The Modern Relevance of God
Finding Meaning in an Inverted World
Welcome to Episode 6 of our Modern Relevance of God podcast series here on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head. I’m Richard Lloyd Jones.
You might have noticed in our first few episodes, I’ve been mentioning the importance of the wisdom of the past to our understanding of the present. And especially in our understanding of God and spirituality.
That’s not been by accident. There were some smart dudes back then, and Norberto Keppe’s work has been in part about going back and rescuing the correct knowledge from these great thinkers and sages throughout history. That’s really not a modern view, I know that. We tend to be much more of the mind today that what went before was interesting, perhaps as an archaic allegory, but hardly relevant anymore in our digital app for that, do all your banking online, superiority. We just threw away all those guys with a dismissive shrug and a raised eyebrow. What could Aquinas or Plato or the Divine Comedy possibly teach us about the important stuff in life, like creating passive income or lowering our toxic exposure or reducing our carbon footprint?
In Mrs. Kent’s English Lit 12 class way back when — not quite Middle Ages but still a long time ago — we studied Milton’s Paradise Lost. Studied the language and the rhythm, the poem’s epic story and heroic nature. “Bloody long thing,” I thought at the time. The poem tells the story of the war for heaven and of man’s expulsion from paradise. Benjamin Ramm in his recent BBC article, Why You Should Reread Milton’s Paradise Lost, declares it to be a powerful meditation on rebellion, longing and the desire for redemption.
But I think we’re missing a point here. Paradise Lost is not just an allegory about non-conformist, anti-establishment rebellion. It’s a real story, about what really went on. A real event with real people. A story that continues right up to this present moment.
And I know how that must sound here in the 21st century. Like I’ve just suggested there was no moon landing, right? Well, stay with me! In this episode, we’ll introduce a scientific explanation of the Biblical story of the Fall of Man, and see if we can’t rescue the story from the clutches of ancient mythology and restore it to its rightful place as the real story of Man that we ignore and banalize to our peril.