375 - Paul Kingsnorth - Western Civilization Is Already Dead
The Symbolic World
Jonathan Pageau
4.8 • 933 Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
-Paul Kingsnorth’s First Things talk: "Against Christian Civilization" | 2024 Erasmus Lecture: https://www.youtube.com/live/Y3hMSZqatHI?si=bmT1rqPyEF-LvR0_
-Written article version of his talk: Against Christian Civilization, January 2025: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2025/01/against-christian-civilization
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==========TIMESTAMPS==========
00:00 - Coming up
01:31 - Intro music
01:56 - Introduction
03:02 - The essence of Paul's talk
07:13 - Civilization and Revelation
12:02 - A Christian's challenge
16:45 - The Biblical vision
31:13 - What about the rulers?
37:01 - Buildings
42:10 - Brands and idols
47:27 - The seed and the fruit
49:24 - Celebrating stories
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | but I have a feeling that the West itself needs to die. |
| 0:03.0 | In fact, I think it may already have died, actually. |
| 0:06.0 | This thing we call the West is a sacrifice and is being sacrificed |
| 0:10.0 | so that the plant can die so the seeds can grow, exactly as you were talking earlier, right? |
| 0:14.0 | You don't get the growth without the sacrifice. |
| 0:16.0 | And I think we've got to such a point where we have created a culture that is irreligious and Babylon-like |
| 0:23.2 | and top-heavy and it's just fading away. And I don't mean that there should be a giant |
| 0:27.4 | catastrophe or we should destroy it or anything like that. I just think that it's dying if it's not |
| 0:31.5 | already gone. And we have to let that happen because it's not going to be stoppable at this point. |
| 0:36.4 | And instead of doing that, instead of like fighting to protect X, Y, and Z aspects of the superstructure, |
| 0:43.8 | we can go back to the root of the culture and write about that instead and build that and protect that. |
| 0:48.6 | So it's not an all or nothing situation. |
| 0:50.4 | We don't say, oh, well, the West is in trouble. |
| 0:51.8 | Let's let everything burn like the Joker, |
| 0:57.9 | you know, but at the same time, we don't say, well, let's get out there and fight for our right to, I don't know, form transnational corporations and have economic growth forever and ever |
| 1:03.9 | and mine the asteroids with Ellen Musk, right? That's not anything to do with what we're talking |
| 1:08.0 | about. Why don't we step back from that battle at the moment |
| 1:11.8 | which is going on anyway and go back to our roots which we'll find in those stories? Let's |
| 1:16.6 | tell the stories of the saints. Let's tell the fairy tales are new. Let's go and write about |
| 1:20.6 | how Christianity manifests in the landscape. And let's do that not with a plan in mind that this is |
| 1:25.4 | going to build a civilization but just because we think it's the thing we need to do, and then things will happen, you know? |
| 1:42.3 | This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world. |
... |
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