Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
What is knowledge—and how do we actually know the Truth?
In this episode, we speak with Fr Deacon Ananias about Orthodox epistemology and the claim that true knowledge is not grounded in autonomous reason, but in God’s self-revelation. Contrasting Athens and Jerusalem, this conversation explores why Orthodoxy understands truth not as an idea, but as a Person: Jesus Christ.
We discuss revelation as theophany, the limits of philosophy, the apophatic tradition, and how knowledge in the Church is personal, communal, and transformative—not merely intellectual.
Topics include:
- East vs. West on knowledge and reason
- Revelation as encounter, not information
- Apophatic knowing and humility
- Philosophy: rejected, redeemed, or baptized?
- Why truth is known in communion
For more from Fr Deacon Ananias, go here: patristicfaith.com and here: youtube.com/@PatristicFaith
Sponsors:
Fox n Sons Coffee: foxnsons.com
Code: BUCK15
Perfect Spiral Capital: PerfectSpiralCapital.com/counterflow
Podsworth App: podsworth.com
Code: BUCK50 for HALF off your first order!
Clean up your recordings, sound like a pro, and support the Counterflow Podcast!
Full Ad Read BEFORE processing: youtu.be/F4ljjtR5QfA
Full Ad Read AFTER processing: youtu.be/J6trRTgmpw
Please consider supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/counterflow
Visit my website: counterflowpodcast.com
Audio Production by Podsworth Media: podsworth.com
Leave us a review and rating on iTunes! Thanks!
The Counterflow Podcast is a weekly show featuring discussions and interviews with people who are outside of and critical toward mainstream liberal and conservative politics. Counterflow challenges the conventional right/left binary and is concerned with the more important distinction of free vs unfree. The show will feature thinkers from all backgrounds, who do not fit into the narrow framework of fashionable opinion. The show will address cultural and lifestyle issues as well as philosophy and politics. Host Buck Johnson (formerly of The Death To Tyrants Podcast) is a musician and firefighter and has always had an interest and drive to go one way while everyone else runs the other direction.
What is knowledge—and how do we actually know the Truth?
In this episode, we speak with Fr Deacon Ananias about Orthodox epistemology and the claim that true knowledge is not grounded in autonomous reason, but in God’s self-revelation. Contrasting Athens and Jerusalem, this conversation explores why Orthodoxy understands truth not as an idea, but as a Person: Jesus Christ.
We discuss revelation as theophany, the limits of philosophy, the apophatic tradition, and how knowledge in the Church is personal, communal, and transformative—not merely intellectual.
Topics include:
- East vs. West on knowledge and reason
- Revelation as encounter, not information
- Apophatic knowing and humility
- Philosophy: rejected, redeemed, or baptized?
- Why truth is known in communion
For more from Fr Deacon Ananias, go here: patristicfaith.com and here: youtube.com/@PatristicFaith
Sponsors:
Fox n Sons Coffee: foxnsons.com
Code: BUCK15
Perfect Spiral Capital: PerfectSpiralCapital.com/counterflow
Podsworth App: podsworth.com
Code: BUCK50 for HALF off your first order!
Clean up your recordings, sound like a pro, and support the Counterflow Podcast!
Full Ad Read BEFORE processing: youtu.be/F4ljjtR5QfA
Full Ad Read AFTER processing: youtu.be/J6trRTgmpw
Please consider supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/counterflow
Visit my website: counterflowpodcast.com
Audio Production by Podsworth Media: podsworth.com
Leave us a review and rating on iTunes! Thanks!
The Counterflow Podcast is a weekly show featuring discussions and interviews with people who are outside of and critical toward mainstream liberal and conservative politics. Counterflow challenges the conventional right/left binary and is concerned with the more important distinction of free vs unfree. The show will feature thinkers from all backgrounds, who do not fit into the narrow framework of fashionable opinion. The show will address cultural and lifestyle issues as well as philosophy and politics. Host Buck Johnson (formerly of The Death To Tyrants Podcast) is a musician and firefighter and has always had an interest and drive to go one way while everyone else runs the other direction.
