converted to Christianity, or

(01:28:54):
may potentially converted to Christianity right before he died. That
was the first time I read that. Was actually reading
this and here. That's one of the reason why I
thought it was so interesting. He claims that he met
Peter and that he made a comment that the that
the disciples of Saint Mark were worthy of veneration, worthy

(01:29:15):
of praise. I guess to quote it precisely. I never
heard that before in my life. That was the first time.
So again for me, historical nerd, theology nerd, orthodox nerd.
That's why reading the Library of Photius, I've been I've
been getting all these little tidbit historical surprises that it's like, hmm,
was that just like the cultural convention during the time

(01:29:37):
of Photius, or is maybe he knew something we didn't
know because he was closer to the events, And maybe
Saint Photius's accounts are more accurate than like modern day academia,
So which I would I would probably support UH on
the vast majority of cases. Let's go back to the beginning.
There's one against the Jews that I did not read.

(01:30:01):
Where was that? Against the Jews? Here we go, let's
pull it. Let's pull it up in here.

Speaker 2 (01:30:09):
The Jews.

Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
Let's see what we get here, interesting little stuff. Hey,
shout out to Austin. He just threw in twenty bucks.
Thank you so much. Austin to Tulio, throws in twenty says,
what's up, Dph, what's up, Austin. We're not doing much.
We're just hanging out reading, you know, some a book
that was written at some point in the mid eighteen

(01:30:35):
hundreds or eighteen hundreds, eight hundreds, potentially as late as
the eight seventies, of Saint Photios the Great, in his
account of two hundred and eighty different things that he's read.
Let's see here against the Jews, against the Jews, against
the Jews. Let me just put against in their man,

(01:31:20):
there's a lot. We're only on page nine. I'm scrolling
through here. Oh it's that's because it's doing single words. Okay, okay,
let's just put in Jews. So we're looking for a

(01:31:44):
work on against here we go against it. No, that's
against the Jews, against the Jews, against the Jews. I

(01:32:14):
want to find this.

Speaker 4 (01:32:14):
What the heck, let's see. Huh where is against the Jews?

Speaker 1 (01:32:50):
It's right here. Let's just put against see what we get. Oh,

(01:33:18):
thank you so much. Jay Homson just gifted ten total
crew memberships. God bless you, Jay. Thank you very very much. Brother.
Sorry guys for the the bit of a I should
have found the exact I had not. I had read
mostly like theologians and philosophers that I thought were of
great interest to me personally. That's why, like justin Martyr,

(01:33:41):
some of the Church Fathers, Basil like, I pulled up
all those, but I didn't pull up the one on
against the Jews. And then when I saw that title
in preparation there, I was like, Oh, that's gonna be
a good one to read against the Black Nestorius. That'd

(01:34:02):
be a good one. Why don't we just click to
that one?

Speaker 2 (01:34:04):
Real quick.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
Read the Treatise of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria against the
Blasphemies the Blasphemies of Nestorius in five books. In these
he preserves his characteristic style and curious phraseology, but he
is clearer than in his letters to Hermaeus and his
work on Adoration in the Spirit. The languages are innate

(01:34:39):
and elaborate, forced into agreement with its peculiar form, which
resembles prose poetry that despise meter. Read the Treatises of
Niceus the Monk against the seven Chapters of Philoponus, which
he mentioned in his work called the Arbiter. The style

(01:35:02):
is simple and concise, suitable for controversial writings and free
from redundancies. Also read his attack on the impious Severus
and two books against the Heathen. Okay, okay, okay, all right,

(01:35:45):
we're just gonna have to do it manually.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
Let's go back.

Speaker 1 (01:35:48):
Let's go back. Let's see what page We're just gonna
have to do it by the chapter here against the Jews.

Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
C XB.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
Here you go read the anonymous work. Sorry about that, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:36:38):
Let me just check in with the chat real quick.
Make sure everybody's all right, all right, all right, yeah,
the bagels got there already. I got it now, I
got it now. So I have not read this. This
is gonna be a first timer for me and you guys.
So this is a st. Fodio is reading on against
the Jews. Shout out to John Kel throws in ten
bucks over on dono Chat says God blessed you, Thank

(01:37:00):
you well, thank you brother for the support. Okay, let's
read this. Read and anonymous work entitled A Disputation against
the Jews and those who hold the same heretical views
and those called quatrodecimons who do not celebrate the Holy

(01:37:20):
Easter feast in the first month as the Hebrews do.
It's a long title. The style is concise and free
from redundancies, but somewhat bombastic. The author asserts that our
Lord Jesus Christ did not partake of the regular possible
feast on the Holy fifth Day, for that day was
not laid down, but on the following day that he

(01:37:42):
did not even lawfully eat what he did eat, and
he ate neither lamb nor unleavened bread, and observed none
of the practices which those who keep Easter according to
the law are in the habit of observing. He asserts
that he partook of a private mystic feast, from which
he gave bread and wine to his disciples. Another tractate

(01:38:05):
is also included by a certain Metrodorus, a list of
twenty eight cycles of nineteen years for calculating the Holy
Apostle feast. This Metrodorus, whoever he was, for I have
not been able to learn anything about him. Beginning with
Diocletian has collected the Easter days for five hundred and

(01:38:25):
thirty three years, according to the received and accurate computation
of the fourteenth day. For neither the Church nor ancient
tradition appears to observe those days. So not as juicy
as we were, not as juicy as we were hoping. Oh,
here's this read an anonymous work defending Origin in his

(01:38:46):
abominable writings in five volumes. The style is neither clear
nor pure, and contains nothing deserving of mention. The author
brings forward on behalf of Origin and his Dogmas, Dionysius
of Alexandria, Demetrius Clemens, and several others, but chiefly relies
upon Pimphless the Martyr and Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea in Palestine.

(01:39:20):
This apology is not a refutation of the charges against
Origin for most part, but rather supports the accusation, since
he is not altogether free from his blasphemous opinions. Thus,
he asserts that souls existed before bodies, supporting this nonsense
by passages from the scriptures and fathers, and imagines that

(01:39:41):
taking up of other bodies. In regard to the Holy Trinity. However,
he is Orthodox. He asserts that Origin was not guilty
of air in his opinions on the subject, but that
he was opposing the Sabellian heresy, which at the time
had spread extensively, and that in his endeavor to show
that that the trinity of persons was quite clear and

(01:40:05):
different in many ways, he allowed himself to be carried
away beyond what was right. In the opposite direction, however,
in regard to origins other dogmas to which he does
not even venture to give a specious assent, and to
others he does not think it possible to adapt his defense.
He takes great trouble to prove that there were only

(01:40:26):
intended as a rhetorical exercise, or that he foist it
into his writings by certain heterodox persons, and proof of
this he quotes Origin himself as loudly protesting, for he
says that even when he was alive, he discovered that
such reckless statements were made against him. The counts on
which he asserts that he was falsely accused are fifteen

(01:40:47):
in number, which he declares to be mere slanders, proving
it by quotations from his writings in the fourth book,
and refuting them by the evidence of others on his behalf.
In the fifth the counts are as follows. He is
charged with teaching that prayers should be offered to the Son,
and that he is not absolutely good, that he does
not know the Father as himself. That rational natures enter

(01:41:11):
into the bodies of irrational beings. That there are migrations
from one body into another. That the soul of the
Savior was the same as the soul of Adam. That
there is neither eternal punishment nor resurrection of the flesh.
That magic is not an evil, that astronomy is the

(01:41:31):
cause of events. That the only Begotten has no share
in the kingdom. That the Holy angels came into the
world by falling down from heaven, not to render service
to others, that the Father is unseen by the Son,

(01:41:52):
that the cherubim are the ideas of the Son, that
the image of God in reference to him whose image
is it is whah image is untrue. He rejects these
charges as already stated as slanders on origin, and does
his utmost to prove that he is an orthodox member
of the Church. But my dear sir, if anyone is

(01:42:15):
shown to be not altogether impious, this is no person
why he should escape punishment for obvious blasphemies. Okay, So
let's see if there's any anything juicy in here. Let's
see what's the next thing we want to dive into.
So on here we read against against the Jews, there's Adrian,

(01:42:40):
there's Acts of the disputation of heretics. So I'm going
to read some guys, and I need you to tell
me which one we need to read. Okay, So I'm
going to read through some of the topics and you
tell me if there's something that stands out. Let's see

(01:43:04):
against the Heathen Apollinarius Arian. So let's see he reads
Athanasia's commentaries on Ecclesiastes and against Arius Basil of Cecilia.
Basil the great both Theus. We read Clement, Let's see

(01:43:33):
what's on the next page. Cyril of Alexandria against Astorias.
That might be a good one to read. Deodorus Lexicon
to the ten Orators, Dorotheus new and foreign words in Plato.

(01:43:54):
That'd be it again. These are the type of things
I find interesting. I'm curious, what if anything stands out
for you, guys Epiphanius Uh. Eunomius heretical treatises, its refutation
by Basil, Eusebius's declamations, Galen on medical schools. That might

(01:44:17):
be interesting. Gregory of Nissa in support of Saint Basil
against Eunomius, Hypolitis Romanus against heresies. So Hypolitists of Rome,
that's a that's an apologetic work against gnostics. Iamblicus. Uh,
so there's a neoplatonist Ernaeus against heresies. Aristocrates or Isocrates,

(01:44:46):
John Crysostom, Josephus on the Universe, on the antiquities of
the Jews by Josephus on the Jewish War. Let's find Josephus.

(01:45:07):
Let's go Josephus here. So we got X L V
I I I. Let's check out some Joe Fisa Josephus. Okay,
read the treatises. Oh do you guys send anything in particular? Okay,

(01:45:37):
some people have some questions before we dive into Josephus.

Speaker 2 (01:45:40):
Let me.

Speaker 1 (01:45:42):
Robert E.

Speaker 3 (01:45:43):
Lee.

Speaker 1 (01:45:43):
Welcome back from the dead, General Robert E.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
Lee.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
He says, do you have a book you recommend on
modern saints. I'm not talking about the Xbox Kid. I
don't even know what the Xbox kid is. But you
mean books about multiple saints. Because if you just need
a book, I would highly recommend this one right here.

Speaker 2 (01:46:10):
Oh, let me down.

Speaker 1 (01:46:17):
Saint Paiasios of Mount Athos. This is by higher Monk Isaac.
This is a great, great overview of Saint Paisio's if
he's a modern day saint. I also like, again, this
isn't on a modern day saint, but this is by
a modern day saint, Saint SOPHRONI actually has my birthday

(01:46:40):
September twenty second, So this is a book I have
of his modern saint reflections on prayer. So, Robert Lee,
I'm not sure if you mean like a biography. If
you mean a biography, then I would recommend Saint Paiisios.
There's a bunch of good ones out there. I think
Sat Paysio's and yeah, I think St. Paiisio's is the

(01:47:07):
one biography I have. But AnyWho, I hope that's that's useful. Yeah,
I'm sure some more people in the chat could have
some if you're looking for a specific saint. Maybe I'm
not sure. Welcome Smiragor to the total crew. Thank you

(01:47:27):
so much for the support and joining the stream. Nevada
Precision throws in five. Thanks brother, well, thank you brother,
really appreciate the support. Let me just double check the
other sites real quick. Okay, all right, so was there
another question in the chat?

Speaker 2 (01:47:53):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:47:53):
I think he's referring to the New gen Z Catholic saint.
I have no idea about that. I have to look
that up. I really do not follow the Catholic world
very much. So okay, anyways, yes, that is true. Nevsky,
that is true. Yes, all right, let's get into Josephus here.

(01:48:16):
So this is I have not read this section, so
this might be interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:48:20):
This is.

Speaker 1 (01:48:22):
Him reading Josephus. So read the Treatises of Josephus on
the Universe. Elsewhere called on the Cause of the Universe
and on the Nature of the Universe. It consists of
two little treatises in which the author shows that Plato
contradicts himself. He also refutes Alconi Alcinios, whose views on

(01:48:43):
the soul, matter and the resurrection are false and absurd,
and introduces his own opinions on the subject. He proves
that the Jewish nation is far older than the Greek.
He thinks that man is a compound of fire, earth,
and water, and also of spirit, which he calls soul.
Of the spirit he speaks as follows. Taking the chief

(01:49:03):
part of this, he molded it together with the body,
and opened a passage for it through every joint and limb.
The spirit, thus molded together with the body, in pervading
it throughout, is formed in the likeness of the visible body,
but its nature is colder compared with the three other
substances of which the body is compounded. These views are

(01:49:25):
not in harmony with the Jewish ideas of human physiology,
and are below the customary standard of his other writings.
He also gives a summary account of the creation of
the world of Christ, the True God. He speaks like ourselves,
openly giving him the name of God, and describing in
language to which no objection can be taken his indescribable

(01:49:48):
generation from the Father. This might perhaps cause people to
doubt whether the treatises is really by Josephus, although in
respective style it does not differ from the rest of
his writings. I find a marginal note to the effect
that the work is not by Josephus, but by one Gaius,
a presbyter of Rome, also the author of the Labyrinth,

(01:50:11):
and on end of a dialogue against Proclus, the champion
of the Montanists. The latter, which had no description, is
attributed to some by Josephus, by others to Justin Martyr,
and the Labyrinth to origin. But there is no doubt
that the work is by Gaius the author Gius, the

(01:50:32):
author of the Labyrinth, who at the end of this treatises,
has left it on record that he was the author
of the Nature of the Universe, but is not quite
clear to me whether this is the same or a
different work. This Guius is said to have been a
presbyter of the church at Rome during the epistpicade of
Victor and Zephyrinius, and to have been ordained Bishop of

(01:50:56):
the Gentiles. He wrote another special work against the heresy
of Artemon and also composed a weighty treatisey against Proclus,
the supporter of Montanus of Montanas, and this he reckons
only thirteen epistles of Saint pauland does not include the
Epistle to the Hebrews. Is that all? What is that?

(01:51:25):
All on? Josephus? Come on?

Speaker 2 (01:51:34):
Come on?

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
Is that all Josephus? Okay, we need we need the
one before it. Actually, that's why we missed it. Here
we go read the work by Josephus on the jew

(01:51:59):
on the Calumn of the Jews. The capture of Idapada,
at which Josephus himself was taken prisoner and Geshala and
the desolation of other Jewish fortresses is described in the
last book of the Destruction of Jerusalem. Oh Gosh, don't

(01:52:19):
do that to me again. The work is in seven books.
The author has a pure style in his act at,
expressing his meaning with dignity and distinctiveness and charm, and
the speech is introduced. He is persuasive and agreeable, even
when the opportunity invites him to take opposite views. He

(01:52:42):
is clever and prolific in the use of arguments on
either side, and is extremely fond of aphorisms aphorisms. He
is also very skillful in introducing the emotional and rousing
the passions and calming them. He relates that many signs
and potents preceded the taking of Jerusalem. A heifer that

(01:53:02):
was being led to the sacrifice brought forth a lamb.
A light shone in the temple, and a voice was
heard saying, let us remove hints unquote. The gates of
the temple, which twenty men could hardly open, opened of
their own accord. In the evening, troops appeared clad in armor.
A man named Jesus, son of Anaias, for six years

(01:53:24):
and three months incessantly repeated, like one inspired, the words
woe woe to Jerusalem. When he was whipped for it,
he made no reply, but repeated the same words. He
was present at the capture of the city, and while
crying out woe woe to the city, he was hit
by a stone from one of the enemy's engines and

(01:53:45):
gave up the ghost. Such were the signs that foretold
the taking of the city. But it was internal sedition,
together with the enemy, that overthrew it. Excuse me, split
into the factions of Zelote and Siak Sakari, they destroyed

(01:54:10):
one another, and thus the body of the state was
cruelly and mercifully torn asunder by the common people. The
city suffered so grievously from famine that the inhabitants were
driven to all kinds of excess. A woman even ate
the flesh of her own son. Famine was succeeded by pestilence,
a clear proof that it was the work of divine

(01:54:31):
wrath and fulfillment of the Lord's proclamation and threat that
the city should be taken and utterly destroyed. Interesting. Okay,
let's read the one before this too. Read twenty seven
books by Theodoric Bishop of Kiras or Cirrus, against various

(01:54:55):
heretical propositions. The first book is directed against those who
assert that the God Word was one nature and that
it took its beginning from the seat of David, and
also against those who attribute passions to the Godhead, and
the second. He supports his contentions more by arguments from scripture.
The third deals with the same subject. The fourth contains

(01:55:16):
the teachings of the Holy Fathers concerning the glorious dispensation
incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God.
The fifth contains a collection of the opinions of the heretics,
which are compared with the opinion of those who do
not admit two natures in Christ and shown to be
nearly aken. The sixth distinctly states that there is one son,

(01:55:38):
our Lord, Jesus Christ. The seventh is the form of
a letter completing the first book. The eighth is written
against those who judge the truth only.

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):
Okay, this is.

Speaker 1 (01:55:50):
I thought I saw something on the next page where
it talked about. The eighth is against those who ask
what punishment the Jews would have suffered if they had
not crucified God. The ninth is against those who declare
that he who does not believe in God was crucified.

(01:56:12):
Who does not believe that God was crucified is a Jew.
The twelfth is against those who assert that angels who
ate with Abraham did not entirely put on the nature
of the flesh. The twenty first is against those who
depreciate each of the miracles by denying the flesh. The
twenty second is against those who endure our race by

(01:56:34):
denying that the Savior began with our nature. Interesting, Okay,
let's see. Let's go back and see if we get
anything more spicy. Again, if you guys have a particular request,
feel free to let me know. Abject fool throws in
fifty dollars. Thank you so much, Abject fool God bless you, brother,

(01:56:55):
really appreciate that support. Okay, let's see what's next. If
you guys again, let me know if you guys have
something in particular. Justice of Tiberius Chronicle of the Jewish Kings.

(01:57:21):
I want to again I Justin Martyr the Apology that
was again, as that was one of my one of
the important first reads that I had coming to Orthodoxy,
so I think it's only fair to hear what Fodio
says about it. Okay, read Justin Martyr's Apology for the

(01:57:45):
Christians again. It's a great work, by the way, I'm
I'm a fan, written both against Jews and Gentiles. Also
a treatisey against the First and second books of the
Physics or against Form, Matter and Privation, a collection of
dialect electric, vigorous and useful arguments. Also against the filth
Esscene and eternal motion. Oh, against the filth No, that's fifth,

(01:58:11):
the fifth Essence and eternal motion, which Aristotle has created
by the aid of his clever reasoning, and finally summary
solutions of doubts unfavorable to Christianity. He is thoroughly versed
in his own, in our own, and especially in Heathen philosophy,
overflowing with learning of all kinds and a wealth of
historical knowledge. But he has not endeavored to color the

(01:58:34):
natural beauty of his philosophy by rhetorical arts. Wherever his
diction where for his diction and other respects, vigorous and preserving.
The scientific style is not seasoned with rhetorical condiments, nor
does it attract the crowd of hearers by seductive and
alluring language. He wrote four discourses against the Heathen, the

(01:58:58):
first dedicated to Antonius Pious, his sons and the Senate,
the second to his successors. The third discusses the nature
of demons. The fourth book, also written against the Heathen,
is called a refutation. He also wrote on the Sole
Government of God, Saltes or Salts, some works against Marcian

(01:59:22):
which should be read, and a useful treatisy entitled against
all Heresies. He was the son of Priscus of Bacchius,
and was a native of Napolis and the province of Palestine,
who resided for some time at Rome, where his discourses,

(01:59:45):
manner of life, and dress showed the true philosopher. He
was a fervent lover of piety. His life and religion
incurred the hostility of a certain Crescens in the sect
of the Synics, being falsely accused by him. He patently,
patiently endured his persecution in a manner worthy of his

(02:00:06):
whole career, making it an excuse for martyrdom. He nobly
and joyfully died for Christ. So that was Saint Photius
the Great on Saint Justin Martyr. Okay, let's look for
something juicy here.

Speaker 2 (02:00:24):
Again.

Speaker 1 (02:00:25):
Let me know, grant my attention, guys, if there's something
in particular. Oh, oh, Saint Justin Martyrs. You're a patron saint.
We can always hear what he has to say on origin, Like,

(02:00:48):
here's origin on first principles. I think that'd be you know,
he's not going to have good things to say on origin. Wow,

(02:01:22):
where the heck is it? We're just gonna go straight
to origin, Origin on first principle.

Speaker 4 (02:01:35):
Ah, Origin, here we go.

Speaker 1 (02:01:42):
Oh, we already read that one. That was one of
the ones that we read. Mmm, let's go back. Oh,
you're Socrates. The two Socrates. What's Fhilo got to say
about Socrates? Socrates? Read Socrates's Ecclesiastical History a continuation. Oh okay,

(02:02:19):
this is a different Socrates. Is a Christian Socrates continuation
of that of Eusebius, beginning with the reign of Constantine.
It goes down from the time of Theodosius the Younger,
the writer who had attended the lectures of Ammonius and
Hilarious the Alexandrine Grammarians, even when a boy had been
instructed in quote grammar by Heathen tutors who had been

(02:02:42):
banished from their native country for sedition and carried on
their profession at Constantinople. The work contains the events of
one hundred and forty years, and the entire history is
included in seven books. There is nothing remarkable in the
author's style, and he is not very accurate in matters
of doctrine. Read The Chronicle of Justice of Tiberius, entitled

(02:03:12):
a Chronicle of the Kings of the Jews in the
form of a genealogy by Justice of Tiberius. He came
from Tiberius in Galilee, from which he took his name.
He begins his history with Moses and carries it down
to the death of the seventh Agrippa of the family
of Herod and the last of the king of the Jews.

(02:03:32):
His kingdom, which was bestowed upon him by Claudius, was
extended by Nero and still more Vespasian. He died in
the third year of the reign of Trajan. When the
history ends. Justice's style is very concise, and he admits
a great deal that is of the utmost importance, suffering

(02:03:53):
from the common fault of the Jews, to which race
he belonged. He does not even mention the coming of Christ,
the events of his life, or the miracles performed by Christ.
His father was a Jew name Pistas. Justice himself, according
to Josephus, was one of the most abandoned of men,

(02:04:13):
a slave to vice and greed. He was a political
opponent of Josephus, against whom he is said to have
concocted several plots, but Josephus altogether. On several occasions he
had his enemy in his power only chastise him with
words and let him go free. It is said that

(02:04:34):
the history from which it is great part fictitious, especially
where he described the Judaeo Roman war and the capture
of Jerusalem. This is interesting the history of Africa. Read
the history of Africanus, who is also the author of
the Sesti in fourteen books. Although his style is concise,

(02:04:56):
he omits nothing worthy of record. He began ends with
the mosaic cosmogony and goes down to the coming of Christ.
He also gives a cursory account of events from the
time to the reign of Macrinus, at which date he
tells us, the chronicle was finished, that is, in the
five hundred and seventy to third year of the world.

(02:05:21):
The work is in five volumes. Africanus also wrote, okay
this is about afrit a letter to Origin against the
authenticity of the history of Sosana on the grounds, amongst others,
that is not included in the Jewish books and that
play on words it is a variance with the genuine

(02:05:41):
Hebrew style. Origin answered and refuted these objections. Africanus also
wrote a letter to Aristides in which he showed that
in reality there was no such difference as was generally
supposed between the genealogies of our Savior at Matthew and Luke. Okay,

(02:06:03):
let's see what's this one. Read the work of Philip
of Side, entitled a Christian History, beginning with the words
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
He gives an account of the mosaic history, sometimes brief,
sometimes full, although wordy throughout. The first book contains twenty
four volumes. Like the twenty three other books which we

(02:06:27):
have seen up to the present, his language is diffuse,
without urbanity or elegance, and soon pauls Or positively discussed
his aim is rather to display his knowledge than to
benefit the reader. Most of the matter has nothing to
do with history, and the work might be called a
treatisy on all kinds of subjects rather than a history.

(02:06:49):
A tasteless effusion. I love Photius, it's kind of a
tasteless effusion. Philip was a contemporary of Sicinius and Proclus,
patriarchs of Constantinople. He frequently attacks the former in his
history because while both filled the same office, and Philip
was considered the more eloquent, Scinius was elected to the patriochate.

(02:07:16):
Read the book entitled The Book of Christians, an interpretation
of the Octtuc the author who flourished in the Reign
of Justin dedicates the work to a certain pamphilius. It
begins with the defiant the defense of certain ecclesiastical dogmas
by evidence drawn from scriptures. The style is poor and

(02:07:39):
the arrangement is hardly up to ordinary standard. He relates
much of the incredible form of historical point of view,
so that he may fairly be regarded as a fabulous
rather than a trustworthy authority. His views, on which he
lay special stress, are that neither the sky nor the
earth is spherical, but that the former is a kind

(02:08:02):
of vault, and the latter a rectangular plane twice as
long as broad to the ends of which the ends
of the sky are united, and that all the stars,
with the help of the angels, are kept in motion,
and other things of the same kind. He also mentions
the Book of Genesis and Exodus, as it were by

(02:08:22):
way of digression, and enters into a lengthy discussion. In
speculations about the Tabernacle, the prophets and apostles are curiously treated.
He says that the sun is only twice as large
as two climates, that the angels did not dwell in
heaven but above the firmament, and mingle with us that

(02:08:43):
Christ at his ascension entered the space between the sky
and the firmament, and that only this is the kingdom
of Heaven, and similar absurdities. He dedicates the first six
books to a certain Pamphilius. Of the remaining six there
are twelve, and all the seventh to Anastasius, in which

(02:09:03):
he contends that the heavens are indissolvable. The eighth on
the Song of Hezekiah and the Retrogression of the Sun
to a certain Peter. In this book he also states
that he has written a commentary on the Song of Songs.
The four remaining books have no dedication.

Speaker 2 (02:09:26):
Okay, here we go.

Speaker 1 (02:09:31):
Read a work of Theodore of Antioch entitled a Commentary
on Genesis the History of the Creation, the first book
of which contains seven volumes. The style is neither brilliant
nor very clear. The author avoids the use of allegory
as much as possible, being only concerned with the interpretation
of history. He frequently repeats himself and produces a disagreeable

(02:09:53):
impression upon the reader. Although he lived before Nastorius, he
vomits up his doctrines by inti anticipation. He vomits up.
Although he lived before Nastorius, he vomits up his doctrines
by anticipation. This is that Theodore of Mopuestia, from whom,

(02:10:19):
on several occasions John Philoponos as the latter him as
the latter himself says, demanded a serious explanation of his
method of interpretation in his own work on creation. So, okay,
interesting stuff. Let's okay, Let's let's try something new. Now

(02:10:44):
what we what do we want to get into next? Guys,
SERGEI is the Confessor polycarp letter to the Philippians. Let's

(02:11:06):
see Theodore of Alexandria, Theodore Bantioc. We just read that
one Theodosius the Monk against John phil upon Us.

Speaker 4 (02:11:22):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:11:32):
Interesting, let's do. Let's do John Crisostom. Okay, that's l.

Speaker 2 (02:11:45):
X x x V.

Speaker 1 (02:11:48):
I read the letters written by the Holy Father, Saint
John Chrisostom to different people after the unjust and in
human banishment. The most useful of them are the seventeen
addressed to the pious deaconus'es Olympias. I have that one

(02:12:10):
over here on Michelle, and those two innocent ah innocent
Pope of Rome, in which he relates all that had
happened to him, as far as he was able to
do so, in the form of letters. These letters are

(02:12:30):
characteristic of the man. The style is brilliant, clear, persuasive,
somewhat florid, and agreeable. The letters to Olympias, however, seem
to have been written with greater care. The importance of
the matter discussed to which the epistolatory style is not adapted,
necessitates a corresponding dignity of composition. Read The Adventures of

(02:12:55):
Clitophon and Lesoupi, by Achilles Taddius of Alexandria in eight
books is a dramatic work introducing some unseemly love episodes.
The diction and composition are excellent, the style distinct, and
the figures of speech, whenever they are employed, are well
adapted to the purpose. The periods, as a rule are aphoristic,

(02:13:19):
clear and agreeable, and soothing to the year. But the
obscenity and impurity of sentiment impair his judgment, the pre
judicial to seriousness, and make the story disgusting to read
and something to avoid altogether. Except from the names of
the characters in his Abominable Indecency, the story is in

(02:13:43):
method of treatment and invention, has great resemblance to the
Athipica of her Heliodorus. Okay, let's just go to a
random page here. Let's see what we get. Read an

(02:14:07):
anonymous work entitled a disputation against the Jews and those
who hold the same heretical views. Oh no, we've already
read that. One read the tractate of Hypolitis the Pupil
of Arnaeus, entitled against the thirty two Heresies. It begins

(02:14:30):
with the Diostheans and goes down to the heresies of
Notice and the Notdians, which he says were refuted by
Irenaeus and his lectures, of which the present work is
a synopsis. The style is clear, somewhat severe, and free

(02:14:51):
from redundancies, although it exhibits no tendency to atticism. Some
of these statements are inaccurate, for instance, that the Epistle
of the Hebrews is not the work of the apostle. Paul,
a politicist, is said to have addressed the people after
the manner of origin, with whom he was very intimate
in whose writings he so much admired that he urged

(02:15:12):
him to write a commentary on the Bible, for which
purposes he supplied, at his own expense seven shorthand writers
and the same number of calligraphists. Having rendered this service,
he persistently demanded the work, whence Origin, in one of
his letters, calls him a hustler. He is said to
have written a large number of other works. Read the

(02:15:36):
Penaria of the Most Holy Bishop Epiphanius against eighty Heresies
and three volumes containing seven books. It begins with barbarism
and goes down to the Messillians. The author writes more
fully and effectually against heretics than any of his predecessors,

(02:15:56):
since he has not omitted any useful argument of theirs,
and has added any others that he himself could find.
His style is poor, like that of one who is
unfamiliar with attic elegance. He is chiefly weak in his
conflicts with impious heresies. Sometimes, however, he is excellent in attack,

(02:16:17):
although the character of his language and composition is by
no means improved. At the same time, read the various
stories of the metamor Gosh dang it. Read the Various

(02:16:40):
Stories of Metamorphosis by Lucius of Patre. The style is clear,
pure and agreeable, avoiding innovations. I just love innovations and
language the author carries to excess his tales of marvels,
that he may be called a second Lucian. The first

(02:17:03):
two books are almost translations from Lucian's Lucius or the
Ass Lucien borrowed from Lucius, which, if I may hazard
the conjecture, is the is the case, although I have
not been able to find out for certain which wrote first.
For it seems that Lucian, having cut down the more

(02:17:24):
copious work of Lucius and removed all this all that
seemed unsuitable for his purposes, combined what was left into
a single composition in which the words and arrangement of
the original are were preserved the gay, and gave the
title Lucius or the Ass to what he had borrowed.
Both works are full of mythical fictions and disgraceful indecency.

(02:17:48):
The only difference is that Lucian, as in all other writings,
ridicules and scoffs the heathenish superstitions, whereas Lucius, taking quite
seriously and believe the transformations of men into other men
and brutes, and of brutes into men, and all the
idle talk and nonsense of ancient fables, set them down

(02:18:10):
in writing and work them up into a story. Read
the work on Alexander by Amantintius, dedicated to Emperor Marcus.
The author claims to describe the deeds of Alexander in
a befitting manner, but of course his narratives proves him

(02:18:31):
to be too ready and audacious in his promises, but
backward and timid in performance. For he is far inferior
to those who have previously written of Alexander, and his style,
although clear, is characterized by lack of vigor and energy,
and much that is of the greatest importance is omitted.
Amongst other works, Emaintius also wrote parallel lives of Dionysius

(02:18:56):
and Domitian, and of Philip of Macedon Augustus, both in
two works. A life of Olympius, the mother of Alexander,
is also attributed to him. You see how this is
just like great historical insight.

Speaker 2 (02:19:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:19:15):
I can't imagine there's in any other streams that have
just been reading from this, But if there are, so
be it haul and the goods throws in five said,
would love to know if his works are available, how
did you get all this? Oh? Let me share the link.
So this is from archive dot org. I found an
English copy, translated copy. That's what this is. So if

(02:19:39):
you guys want to read it yourself, feel free. Here's
the link. This is the one. This is the particular
copy that I'm reading. There are some other copies on there.
I just thought the quality of this one and I
didn't see the originals. I don't know the quality of
the translation, but I saw this book was referenced cited

(02:20:00):
in an academic work, and that's why I pulled this
one up. And archive dot org has very useful copy.

Speaker 2 (02:20:09):
So that's what this is.

Speaker 1 (02:20:10):
So knock yourselves out, guys, if you want to read
more of this, because I mean, it's like great historical insight.
Read the various extracts from the sophis So Payder and
twelve books compiled from the works of different historians and writers.
The first book gives an account of the fables of gods.
The third book of Apollodorus, an Athenian who taught grammar

(02:20:36):
on the gods. The selections are not from the third
book alone, but also from the fourth, fifth, ninth, first, twelfth, fifteenth,
and sixteenth down to the twenty fourth. The collection includes
the mythical tales and fictions concerning the gods, and whatever
else is any historical value, such as the stories of
the heroes, the Dioscouri and the those in Hades, and

(02:21:01):
the like. The compiler has also drawn upon the second
book of Juba on painting, and upon the dios Sulphus
of Athenaeus of Necartis. Such are the sources and contents
of the first book. The second book is from the
first book, and onwards down to the twelfth. Okay, this

(02:21:24):
a little bit boring. Let's see what we got here.
Read a book by a certain Eusebius, a bishop from
an Orthodox faith, and ten books written against a monk
named Andrew and called forth by his behavior. He wrote
a letter to Eusebius, which he calls a pastoral letter,
imploring him to read it. Eusebius, having done so, first

(02:21:46):
reprimands Andrew for his ignorance and temerity, showing that he
had made many mistakes in spelling and could not write
a line without making a blunder, but that notwithstanding, he
had had the audacity to write forgetting his profession and
the repose of a monastic life. He then refused Andrew's

(02:22:08):
heretical opinions at length, for he was one of the
sect called the Aphtharo do Setae. From the impious doctrine
that they held, I assume they're Dos Dostus. He first
points out that Andrew must explain why he used the
word corruption in only one sense, thinking that it referred

(02:22:31):
to sin only, whereas our holy fathers, in the usage
of words, have traditionally applied it in different things, two
different things. Secondarily, or secondly, he reproves him because he
ventured to declare, like Julian, that the body of the
Lord was immortal, impassable, and incorruptible from the union of

(02:22:54):
the two natures, although in the very letter he asserts
that he has undertaken to oppose Severus and Julian, since
they deny that there are two natures or two substances,
two properties, and two energies in Christ. Thirdly, because he
insisted that the body of Adam before the Fall was

(02:23:16):
neither entire formed, entirely mortal, nor corruptible by nature, from which,
according to him, it would follow that Christ had assumed
from the very union an incorruptible and impassable body, whereas
in reality he ought to have thought and said that
the body of Adam was by nature mortal and passable,

(02:23:37):
but by divine grace was kept immortal iimpassable until his
transgression deprived him of that protection. Such is the unanimous
opinion of the Holy Fathers. Fourthly, because he called the
present world incorruptible and indestructible, whereas he ought to hold
that it is corruptible and changeable. And his first reply,

(02:23:58):
the bishop exhorted Andrew to retract his opinion on many
other points, at the same time convicting him of obscence,
of obscurity and blasphemy in his language. Andrew, after he
had received his exhortation to mend his ways, went from
bad to worse, and wrote another work in which he

(02:24:20):
again set forth a greater length the views he had
previously expressed, and, as he imagines, establishes their truth. As
we have said, the pious Eusebius wrote ten books to
combat these propositions, in which he shows that Andrew, not
content with the definition of faith marked out by the
Holy Synods, has audaciously drawn up the exposition of the

(02:24:41):
faith of his own, that he has wrenched many passages
from the Fathers and falsified and violently pressed them into
the support of his views. That he contradicts both the
New and Old Testament and our Holy Fathers in asserting
that the world is incorruptible and industry coruptible. That he
says change, transformation, flux can easily be misrepresented, just like

(02:25:07):
the sufferings which have their origin and vice, and that
our Lord Jesus Christ assumed a body that was unchangeable, impassable, incorruptible,
and without flux. Again, he censures himself because because he
asserts that the world is eternal, incorruptible, and ungenerated, and
does not admit that transformation of the elements which contributes

(02:25:30):
to its eternity, since he teaches that it is one
of the passions which can be easily misrepresented. That the
body of Adam was formed incorruptible, immortal, and impassable by nature,
and not only this, but that the way of which
this was to be was formed is incorruptible. Eusebius also

(02:25:51):
censures him for taking the word corruption in only one sense,
whereby he shows that God shows that God is not
the author of corruption or death or any vicious passion,
but not even of sinful thoughts, although he is the

(02:26:13):
author of corruptible and moral substances, for these do not
belong to existing things and have no substance in themselves.
Again the privation so sin being a privation of God's energies.
He also rebukes him for saying that the Lord's body
from the very union is impassable, incorruptible, and unchangeable. In
order to prove that as he imagines, he shows that

(02:26:36):
he has to rely upon his other nonsensical ideas about
the world an atom In the same work, Eusebius shows
in what and how many meanings the word corruption are
used in the scriptures of physical affections that are by
no means reprehensible, and of those that result from labor, fatigue,

(02:26:57):
and old age, being the corruption of youth, as labor
and fatigue are bodily tone and the bodily humiliation and
ascetic and spiritual struggles. For the apostle say, quote, although
our outer man is corrupted, our inner man is renewed unquote.
Of the affliction and wasting away of the body by

(02:27:17):
blows and punishment, of the injury partial and entire, in
the case of animal, seeds, plants, even the death. So
he's talking about how corruption can be used. He confirms
his arguments by passages from the Old and New Testament,
from certain select fathers, Athanasius and the Three Gregory's Basil

(02:27:38):
of Caesarea, John Crasostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Proclus of Constantinople,
Methodius the Holy Martyr, and Quadratus, from some of whose
writings Andrew had wrenched and falsified passages by explaining them
either with deliberate malice or through ignorance, so as to

(02:27:58):
support his own view, imagined that he was confirming his
own mistaken opinions. But he pays the penalty of all
that has been mentioned to Eusebius for his tampering with
the letter, his wickedness and folly, and for putting together
certain passages from heretical writings and venturing to ascribe them

(02:28:20):
to holy fathers from Andrew's foolish utterances. Eusebius also shows
that he is of the opinion that our Lord Jesus Christ,
not being changed by resurrection from corruption to incorruption, is
equally impassable in his manhood and divinity. That he dared
to call those blasphemers who thought and said that our

(02:28:40):
Lord Jesus Christ lived on earth with a mortal and
passable body, while he himself is not ashamed after his
victory over sufferings in the abolition of death and corruption,
monstrously to assert that the body of the Lord is passable.
Forgetting that while insulting the Orthodox by calling them I'm

(02:29:01):
not sure what that word is, he himself is clearly
convicted of being the same thing. He then again adds
some passages from the Fathers and shows that the Lord's
body was passable, mortal, and consequently corruptible until his glorious resurrection,
and that then by itself it became immortal and impassable.

(02:29:21):
He also shows that Andrew talks idly in calling the
Orthodox again that same word, a name which is fitting
and suitable for Arius, Eightius, Eunomius, Apollinarius, and Nestorius, but
not for Orthodox Christians. Eusebius also lays down the doctrine
that our Lord and God, since he as the architect

(02:29:44):
of nature, assumed our natural and by no means reprehensible
quote passions which are not properly called passions, but might
more fittingly be called works of nature, was incapable of
taking upon himself passions properly so called originating from vice,
that he ate and drank with his disciples after the resurrection,

(02:30:05):
not in the same manner as he ate and drank
before the resurrection. In the latter case, he acted according
to the law of nature, refreshing and controlling the perishable
flesh by food and drink, and the former he performed
the act supernaturally by way of dispensation, to inspire the
disciples and through them all the faithful, with their belief

(02:30:28):
that the body that suffered and was crucified rose again
from the dead, the same and not a different body,
although it had been transformed and had become incorruptible and impassable.
Having laid down these doctrines and manner acceptable to God,
Eusebius finishes his tenth book. The style is clear, simple, pure,
and characterized by distinct distinctiveness where it is required. So

(02:30:54):
all right, oh man, I didn't even know that that
comment was still up that whole time. AnyWho, Let me
check to see if anybody send any questions or comments
real quick. My goal was to do a stream about
two and a half hours, so we've kind of met

(02:31:14):
the the timeframe that I was planning on. Is there
anything in particular, guys, you want me to do? You
want me to read what he says about Origin or Arias?
Is that something that you guys want me to do?
I mean, I again, here's the link, so you guys
feel free. You can do your own research tonight and
dive into this. I know, I got lost into it

(02:31:37):
for a couple hours just reading, just clicking through and
reading different sections of it because it's just so cool
for me. It's like a again, a snapshot into the
nineteenth century Byzantine Empire. Holland the Good says, yes, all right, well,
which one? What do we what are we wanting to see? Arias?
We want? We already read one review of Origin on first,

(02:31:59):
Prince bulls, let's see what do you guys want?

Speaker 2 (02:32:18):
Okay, h oh, here's one.

Speaker 1 (02:32:48):
Read the Story of Cyril. The work is a dialectical
and attacks the madness of Arius and Unomius with vigorous
and manifold arguments. By logical methods. He skillfully refutes their
folly by combining and introducing evidence from Holy writ He
completely exposes the unsoundness of their doctrine. He quotes the

(02:33:10):
simple evidence from Scripture thus everywhere, closing their insolent mouths,
so that they are unable to answer. This work is
the clearest of all Cyril's works, especially those who are
able to grasp the significance of his logical methods. Read
a little work by Eunomius entitled again don't have It,

(02:33:34):
which is a clear proof of his impiety. It was
much admired by his adherents, and the greatest efforts were
made to keep it secret and prevent it from becoming
known to others. But the Great Basal managed to secure it,
and by his brilliancy and vigor, and by the force
and excellence of his arguments, overthrew and refuted it. It

(02:33:55):
was as if he had taken a Babylonian child and
dashed it against the granite rock of truth, showing that
what was once so much admired was a mere carcass
and only deserving of ridicule. I love that I read
a work by the same and pious man in three books,

(02:34:16):
so Eunomius, which is, as it were, a confutation of
the absurdities shown by Saint Basil to be contained in
his blasphemous writings. It said that while he was in
labor with this work, he spent several olympiads shut up
in his chamber, and only after an interval of several years,

(02:34:37):
brought forth the abortion and evil monstrosity with which he
had become pregnant by secret intercourse. Yeah, Saint Photios goes
pretty hard on Heresi's and heretics, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:34:53):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (02:34:55):
That last sentence is hilarious. Several olympiads shut up in
a chamber, and only after an interval of several years,
brought forth the abortion and evil monstrosity with which he
had become pregnant by secret intercourse. Not without difficulty, he

(02:35:17):
reared and exhibited the wretched offspring of his fellow initiates,
being especially afraid lest it might somehow fall into the
hands of Basil and be torn in pieces before it
obtained consistency, and might prematurely whether away and perish before
it came to maturity. Wherefore, carefully, and like another Cronos

(02:35:38):
and the fable who swallowed his offspring, he hid and
concealed it as long as Basil's mortal life lasted, lasted
and inspired him with dread. But after the saint had
left his temporary habitation, and had ascended to his own
inheritance in heaven, being relieved of his great apprehension. Although

(02:36:02):
late in the day Unomia's ventured to bring out the
work not for the eyes of the general public, but
for his own friends. Theodore Gregory of Nissa and Sophronius,
whom I have already mentioned, came across the work, lashed
it unmercifully like his earlier one, and flung it back
in the face of its parent, a corpse and smelling

(02:36:25):
of all uncleanliness. Thus he paid the penalty of umpiety.
The style was marked by such absence of grace and
charm that the author does not seem to have any
idea of the existence of such things. His displays prodigious
ostentation and produces discordinate sounds by the heaping up of

(02:36:46):
consonants and by the use of words difficult to pronounce.
In containing several consonants and a poetical or to speak
more accurately, dith arrhythmic style, the composition is forced, compressed,
and harsh, so that the reader of his works is

(02:37:08):
obliged to beat the air viheminently with his lips if
he wishes to utter clearly words which the author, by
excessive roughening, compressing and condensing, interpolating and mutilating, has with
difficulty composed. His periods are sometimes sprunt out in a
anordinate length, and the entire work is pervaded by obscurity

(02:37:31):
and what clearness, his object being to persuade the majority
by force of his eloquence that he goes beyond their capacity,
and also to cover up the weakness of his thoughts,
which is by no means inconsiderable by this very obscurity
and unintelligibility, and to conceal the poverty of his ideas.

(02:37:56):
He seems to have great faith and logical arguments, attacking
others on this account and showing great eagerness to employ
them himself, although since he took up the study late
and did not acquire a thorough knowledge of the subject,
he can often be convicted of errors and reasoning. Also
read his letters to different people forty in number, while

(02:38:19):
in these he affects the same subtlety of form. Since
he is ignorant of the laws of the epistoletary style
and has no practice in them, he has been publicly
branded and exposed. I love that Saint Fodio says that
Eunomius is officially exposed. He's officially exposed his writings. But

(02:38:42):
neither this, nor any other of his works with which
I am acquainted, approaches the grace and beauty of the
letters containing an apology for his flight and an account
for his exile. Read the same holy mans against Arius
and his doctrines and fire books. The style in all
his works is clear, free from redundancies, simple, viminent and deep,

(02:39:06):
and the arguments from which he has an abundant store
are viminently forceful. I believe he's talking about Saint Basil
the Great. He uses logical arguments, not with very words
taken straight from them, after the fashion of children and
those whose knowledge of a subject is recent, who are

(02:39:26):
always eager to make a childish display. Oh, no, this
may still be eunomious. This must be eunomious. Still, he
uses logical arguments, not with the very words taken straight
from them, after the fashion of children and those whose
knowledge of a subject is recent, who are always eager
to make childish display, but in the posing and david

(02:39:48):
manner of it. No, this is basil of a philosopher
using simple ideas these well set forth. He also strongly
fortifies himself with evidence and proofs of holy writ and
a word. This word work alone is a complete refutation
of arianism. If only if anyone were to say that
Gregory the Theologian and the Holy Basil drew from it

(02:40:11):
as a form a fountain, the limpid and beautiful stream
of their own works written against the same heresy would
not be far wrong. So all right, looks like we
had a super chat. Come in here. Jimmy throws in
five says, good evening, doctor, great work on the whatever
debate slash discussions. I hope people can see that there

(02:40:34):
is more to life as a young woman beyond only fans. Yeah,
me too's you know, god willing that be the case. Orthough,
James Brow says, laugh out. Saint Photio is using gen
z slang. Yeah exactly. It's sad that most Americans are
not literate enough to be able to read a simple

(02:40:55):
paragraph of his of this work. Yeah, it's true, I
mean it is both. But I mean that's why whoever translated,
I assume probably did a pretty good job, because Photius
is using so many words to really describe, you know,
his feelings and sentiments about people. Seems like Saint Photius
goes pretty hard on heresy's and heretics, that's for sure.

(02:41:18):
John Annan says, great stream DPH looking forward to the
Voice and the Wilderness reflections on the life and legacy
of Father and Sarah from rosetream on Friday. Yeah, so
I'm going to be that is that is John Anon
is Robert John Hammond, and we are I was going
to be doing a review on this book and I

(02:41:41):
was about halfway through a little bit past halfway, and
so I messaged John because he was recently on John
Hears's father Peter heres his brother his podcast and it's
a really good listen, and so I asked John. I
was like, Hey, if you want, man, you want to
come on with me and we can discuss your book
and promote his new documentary that's out on Amazon. So

(02:42:03):
we're gonna be doing that Friday. We need to come
up with a specific time, but Friday I will be
joined by Robert John Hammon, John Hammon, John and Non
in the chat, author of multiple books that we've done
sponsored streams on, producer, director of a new documentary. So
really looking forward to that. Thank you John for all

(02:42:24):
the support, brother, and Jimmy said, oh yeah, we read
that one. Thank you very much. Jimmy really appreciate you.
Blue Skittle throws in a generous twenty bucks over on
Dono Chat no comment, Thank you so much, Blue Skittle,
God bless you, bro. And let me just see if
anything came in over on stream Labs, guys smashed that,

(02:42:45):
like I think I'm would be doing. I got a
stream that I want to do. Is it going to
be an open panel on the appeal in the rise
of gnostic heresies? So I thought that might be a
good follow up after reading the Library of Photius and
him condemning all these heretics and heresies, that maybe we'll
do an open panel tomorrow, you know, see who's able

(02:43:11):
to show up join the panel and discuss why gnosticism
and gnostic heresies and Marcianism and the pursuit for enlightenment
and illumination, why these things are so appealing to people
in the contemporary spiritual landscape. So I think I'll be
doing that tomorrow again, John's going to be coming on
on Friday, and I still may do another stream Thursday

(02:43:34):
because there's one that I want to do which is
a historical overview on Christian Zionism, so I may do
that Thursday. So we got tons and tons of content,
Heavy Things Lightly. Yeah, that's the name of John. Here's
this new podcast. Used to be why are we talking
about rabbits? And now it's heavy things Lightly. Do recommend it.

(02:43:57):
So I'm going to be back probably to tomorrow and
definitely Friday, but potentially Thursday as well. So we got
a jam packed week full of content. Thank you all
so much for the support. Thank you Austin Detulio for
the support. Shout out to Jay Hamza for the superchats,
shout out to abject Fool for the generous fifty dollars

(02:44:18):
super chat, and everybody who's sent in money. Thank you
guys so much for the support. I truly truly appreciate
you guys, And like I said, I will be back tomorrow.
Oh death Culture just throws in twenty bucks. Thank you
so much. Death Culture. He says, what do you think
of international communities? Do you think enclaves are the future?
Given how things are going in North America? Ever heard

(02:44:41):
of Return to the Land? Any thoughts if you ever
heard of them? Yeah? I know about Return to the Land.
Intentional communities. Yeah, I think that's the way. I mean,
it's you know, what was it Drearer's book, the Benedictine
Option or the benedict Yeah, the Benedictine I believe what
it's called. No, I think that's the way, man. I think.

(02:45:07):
I mean, I've talked with multiple Orthodox Christians that are
trying to do exactly that. Find a good parish community
or move somewhere where there's a great parish and there's
a great Orthodox community. This is a topic that we
talk about a lot a lot in our think tank

(02:45:29):
meetings is how do we build a parallel system within
the structures that we already have. So one of the
things that we need to do is Orthodox Christians is
create a database of Orthodox Christian businesses and professionals so
that we can then purchase and hire each other. That's

(02:45:51):
one thing. Obviously, moving return to the land, moving somewhere
where there's an intentional community. I think that's a great idea.
I know people that are already doing that. And finding
people that you can trust is a huge thing. One
of the things that we speculated about in our think
tanks is in some of these states, a state like Mississippi,

(02:46:13):
for example, there's entire cities that have sewage towns, you know,
stores built, but nobody lives there anymore. Like there's towns
that are down to like one hundred and two hundred
people left. Imagine now, if a hundred Orthodox families, so
that's obviously more than one per person families moved to

(02:46:34):
a place in America where it's kind of like a
deserted old town and basically take it over, have your
own like local town mayor your own local government. It's
all Orthodox Christians, Orthodox businesses. You control that the city infrastructure,
and essentially you could theoretically, Now it take time and

(02:46:54):
take years, but you could theoretically make a goal of
like five to ten years of having like towns around
America that are like basically entirely Orthodox. You just have
to find these small towns I mean like places. I
mean you can find them in every state, but obviously
states in the South States, in the Midwest, the Rest Belt,

(02:47:16):
the Bible Belt, you're going to find more of them.
But imagine there is just an agreement amongst you know,
let's say thousand or a couple thousand Orthodox Christians that
you move to. You move to a particular area in
mass and you take it over, you revitalize it. And now,

(02:47:38):
I mean, because we know that the federal government doesn't work,
we know that we're in an occupied country, and we're
in LLC for Israel, the military industrial complex. So the
only thing that really matters, you know, we've talked about
this with Father Deacon, that local politics still matter. You know,
people want to say voting doesn't matter, and you could

(02:48:00):
easily make a case regarding federal and potentially states. But
you know, as I always bring up during COVID, my
county sheriff did not enforce any of the regulations and rules.
So none of the stores, even though maybe they'd say
you have to have a mask on or you have
to social distance if you decided you didn't want to,

(02:48:21):
like I did, there's no repercussion that they can have
because the sheriff's office and the local police they're not
enforcing any of it. And so that was because we
voted that particular shriff. I'm not saying he's the greatest
sheriff in the world or whatnot, but I'm saying local
politics matter. And imagine that we had towns, maybe like

(02:48:42):
abandoned towns, in North Carolina or parts of the South Mississippi,
all the way, you know, all around the country. Then
theoretically we would have intentional communities across the country. I
mean in Montana, in Wyoming, Colorado, wherever it may be.
Theoretically we were talking and beyond Seraphim says, what's the

(02:49:02):
thing that The thing tank is the Premium members group
on my website. So the people that pay twenty five
dollars a month, we have two private meetings every month
where we discuss everything that's going on in the world
and Orthodoxy America the future. So if it's something you'd
be interested in, become a premium member. But one of
the things we were talking about is you could then

(02:49:24):
theoretically imagine a scenario in which you, as an Orthodox Christian,
could drive around the entire country, going from one Orthodox
town to another, or one Orthodox intentional community to another.
I mean, that's like a real possibility, especially with how
fast we're growing and how many young men are joining

(02:49:45):
the church. It's like, if we can get young people
to decide, hey, in mass go relocate in this area,
go relocate in this area. You have a real potential
now in regards to just I know other Orthodox Christians
that live in intentional communities, that live very rurally, so
you're talking about return to the land, and they are

(02:50:05):
surrounded by really just other Protestant Christians. So it's not
it's an intentional community, but it's not explicitly Orthodox, and
I know people that they they're very happy with it.
Their their neighbors may not be Orthodox, but they're kind
of traditional Protestants. Multiple children, live a uh, very homesteading

(02:50:31):
style life, and so finding a maybe it's your friends,
maybe it's a So there's kind of different ways you
can approach an intentional community. But we absolutely, we absolutely
need to have some type of long term game plan
for Orthodox Generally speaking, our numbers are so low that
if we're just dispersed and separated throughout the entire continental

(02:50:53):
United States, I don't think we're as strong as if
we actually coagulate, use a biological reference, coagulate into certain
areas of the United States, and then basically run the
local politics of those places. If we did that, we

(02:51:14):
would have actual political agency and we would actually be
able to affect things at a local level and be
able to have these intentional communities that are explicitly orthodox
to some degree. So yeah, it's something that we need
to do. It's something that we need to think about.
And everybody needs to think about what what what is

(02:51:35):
what are they going to do long term? You know,
it's something that even me and my wife are still
contemplating on what is the what is the ten year goal?
Do we want to be in Indiana? Do we want
to go somewhere else? Do we want to start our
life and a new spot? Do we want to build
right here? Uh, there's some pros and cons to each one,
so you just you need to do your own research
come to your own conclusions. But yeah, that's it's I'm

(02:52:00):
very familiar. It's something that we talk about quite a bit.
And if we lived in intentional communities and say we
did the local politics thing where we take over these
really really small towns that are abandoned and people then
are also living the homestead or even the farm lifestyle.
Like imagine that you have people that go to the

(02:52:21):
same church that you have the farmer who's producing much
of the food for the area you live in. You
got the people in the parish that run the local shops,
You got the people that are even running the local
bureaucracy and the political structure, like running your own water system.
Like there's I mean, that's that's a pretty cool idea

(02:52:43):
in my opinion. Jay Hamsa throws in twenty and says,
I believe if we relied on God more, our church
would flourish. It's because of him we are growing in
record numbers. Yeah, I don't disagree with that, but I
think by relying on God you can also make intentional
action in the world that could be beneficial for a

(02:53:07):
larger purpose. So I agree with you. I think I
think the Holy Spirit in God is absolutely working in
the Western world and specifically in America regarding all the
young people coming to Orthodoxy. So at the same time,
I think it's beneficial to think pragmatically and realistically about

(02:53:28):
what we can do, how we can structure ourselves. You know,
I think the first thing that we're trying to where
we were talking about at the Escaton vigil, is getting
something together where we have a compendium of all the
Orthodox Christians that run various businesses or industries or influence
so that we can hire each other. I mean, that

(02:53:50):
would be huge in and of itself. Again, and if
you lived in a local town community. You know, you
can just hire the orthodox friend that's at the parish,
that's the plumber or the electrician, and again, and then
all that money is funneling and we're all then becoming
dependent upon each other. Like that's that's the goal death culture, says.

(02:54:10):
Excellent book that analyzes the problem with lack of community
and decline and social capital in America is Bowling Alone
by Robert Putnam. Yeah. I actually did a stream. I
have a sponsored stream on Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. Yeah.
It's a great book, and it's it's talking about the
collapse of community and social engagement and social interactions, communal

(02:54:31):
social interactions in America, with bowling being the example given
and the amount of bowling leagues and the amount of
people in bowling leagues and the prevalence of bowling in
American culture. So yeah, that's a great sociological book on
the decline of social capital. And yeah, so that's the
only thing. How do you reverse that trend? I think

(02:54:53):
Putnam even makes the argument talking about well he he
doesn't make the argument, but he he kind of implies
it within the book. But there's a great sociological book.
I cannot remember the tire I read it during one
of my PhD courses. But what it is is they
talk about they analyzed people in different religious communities in America,

(02:55:17):
and what they found was that the churches or the
communities where people had a greater responsibility, so they were
looking at they had a greater responsibility, had a greater
level of attendance and communal engagement. And so they were
looking at I just remember one prominent example was there
was like a small Protestant church and they were describing

(02:55:42):
people that like went to these communities and one woman
like she was she converted or joined the parish, and
she was responsible for the bake sale and the girls'
night and different things that the church was doing, and
she was super, super engaged. And even though that was
a small community that wasn't well funded, they had incredibly
tight community. And then they compared that with another like

(02:56:02):
a megachurch, a Protestant megachurch, where there's tons and tons
of people, they have a lot of money, and yet
people go to the service and they leave and there's
no responsibility of the attendee. And so what the sociologist,
what the sociological research insinuated is that communities that demand responsibility,

(02:56:24):
that you're responsible to the community to participate in it,
have better relational connections, have stronger ties, and the turn
rate on people joining and leaving is way way lower,
which shows that people need other people to be accountable for.
And that's why that's like the basis of our social relationships.

(02:56:45):
So interesting. Little again take that for whatever they're using,
you know, secular sociological theories and in person interviews, but
that was always a profound takeaway for me was that
an Orthodoxy forces you to be responded. At least, my
parish is small, so I remember join how to help
with the parish festival and going to there's a fourth

(02:57:07):
of July celebration here in Indiana in Greenwood, and it's
called Freedom Fest. And we always put a tent up.
So there's a couple other churches politics, you know, they're
like the local political parties, businesses. But we'll have a
church up for Saint Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church, and

(02:57:28):
nobody everybody thinks we're Jewish or they think we're from Africa,
even though we're all white Americans. So that's always an opportunity.
But Orthodox he forces you to have that responsibility to
your community. Yeah, amish, I mean, but you just look
at any community that has like a serious accountability, like

(02:57:49):
to join the community, you have to be accountable for
like your involvement in it. They just have. They just
have better social ties than they last longer. We need
an Orthodox version of a Utah for example. Yeah, absolutely,
I mean, no, I'm big. We talk again, We talk
about this in the think tank all the time that

(02:58:11):
Orthodox Christians need to use the Mormons as an example,
not their theology, not their church. But have you seen
how they prepare, like they're prepared for the fallout, like
they're prepared for the collapsing of the grid in America.
They have food banks all across the United States where
Mormons can go get free food if they don't have money,

(02:58:33):
like we as Orthodox Christians need that like they. I
saw recently that the Mormons are in like the top
top eight or top five wealthiest groups in the United States.
It was like fifteen billion dollars like the Church of
Mormon owns or fifteen billion dollars worth of assets. I
should say, that's that's incredible. I mean, how many Mormons

(02:58:58):
are in America. There's not that many. And so if
we approached. If we approached the secular engagement with society
by in the terms that the Mormons do and the
way that they build their communities like that, I think
that would go huge in America. Like that's just we

(02:59:20):
we and that's how they get their Utah.

Speaker 2 (02:59:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:59:22):
But look at the Church of Mormon. I mean, once
the Church of Mormon excelts gay marriage, which they did
what two or three years ago, now that everybody has
to go with it, there is no you know, like
when you're in the Mormon Church, you have to go
along with the progression of doctrine and theology. But as
Orthodox Christians, like gosh, if we could, if we could

(02:59:42):
build the infrastructure the Mormons have, we would be unstoppable.
Like we have the arguments, we have the apologetics, we
have the history, we have the aesthetics, we have the
deep meaning and transformative experiences. We need hospitals, we need universities.
We need social programs, specifically for Orthodox Christians, right, we

(03:00:09):
need food banks where if you're an Orthodox Christian and
you're you know, you got kids and money's tight, you
can go there no questions asked and get money.

Speaker 2 (03:00:18):
Like we need that.

Speaker 1 (03:00:19):
And if we did we would dominate like we would dominate.
Look at Catholicism. I mean that's one of the ways
they spread was through their social engagement, through charities, universities,
and hospitals or US Orthodox we don't even have any
of those here. We need an Orthodox university. We need
a major university that's explicitly Orthodox like that. You you know,

(03:00:43):
you can get your undergraduate degree and graduate degrees, and
it appeals to like it's not a seminary. It appeals
to regular people that if you want to be a
medical doctor, you can go to an Orthodox university and
be prepared for medical school. Like we need that. And
if we had that, we I mean, we could transform ourselves.

(03:01:06):
I mean, in ten years, we could take over the country.
We're already a social movement. It's already happening there. Since
you were really the main one to bring me to Orthodoxy,
I wish you could be my sponsor for chrismation. I
know that is not possible, but we choose those that
mentored us as you did me online. Well, Josiah, Glory

(03:01:26):
to God, brother. I'm humbled that you would ask me
or I'm humbled that this channel has influenced influenced you
in any way. But that's great, man, that's great. I'm
sure you'll be able to find somebody good at your
local parish. Yeah, arm says we need schools the most.
That's no, no, no doubt, guys. Like again, in our

(03:01:49):
think tanks, we literally discussed the whole process of getting
academic certification through the sort of the certifying board, so
that theoretic, I mean, we were looking into this stuff,
like theoretically, let's say we put an Orthodox online college together, right,
because you got to you gotta build small. It's not
like we can just build a university tomorrow. We were

(03:02:12):
looking at the accreditation process. There's plenty of Orthodox PhDs
around that we could then teach courses, so it's not
gonna be a problem of getting courses. We just have
to get the courses accredited, have PhDs teach them, and
we could then begin to offer an online degree. I mean,
we could easily offer an associates degree within a year

(03:02:33):
if we wanted to build something like that. It just
takes money, It takes funding, takes effort. But then once
you get the online business going, then you get students,
you get students that are graduating. Then Let's say you
buy an old high school or a middle school, like
we were at the in the Escaton Vigil. We were
looking at a high school it's like in northeastern Tennessee.

(03:02:57):
And it had a track, it had a football field,
it had all and it was I mean, it was
very well priced. I think he was a middle school.
Maybe it was a middle school. But my gosh, you
if you bought that, you could turn that into like
an Orthodox college. You literally could turn that into an
Orthodox college and then then you just build and then

(03:03:19):
in ten years maybe you can actually have a university.
It just takes so much money. I was talking with
an Orthodox guy because there's a man in Texas that
would like this to happen. But to actually build a
college or a university, like you take it from nothing
and now you have a brick and mortar place where
people can go to for their semester schooling. That takes

(03:03:39):
a lot of money. So that's part of our problem.
But we need we need to develop all these things.
I mean, that's the goal. Uh Klontarf shout out to you, brother,
I hope you and the family are doing well. He
says need Orthodox education on all levels to grow in
a big way. No doubt about that, Absolutely no doubt.
And again this is a perfect connection back to Saint

(03:04:00):
Photius the Great because that was his whole thing is about.
On Christian education and literacy. Chris says, we definitely need
all this. Let's pray for all this and act upon
it in my upon it, my ortho, bros and sisters. Yeah,
well we're trying. I don't have I got tons of ideas,

(03:04:22):
I got a lot of energy. My problem is I
have no money, So I am I am terrible in
regards to being able to really physically participate in the
development of this stuff. I mean, I can create content,
I can do this stuff. So if I can find
people that are wanting to really invest in a project

(03:04:45):
like this, I mean the Escaton, Vigil and I were
literally discussing about finding investors. I mean, my my dream,
my dream goal would be to be a professor at
a university, college or university and be able to do
my content and actually teach in a classroom like There's
something so enriching and fun about being able to teach

(03:05:10):
face to face like students in a classroom and use
different types of media and tools to educate on a
variety of topics, you know, just like the free flowing
conversation that emerges when you're face to face. You know,
I would love that. In the meantime, I'm going to
try to build my whole thing online and hopefully it

(03:05:32):
all works down the road. Mud been a total crew
member for twenty six months. Thank you so much. Mud,
He says, I'm glad that everyone worships in the doors
the same God. Now I don't have to go through
all the work to become Orthodox. I'll go muzzy and
just move Ukay. Yeah, I was talking with FDA about

(03:05:57):
that today, Father Deacon doctor Ananias. It blows my mind
how the rcs are doubling down on we worship the
same God as the Muzzies. Like the aesthetics of that
is not gonna win you a bunch of traditional minded
Christian people. And to see, you know guys that I respect.

(03:06:19):
I respect Timothy Gordon. He's really good on like Aristotilian philosophy.
I've I've heard him talk about that, I mean, very
very sharp guy. But in that debate with jay On
on was it timcast you know he's having to defend
Vatican two and make this reference this philosophical reference argument,

(03:06:39):
which is again I mean, father Deacon, we're talking like
it's such an easily refutable argument. It's very like to
make the affirmative. It's actually going to be very philosophically detailed,
and it's going to be over most people's heads because
they're talking about the philosophy of reference, semiotics, this type
of thing. But we're making the just the larger general

(03:07:00):
point is to claim that the reference because they're saying that,
you know, I think their argument was like Clark Kent,
that you can refer to Clark Kent and not know
that he's Superman, and yet Clark Kent is still Superman. Okay,
but really what the reference issue in regards to using
their philosophical argument. I understand, you know, I just said

(03:07:21):
what their argument is, but to get in the details
of the philosophy, what they're doing is utilizing a generic
term of God as a category and then utilizing the
various reference as referring to the same particular But that's
actually an error because what the argument that they're making

(03:07:44):
is is that the category is essentially the same. I mean,
I saw a part in their debate where they reference
the old Testament. It's like, so you're telling me that
Yahweh was okay with Israel worshiping bail and right, because
they're just different reference to the same thing, right, Well,

(03:08:07):
obviously not okay. So we clearly see that God doesn't
just demand a particular form of worship. He demands a
particular orientation to him. And so if you then nullify
various aspects of that personal, particular God, then you can

(03:08:27):
refer you can make the Catholic argument that the Hindus
and the Muslims are referring to the same thing, but
they're referring to the category of God. Obviously, there's always
only one God if you're a monotheis, but they're only
referring to the category. And I made the point it's
like you can refer to the category of cars, and

(03:08:48):
we can say that one word in a different language
and one word in another language both refers to cars
general abstract category. But you can't say that we're referring
to the same car, right because we're saying it's a
particular God. And the difference in regards to philosophy, it's
like they're referring to the general abstract category. And then

(03:09:10):
claiming that that includes the particular distinctions. No, they're referring
to the general category, but they are they're not referring
to the same particular God, you know. And I think
I saw Father Peter was asked this quite Father Peter
Hears and was making the case. It's like somebody's saying,
they know Father Peter Hears, and then I describe him

(03:09:33):
as an Orthodox Christian, saying that he's a priest, he's tall,
he wears all black, he has the Orthodox Ethos YouTube channel,
and then somebody else saying, oh, yeah, yeah, I know
Father Peter Hears. I think he's twenty four. You know,
he's really short, he's a bodybuilder. And it's like, wait, wait, wait, no,

(03:09:55):
that's not the same Father Peter Hears, same referent, same title,
and even maybe the same category as people called Father
Peter Hears, but not the same particular And so so
even again to like the debate that Jay and FDA
did to make the argument that I just made, FDA

(03:10:17):
was trying to make that argument in the philosophical terms
that they were trying to present their argument in. But
once you get into those details, it's going to go
over most people's heads. So anyways, thank you very much
Mud for that. Really appreciate it, bro, and death culture
throws another ten. Thank you so much, Bro. He says,
for consideration, when collapse occurs, you will wish you have

(03:10:41):
an Orthodox community and build trust, interact with your parishioners
outside of church. Definitely agree with that. Lone wolves die alone,
don't be alone, guys. No, it's it's absolutely true. This
is why again, so many people are moving to, you know,
to areas where there's strong Orthodox communities. Like I've with
multiple people that are Orthodox Christians that are moving to Tennessee, Florida,

(03:11:07):
parts of Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Those are the four
states that I personally have had conversations with people who
have just moved or are going to move to those areas.
So those are all, you know, decent states. They all
have monasteries, they have thriving Orthodox communities.

Speaker 2 (03:11:27):
And so.

Speaker 1 (03:11:29):
At the same time, if you're somewhere, say you're in Utah,
and I think there's only like two or three Orthodox
churches in Utah, it's like, well, you know, you can
build an intentional community in Utah. Do it with your parish,
you know, talk with your priests be deliberate. I can't
imagine an Orthodox priest not being supportive of an intentional
community of Orthodox Christians. I think that'd be hard to

(03:11:51):
believe myself. So Mud says, they are knowingly pointing at
human's hand, knowing it's a human hand and saying that's
not the hand they are talking about. They're talking about
a fucking hand. Orthobro James says, considering you don't have

(03:12:13):
to put in an insane amount of work for nothing
like in the world. You can be a simple farmer
or carpenter and be useful and be able to raise
a family. Well, my goal is to use my skill set,
which is research, academia scholastic approaches to inform So my

(03:12:36):
even if we were, if we were in an intentional
Orthox community, my role is not to be a farmer.
My role is to be an educator. So I still
have a role in a community. It's just my role
would be in regard to more education. So yeah, however
that transpires, if the grid goes down, yeah, then I'm

(03:12:59):
gonna have to do do physical things. Thankfully, I had
a father that forced me to do physical labor and
learn how to work with my hands and use tools,
so I'm sure I'll be able to figure anything out.
But you know, the whole thing is about these intentional
communities is you just have to have a skill set.
So if you're an intentional community and you are a
farmer and you'd love farming, like you got the skill

(03:13:21):
set that we need. If you're a medical doctor, you're
a dentist, you're an orthodontics, an orthodontist, but you're in orthodontics.
It could be a plumber, carpenter, electrician, whatever it may be.
Could be a woman in a hairstylist, like Orthodox women

(03:13:41):
want to get their hair done. So I feel like
the goal is just about finding what your skill set
in your niches and then if we can which we
should build intentional communities. It's like you don't have to
compete with all the other plumbers because we're Orthodox. We
have an intentional community. You're our plumber. You are our plumber,

(03:14:04):
you get all of our business. Jim says, yeah, so true.
There are like four or five parishes in Salt Lake City. Yeah.
I looked at a map, maybe it was an old map,
but there wasn't that many Orthodox churches in Utah. I
saw and then Father Paul. Yeah, yeah, Father Paul is

(03:14:24):
in Utah and I think his church is thriving, so
you know, maybe we need to convert more Mormons. So
I polished a car for way too cheap today. Well, hey,
if you're in the car detailing, that's a skill set.
Like you just have to to me. The whole goal

(03:14:46):
right now, as a young man or a man in general,
is you have to identify your skill set that maybe
you innately have or maybe you're called to because it's
a passion and an interest. Develop it and God is
going to use you in a positive manner, especially if
you move to an area where there's a lot of
Orthodox Christians and now you can literally utilize your skill

(03:15:09):
for other people. I'm musically inclined, so God may use absolutely.
Art is still es central. I mean, is there ever
an intentional community or a society or a culture that
exists without art? Of course not. Art's very much important. Oh,
he says a lot of their converts are Mormon. Glory

(03:15:29):
to God for that. Glory to God for that. All right, guys,
I hope that today's stream was useful. I thought it
was pretty interesting. I know that not everybody's really into
these kind of historical deep dives. But if you can
do recommend and I'll share the link. Again. Checking out

(03:15:50):
this book. Most people have never read it. It's arguably
the or next to one of the more important books
by Photius, Saint Photius the Great, obviously the Mysticology of
the Holy Spirit. I would probably hold that as his
most important work. I mean that is his rebuttal against
the Phillyoque, his Pneumatology, his defense of the Orthodox Faith.

(03:16:12):
But I really love this book, The Library of Photius. Again,
it's just a collection of two hundred and eighty things
that he read that he's giving a review for his brother.
And again, as I highlighted earlier, scholars noted that this
may be the very first recorded instance of the book
review of the book review sat Photius the Great. So

(03:16:36):
I will be back potentially tomorrow with an open panel
and potentially a stream Friday, a sponsored stream, and then
we got a stream with John Hammond, author of Voice
in the Wilderness and Orthodox America. So we're gonna be
diving into that. So I will definitely see you guys

(03:16:58):
Friday and most likely tomorrow and Thursday. So we got
a full week, so thank you guys so much for
the support. God bless you all and as always, until
next time, God bless
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