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Podcast episode

Episode 180: Augustine of Hippo: Saint of the Exoteric

We discuss Augustine the anti-esotericist, who denies that Christianity has any esoteric dimensions. He employs the esoteric to do so. Can you trust a guy who does that?

Podcast episode

Episode 179: The Manichæan Catholic: Augustine of Hippo

We turn to one of the most difficult, fascinating, and ultimately consequential thinkers of late antiquity, Augustine of Hippo. In this episode we discuss his relationship with Manichæism and Platonist philosophy, and a few of his important philosophical conclusions.

Podcast episode

Members only: Stephen Cooper on Marius Victorinus, Philosophy, Panpsychism, and a Modern Religious Platonism

We keep the tape running and continue our discussion with Prof Cooper, asking him how Victorinus' thought might provide useful tools for thinking toward a philosophically-satisfying Christianity today. Things get psychedelic, philosophic, and Platonistic.

Blog post

I was Interviewed by Gnostics!

Like the title says: I was interviewed by Gnostics.

Podcast episode

Episode 178: Stephen A. Cooper on Marius Victorinus and Latinate Christian Platonism

We discuss Marius Victorinus, a fascinating character from the tumultuous Roman scene in the mid fourth century who converted from Platonism to Platonism-plus-Christianity. His life and thought give us a valuable window onto the cultural scene in fourth-century Rome, as well, as some crucial data for the transmission of Platonist ideas into the Latinate middle ages.

Oddcast episode

Karin Valis on Magic and Artificial Intelligence

In our second A House with Many Rooms interview, we discuss the intersections between AI and magic with machine learning engineer Karin Valis. Come for the divination, ensouled statues, golems, homonculi, and alphanumeric cosmology, stay for the techno-magical intervention at the end.

Listen to the Introduction

An introduction to the podcast, discussing briefly what we mean by ‘western esotericism’. This episode also answers the burning question, ‘What’s so “secret” about The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast?’ and features a short quiz to test your knowledge of western esoteric history.

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