Apocalypse? with Rev. Matt Syrdal

The AllCreation Podcast

What is "apocalypse" and is it happening now? Rev. Matthew Syrdal is senior pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, co-founder of Seminary of the Wild, and founder of Church of Lost Walls. In this interview / conversation between friends, AllCreation editor Chris Searles asks Matt to share his thoughts and views on Apocalypse and Apokalypsis. Matt discusses ancient Hebrew, New Testament texts, mythology, modern pyschology, indigenous identity, and more; worth repeat listenings.

Visit SeminaryoftheWild.com and ChurchofLostWalls.org for more on the content discussed in this interview.

References

• "Unveiling" - the traditional Hebrew meaning
• "Ontology" - our way of being
• The apostle Paul (paraphrased) -- (Apocalypse was) a reckoning of the practices and destructive habits of the dominant culture with the original intention of the Divine for humanity, in the context of how we relate to Earth.
• Thomas Berry, We have been ripped from the universe.
• Carl Jung, We are living in an age between myths.
• James Hillman, In order to love we must personify.
• Sean Kane, Wisdom of the Mythtellers
• Bill Plotkin, founder, Animas Valley Institute, and Geneen Haugen, Animas guide
• Joel 2:28, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions."
• T. Berry Brazleton, Touchpoints

Selected writings by Matt:

• Liminal Grief (Oct. 2020)
• Let It Fall (March 2020)
• Christian Imagination and the Return to Myth (Jan. 2020)

Key quotes

When we talk about Apocalypse we're also talking about awakening; new visions.

It wasn't necessarily doomsday, it was meant to be understood in a broader context (as) a reckoning (of) the practices and destructive habits of the dominant culture with the original intentions of the Divine, within the context of how we relate to Earth, how we relate to our planet.

Apocalypse is an evolutionary necessity - that we pass through this time of unraveling so that we can be rewired on a new level of functioning as a human society.

If love is the goal, it changes the whole equation... Loving our planet and the diverse beings that inhabit our planet, we're designed to be in relationship with, is an end goal in and of itself. If we can live from that place, real magic can happen.

We don't know where we're going and that creates unimagined possibilities... We have the capacity to imagine new futures.

Everything has a self. (Genesis)

(Apocalypse is) not just a revolution of ideas, it’s a revolution of ontology and how we understand ourselves to be human.