405 - Fr. Josiah Trenham - Marriage: The Bedrock of Civilization

The Symbolic World

Jonathan Pageau

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 824 Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Father Josiah Trenham returns to the podcast for us to talk about the profound meaning and cosmic significance of marriage. We explore why marriage is a crucial civilizational cornerstone rooted in divine order, not only from a Christian perspective, but universally in all flourishing societies. We discuss how it compares to and co-exists with monasticism and the meaning of marriage and the wedding ceremony not just as a gate to self-fulfillment and a joyful experience, but also as self-sacrifice. We also discuss how rediscovering the beauty of marriage can help restore sanity in our fragmented secular world.

This conversation is also a preview of the upcoming Marriage Conference in Riverside, CA (Oct. 10–12), where I’ll be speaking alongside Father Josiah, Archbishop Cordileone, Dr. Brad Wilcox, and others. Learn more at https://www.themarriageconference.com/

Subscribe to Fr. Josiah's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PatristicNectarFilms

—
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Coming up
01:00 - Intro music
01:24 - Introduction
04:01 - Marriage, monasticism, and St. John the Baptist
09:16 - The symbiosis between monasticism and marriage
12:32 - Why marriage fails
16:14 - The fruits of abandoning marriage
21:37 - Contract
24:15 - Acknowledge the ideal
27:53 - The nuclear and extended family
29:40 - The crowns
34:23 - A new independent union
38:03 - Aspects of marriage
43:19 - Refined love
45:42 - Pagan monogamy
50:39 - Marrying young
55:18 - 50s Housewife vs boss babe
57:01 - Having children
01:00:39 - Hopes

Transcript

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0:00.0	people think, oh, are you, can you moralize people's, people's adultery?
0:03.3	It's like, it's not even moralizing. It's actually, this is, if you did it, went into any deal with anyone and you break, that's illegal. Like, that's, you're breaking the law. How people I'm like, especially in Southern California, a lot of people have swimming pools. Yeah. Most of the people who have swimming pool have contracts with a pool cleaner. He comes once a week. He cleans your pool, he puts some chemicals on.
0:02.7	You never see him. who have swim pool have contracts with a pool cleaner. He comes once a week.
0:22.0	He cleans your pool.
0:23.1	He puts some chemicals on.
0:24.2	You never see him.
0:25.5	But if you break your contract with him,
0:27.2	he's gonna sue you.
0:28.5	In California, where we did this,
0:31.8	we're the ones who created no fault divorce,
0:34.3	1969.
0:35.5	Actually, once again, Ronald Reagan.
0:38.3	Ronald.
0:39.3	Wow.
0:40.3	Governor of California, who did it.
0:42.3	If you break your pool contract, you're going to go to court, but you can break your
0:49.3	sacred vows that you made usually in front of a minister of God and a congregation.
0:55.0	Nobody watched you sign your contract with your pool cleaner.
0:58.0	This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world.
1:25.6	Hello, everyone. It is a joy to be here with Father Josiah Trenum.
1:30.1	Everyone watching this knows about Father Josiah.
1:33.7	He's been such a great voice for orthodoxy and just general reason and common sense online,
	...

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