Life Atop a Pillar: Extreme Asceticism and the Destruction of Paganism in the Ancient World

I love your presentations! Please ask your live audience to save their questions and comments until the end. It’s becoming increasingly harder to follow your thought process when we have these weekly repeat-offenders.

I enjoy most of his lectures but I think that the questions and comments from the audience need to have a separate time somewhere at the end. Or the lecturer should divide the lecture into chapters and at the end of each ask for questions. It should not be that anyone can interrupt willy-nilly in the middle of explanation with anything that comes to their mind disregarding all other listeners. Here on youtube one cannot even hear the question, instead one hears constant interruptions from some invisible bumbling people while the lecturer is forced to stop his narration and give them his personal attention.

Left audio channel was on a pillar.

Happy you channel gets attention because i want you to keep the motivation to keep doing these EXACTLY the way you do them. These have been extremely valuable to me as i listen to them on work days

Sounds like he was a pillar of the community.

Please, give microphones to questioners or not allow audience to ask questions. There is so much that cannot be heard, and it is distributive and makes the message and information disconnected.

Thank you for the knowledge.

I fell asleep on my phone and accidentally reported this video as violent content. Ironic as the title is “extreme” asceticism. Anyway, my apologies. I love these videos.

We just did a review of the Criterion Collection film "Simon of the Desert", directed by Luis Buñuel on Facebook. I was a guest host for this episode. I just discovered this theology/philosophy page. It's great, a lot of good information.

The extreme ascetic lives led by these early Christians reminds me a lot of Hindu ascetics who do similar things.Simon Stylites record would be very hard to beat -I think he had an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Is it possible that you could provide a reference in the statement that you make in lectures

very well done. thank you.

The audio is missing , just thought you might like to know and resolve. Like very much the lectures delivered well and concise so thanks.

Please get a microphone for the audience, or else repeat the question they ask.

ascetics and monks boggle my mind. I can't understand renunciation of pleasure for most of one's life.

The 'Buddha' whose "stomach you rub" is, as I understand it, not Buddha at all but a Chinese monk named Budai. Just in case anyone was interested...

My right ear loved this lecture!

Christians should bring this back.

51:15 It wasn't an edict. The rabbis simply added a 19th "blessing" into the Amidah that is actually a curse against the minim (heretics) and nostrim (Nazarenes/Christians) and told the Jewish Christians to read the Amidah aloud. If they skipped the curse, they got kicked out. If they read it, they were considered repentant and accepted back into the community. This blessing is still there as number 12 today, but for obvious reasons it no longer includes the nostrim, only the minim. the original version read: For the apostates (meshumaddim) let there be no hope, and uproot the kingdom of arrogance (malkhut zadom) speedily and in our days. May the Nazarenes (ha-naẓarim/noṣrim/notzrim) and the sectarians (minim) perish as in a moment. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written together with the righteous. You are praised, O Lord, who subdues the arrogant. It should be noted that this tactic actually didn't work against the latter Jewish messianic movements like the Sabbateans and the Frankists. These people were perfectly happy to read #12 and go on with their heretical ways because they themselves obviously didn't think they were being heretical.

This type of thing is also very similar to the stoic philosophy -that mind can overcome matter and the flesh -and of course there were the Cynic philosophers especially Diogenes who lived naked in a tub in 4th century BC Athens and refused to abide by social conventions.Nothing particularly different here!