Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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I talk again with Landon Loftin and Max Leyf about the genius insight of Owen Barfield.

The Riddle of the Sphinx (Barfield Press) is a new collection of talks and essays about the great friend of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

We discuss Barfield's take on analysis and analogy, Darwinian and other kinds of evolution, the significance of Rudolf Stein, and Barfield's notion of final participation.

Landon and Max are the authors of What Barfield Thought.

For more on my books, including A Secret History of Christianity, see markvernon.com

0:00 The new book of talks and essays
02:08 Plato, Aristotle and the evolution of analogy and analysis
13:31 Participation and the limits of modern science
23:30 Barfield's critique of Darwinian evolution
33:47 When the mind changes, the world changes
38:03 Evolution as a moving image of eternity
42:51 How can we participate in evolution?
52:18 Barfield and the significance of Rudolf Steiner
01:03:45 Grappling with the esoteric
01:10:14 On the way to final participation
01:17:16 Barfield on the meaning and revelation