20. James L. Kelley - Anatomyzing Divinity: Studies in Science, Esotericism and Political Theology

James L. Kelley discusses his book, Anatomyzing Divinity: Studies in Science, Esotericism and Political Theology (Foreword by Joseph P. Farrell) – philosophy, history, and alchemy – shining light on our quest for self-knowledge and improvement.(To anatomize: to cut in pieces to examine the structure and use of the parts.)Ancient man sought to extract some soul essence from the objects of nature.  In the middle ages, with alchemy we sought not only to change lead into gold but to change the lead of the soul into the gold of redemption - self-realization, alienating the self, like psychoanalysis, with a death-resurrection metaphor - to take the self apart and rebuild ourselves in a more integral manner.Not just matter and science.  An important interior, spiritual component as we explored our psychic space, to transmute the matter within.  [Do we enhance our powers today in pursuit of the same goal through artificial intelligence and computers?]Today, everything is based on technicity (the experience of, or reliance upon, a particular technology).  Experts use statistics to say what will be good or bad.  Political choices are made based on probabilities and mathematical theories.  If there’s a problem, we get more experts.  It’s never about “who’s the virtuous person.”  It’s “who’s the technician or the expert.”  We trust them with fervor because we have nothing else to trust these days.  (Hence the need for TrineDay’s books and independent thinking.)Kris Millegan, TrineDay publisher: this podcast is about the journey we all take.  We go to school, we go to church, we learn certain things, then we get out in the world and read other books and discover other things.  I work for us to have a better world after this paradigm shift.  Some people seem to want to take us into another locked-down dark age.