Jay Dyer is the creator of the JaysAnalysis website, a frequent contributor to the journal SouloftheEast.org, and a frequent guest on the top alternative programs and podcasts nationally and worldwide. He is best known for his Esoteric Hollywood film reviews and has a book debuting soon by the same name. However, his favorite material is theology and philosophy, about which he has written and spoken about extensively, along with geopolitics, espionage, current events and corruption theory, technology and scientism. Couple that with a background in stand up comedy and a willingness to do impersonations once in a while, —all that makes me consider him perhaps the most interesting and comprehensive thinker out there.
Notes on the discussion:
This interview taking place on a very important anniversary—exactly between the Feast of the nativity of the Theotokos and the Elevation of the cross. (Also, it is September 11 today.)
Jay tries to provide the kind of education you cannot get at a university.
Academia has been a disappointment. University means “one truth” in Latin. But that no longer exists and theology is no longer queen of the sciences. In Byzantium, theology played the central role. See:
Cardinal John Henry Newman
Louis Dupree — Passage to Modernity.
Actually there is a “one truth” today on the college campus: college football.
There are some Christian colleges that put Christ in the center, providing a “One Truth” possibility. But risk taking and confronting government corruption, exploring possible conspiracy … all these issues not much practiiced in an environment beholden to major donors and concerned about keeping their status of gettign goverment grants and loans.
(12.00 mark - Hi Jamie)
At age 18, Jay began reading the Bible extensively in his Baptist circles. Starts asking questions about “What is grace?” “How does church government work?” Read Calvin’s Institutes and soon became a Calvinist Reformed Presbyterian.
Both denominations seemed to be somewhat unfamiliar with the first 1500 years of the church.
Age 21 read Augustine’s City of God. Kept reading references to Liturgy, confession, eucharest, real presence, etc.
Big question: How were the books of the bible chosen? Read FF Bruce and other Protestant apologists. There was a long period of apostasy in the early church, yet they are the ones who chose our bible?
Jerome, Ambrose, and more Augustine: Against the Donatists, Against Pelagius. Started attending Latin mass at Catholic Church.
Hardcore “Totally Reformed” church forbade him from reading the books leading him toward Catholicism. As things were moving toward excommunication, he simply left for another church.
Became Catholic for ten years. Considering being a monastic. Read Aquinas, Council of Trent catechism, Boston catechism. Studied Vatican II intensely. Insane Liberalism that goes beyond Anglicanism. For example, only 30 years before Vatican II, a papal encylical called praying with other faiths “apostasy.”
Met some Orthodox friends while looking for answers. Visited Eastern liturgies. Seemed more faithful to the Church Fathers.
Vatican II calls for collegiality. So why not just become Orthodox?
Becomes Orthodox because of the Doctrine of God and Person of Christ, not regarding Papacy. Some think the Catholics and Orthodox “believe all the same stuff about the Trinity” but not about the pope. But this isn’t true.
Dean offers one way to summarize East and West: The East focuses on persons while the West focuses on propositions.
Jay: Theology of Person is the real difference between East and West (both Catholics and Protestants). The Fathers’ use of “icon” and “energies” and other key words in the councils are the same Greek words used in the New Testament.
What about the Evangelical obsession with extemporaneous worship? All scriptural accounts show ordered worship, from Abraham and Melchizedek to the Tabernacle to Jesus’s worship in the synogogue. Book of Revelation features liturgical worship and Jay believes the Apostles established liturgical worship as they went forth on their evangelistic journeys.
Protestants overreacted to “all mind” Calvinism with very body-centered revivalism and Asuza Street Revival pentecostalism. Orthodox worship is a great balance/blend of both mind and body.
** At the end of the podcast, Jay recommended this book from Maximus the Confessor: “On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ.”
http://www.svspress.com/on-the-cosmic-mystery-of-jesus-christ/