Herman Middleton on the Protecting Veil, Orthodoxy, Technology, and the Future

Herman Middleton joins me to discuss Orthodox Christianity, C.S. Lewis, the modern crisis of what it means to be human, Artificial Intelligcen, and the strange ways technology reshapes our souls, our communities, and even our understanding of salvation. Herman is the founder of The Protecting Veil and Gadfly Academy, and his work brings together Orthodox theology, patristic wisdom, media ecology, and a deep critique of the modern machine-shaped world.We explore Herman’s own conversion from high-church Anglicanism and evangelical circles into the Orthodox Church. He shares how Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, the beauty of Orthodox worship, Byzantine chant, and the early Church Fathers helped him realize that the Christian faith cannot be separated from the Church that preserved the Scriptures, the councils, the saints, and the living tradition of Christian worship.Herman discusses his doctoral dissertation on the theological anthropology and cosmology of C.S. Lewis, including Lewis’s vision of the human person, the importance of the Incarnation, the prophetic power of The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength, and why so many Orthodox converts have found Lewis to be a gateway into deeper Christian tradition.We also talk about the question at the heart of the modern world: Are human beings special, or are we merely biological machines to be upgraded, optimized, and eventually replaced? This leads into a discussion of transhumanism, artificial intelligence, technology, efficiency, the image of God, and the difference between human values and machine values. Herman argues that much of our cultural confusion comes from the fact that we no longer know what a human being is.Finally, Herman explains the mission behind Gadfly Academy, his interest in writers like Wendell Berry, Neil Postman, Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Jacques Ellul, Ivan Illich, Philip Sherrard, Fr. Seraphim Rose, Paul Kingsnorth, Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs, and others who have critiqued the modern technological world. We discuss media ecology, television, the printing press, the telegraph, the internet, anti-machine thinking, and how modern technology changes not only what we do, but what we are.Chapters02:30 Introducing Herman Middleton02:39 Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit06:50 How Orthodox language differs from Protestant language09:42 Herman’s journey from Anglicanism to Orthodoxy11:18 Dostoevsky, Elder Zosima, and encountering true Christianity12:45 Beauty, Byzantine chant, and Orthodox worship15:30 Studying theology in Thessaloniki16:39 Herman’s doctoral work on C.S. Lewis17:46 C.S. Lewis, anthropology, cosmology, and Orthodoxy20:27 Human values versus machine values21:00 Community, beauty, goodness, truth, love, and trust22:16 What C.S. Lewis gets right from an Orthodox perspective24:17 The Incarnation, salvation, and Narnia25:22 C.S. Lewis and St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation27:56 That Hideous Strength and Lewis’s prophetic vision30:05 C.S. Lewis and Dostoevsky as “gateway drugs” to Orthodoxy30:52 Wendell Berry as America’s answer to C.S. Lewis34:28 Interviewing Vladimir Pleshakov36:40 What is The Protecting Veil?37:00 The miracle of the Theotokos’ protecting veil40:42 Fr. Thomas Hopko, Fr. Stephen Freeman, and early YouTube interviews43:25 Ancient Faith, monasteries, St. Vladimir’s, and Orthodox voices44:35 Interviewing Orthodox poets, bishops, and theologians47:36 The difficulty of making a living as a creator48:19 Why Herman started Gadfly Academy50:05 Technology, society, and the Orthodox spiritual life53:20 Media ecology, Neil Postman, and Marshall McLuhan54:25 How technology creates a new world56:00 The telegraph, the internet, and the speed of information59:13 Gadfly Academy’s “How Did We Get Here?” reading list59:38 Wendell Berry, Jacques Ellul, Ivan Illich, and anti-machine writers1:00:20 Recovering a human and spiritual life in the modern world