Can the Intellect Know God? A Sociologist’s Journey into Monastic Wisdom

We welcome the Dalai Lama, but we forget that Christian monks have something to tell us too."In this soul-stirring episode of A Better World, host Mitchell J. Rabin welcomes back Kyriacos Markides, Professor of Sociology and author of the acclaimed book The Mountain of Silence. Markides shares his personal "re-conversion"—not just to religion, but to the profound, mystical heart of Eastern Orthodoxy found on the Holy Mountain of Athos and the island of Cyprus.Markides discusses his time acting as a chauffeur for the charismatic Father Maximos, a modern "Elder" who possesses the same spiritual "gifts" (charisma) typically associated with Eastern Yogis and Lamas. Together, Mitchell and Kyriacos dismantle the prejudices of the secular West and explore how the "Eastern lung" of Christianity offers a contemplative path to God that the intellect alone can never reach.