The Yours Truly Podcast

chrbaxteryt
  • 5.0 (2)
  • CHRISTIANITY

The Yours Truly Podcast is the place where host Christian Baxter goes to think out loud and practice some “conversation craft” with fellow sojourners on the journey of meaning making amidst a world struggling to make sense of everything.

  1. 2D AGO

    Can Beauty Save the Church?

    Style ≠ Order. Modern worship may be confusing the two. In this conversation with Dr. Matthew Wilkinson — organist, Director of Music, and host of The Pursuit of Beauty — we explore why modern worship often confuses aesthetic preference with spiritual depth. What happens when worship becomes a stage? When transcendence is traded for emotional immediacy? When beauty is reduced to branding? Matthew’s journey from Pentecostal roots to Anglican liturgy opens a deeper question: Is beauty optional in Christian worship — or is it essential? We discuss: • The difference between style and order • Why liturgy shapes the soul • The limits of seeker-sensitive worship • Beauty as one of the names of God • Bach, chant, and the architecture of transcendence • Why most contemporary worship music feels thin • The role of confession, humility, and form • How churches might recover depth without abandoning creativity This is not an attack on contemporary worship. It is a call to aim higher. If the Church has inherited two thousand years of music, architecture, and liturgical wisdom — why are we so quick to flatten it? — About Dr. Matthew Wilkinson Matthew is Director of Music at St. Michael’s Anglican Church and host of The Pursuit of Beauty, a podcast exploring liturgy, aesthetics, and Christian formation. His album The Pursuit of Beauty is available wherever music is streamed. Website: https://matthewwilkinson.net/ Podcast: The Pursuit of Beauty @matthewwilkinsonmusic — If you find these conversations meaningful: • Subscribe to the channel • Leave a review on your podcast platform • Follow Yours Truly on Substack • Consider becoming a YouTube Channel Member All links below. — Yours Truly is a place we go to think out loud Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join follow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_yt https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt

    2h 5m

  2. JAN 29

    The Cross, the Psyche, and the Return of the Sacred

    What happens when Christian language collapses but the experiences don’t stop? In this conversation with @treyhuntley we explore the fault line between the cross, the psyche, and the return of the sacred—where Jung, prayer, discernment, and lived experience refuse to stay in separate categories. Many people today aren’t losing faith—they’re losing language. This conversation with Trey Huntley sits at the intersection of Christianity, Jung, psychology, and the symbolic world, asking how the sacred returns through the psyche without collapsing into chaos or control. Can Christianity and Jung Speak Honestly to Each Other? This is a conversation for those who’ve had encounters they can’t unsee, but don’t want to lose their minds—or their faith—trying to understand them This conversation unfolds within a broader ecosystem shaped by thinkers and creators wrestling with meaning, symbolism, and faith in the modern world. @johnvervaeke ’s work on the meaning crisis, relevance realization, and the recovery of the sacred provides a conceptual backdrop for many of the questions explored here. @JonathanPageau ’s symbolic theology and attention to image, pattern, and tradition inform the way symbols, Scripture, and lived experience are approached—not as abstractions, but as participatory realities. @JordanBPeterson reintroduction of Jung, biblical symbolism, and archetypal reading into public discourse has helped reopen conversations many people were never given language for. And @PaulVanderKlay ’s long-form, patient conversational style—especially within “this little corner of the internet”—has modeled a way of thinking out loud that resists both ideological capture and premature certainty. This episode moves through questions many people are quietly carrying: • How do we speak honestly about prayer, visions, dreams, and the inner world without collapsing into chaos or control? • What does Carl Jung offer—and where does he fall short—when held alongside Christian faith? • Why do so many modern Christians feel haunted by experiences they were never given language for? • What does resurrection mean when it shows up inside a human life, not just a doctrine? This is not a debate about belief. It’s an attempt to recover language that can hold lived experience without losing truth, humility, or sanity. ⸻ 🧭 Topics explored in this conversation: • Carl Jung and the Christian imagination • Prayer, discernment, and symbolic experience • Psychology, therapy, and confession • The dangers of flattening spiritual experience • Resurrection as lived reality • Why the sacred keeps returning through the psyche • Finding sane language in a fractured age ⸻ 👤 About the guest: @treyhuntley works at the intersection of psychology, spirituality, and symbolic meaning. His work engages Jungian thought, the imaginal, discernment, and the lived realities many people experience outside tidy religious or secular categories. ⸻ 🕯 About Yours Truly: Yours Truly is a long-form conversation space for thinking out loud about faith, meaning, psychology, culture, and the slow work of truth-telling in a disenchanted world. Podcast link: I published my new episode The Yours Truly Podcast, please check it out. https://www.podbean.com/pi/pbblog-y77sn-117e7a0 ⸻ 🔔 Support the work: If you find value in these conversations: • Like & subscribe — it genuinely helps the reach • Consider becoming a channel member to support the project • Share with someone who’s asking similar questions Links below. Join this channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/christianbaxteryt/p/midwest-estuary-the-homecoming?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay X: https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21 Trey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treyhuntley?igsh=MWxneXB6bHg2eXp5bA== ⸻ 📍 Chapters: (Coming soon) ⸻ 🔍 TAGS @treyhuntley conversation with @PaulVanderKlay https://youtu.be/KDViTqb-zXQ?si=47bpVxbX8NOIFH0w • Carl Jung • Jungian psychology • Christianity and psychology • Symbolic theology • Discernment • Prayer and therapy • Christian imagination • Meaning crisis • Sacred and secular • Resurrection • Depth psychology Jordan Peterson

    1h 43m

  3. JAN 19

    Christianity in the Digital Age: Triage vs Formation (with Bob the Baptist)

    In this conversation, I’m joined again by Bob the Baptist to talk about Christianity in the digital age—and the growing gap between discourse and formation. Online Christian conversations can generate urgency, clarity, and conviction. But they also move faster than people can be formed, stabilized, or responsibly led. Throughout this discussion, we return to a central tension: some people need immediate pastoral triage, while others need long-term structural and liturgical formation—and the internet is optimized for neither. Bob presses on questions of responsibility, containment, and landing people somewhere real. I press on the limits of online systems, the dangers of premature closure, and the need for slow, embodied reconstruction. We’re not arguing past each other so much as operating on different time horizons. This episode isn’t a debate. It’s an attempt to name the limits of Christian discourse, the burden placed on leaders in digital spaces, and why one conversation, platform, or “update” can’t do both jobs at once. Topics include: – Triage vs formation – Online discourse and pastoral responsibility – Why systems shape belief before theology does – The limits of scale, speed, and visibility – Why stability can’t be demanded from unstable systems If you’re trying to think seriously about faith, leadership, and formation after the internet, this conversation is for you.

    3h 1m

  4. JAN 9

    Why Christianity Can’t Survive as Idea-Talk Alone

    In this conversation, Christian Baxter sits down with Daniel of @O.G.Rose.Michelle.and.Daniel to explore what happens when Christianity is reduced to ideas, arguments, or online content—and why belief alone is no longer enough to sustain faith in a fragmented, post-institutional age. The discussion moves through art, beauty, political economy, apologetics, and local community, tracing how modern life has hollowed out shared practices while multiplying opinions. Together, they ask a quietly unsettling question: if Christianity becomes something you mainly consume or debate, what is actually left to participate in? Rather than offering a program or a culture-war posture, this episode circles a deeper claim: Christianity survives as a lived reality—formed through beauty, ritual, time, and embodied community—not as a set of propositions optimized for the internet. Beauty draws before arguments persuade. Formation precedes explanation. Church is not an information service, but a place you enter and are shaped by. This conversation will resonate with anyone wrestling with the limits of online discourse, the exhaustion of ideological Christianity, or the longing for something real enough to inhabit. It’s an exploration of why faith must eventually move from the screen into shared life, shared time, and shared ground. 00:00 Introduction & framing the conversation 04:30 Art, faith, and incarnational thinking 11:45 Culture after the “end of history” 19:30 Institutional breakdown and loss of trust 28:10 Politics, economics, and spiritual vacuum 37:20 Christianity reduced to ideas and arguments 46:40 Why apologetics isn’t enough anymore 56:15 Formation vs belief in modern Christianity 1:06:30 The internet, abstraction, and disembodied faith 1:17:00 Beauty as attraction, not decoration 1:28:10 Liturgy, ritual, and lived participation 1:39:30 Why people ask “why bother with church?” 1:50:00 Local community, place, and imagination 2:01:45 Small towns, scale, and human formation 2:13:30 Christianity as a way of life, not content 2:26:00 Closing reflections on reality and participation Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join follow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_yt My Substack related: https://open.substack.com/pub/christianbaxteryt/p/what-is-real-christianity?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

    2h 39m

  5. JAN 5

    Map ≠ Territory | A GenZ Rando on Meaning, Formation, and Ground

    In this episode, I sit down with a fellow seeker who has been navigating Christianity, coherence, and personal responsibility in the midst of the modern “meaning crisis.” Our conversation explores the difference between understanding ideas conceptually and learning how truth is embodied over time—between having a map and actually walking the territory. We talk about evangelical Christianity, propositional belief, the role of church and tradition, and the challenges of forming a stable life while participating in online conversations about faith and meaning. Rather than aiming for conclusions or quick resolutions, this episode stays with the tension: how coherence is shaped slowly through practice, discipline, community, and lived participation—not just insight or explanation. This conversation will resonate with anyone wrestling honestly with belief, belonging, formation, and the question of what it means to live faithfully without rushing arrival Join this channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join Sign up for the podcast: I published my new episode The Yours Truly Podcast, please check it out. https://www.podbean.com/pi/pbblog-y77sn-117e7a0 Follow Christian on X & Substack https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21 https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile ​⁠Ian’s podcast - @insight.incorporated

    1h 58m

  6. 12/29/2025

    Christianity After Belief: Story, Reality, and Participation | Metamodern Christianity

    In this conversation, I’m joined again by Brendan Graham Dempsey to explore one of the deepest questions beneath Christianity, deconstruction, and the meaning crisis: What does it mean for Christianity to be real? We talk about why reducing Christianity to either literal historical propositions or “just a story” misses the point—and how story, ritual, participation, and embodiment function as carriers of truth across time. This conversation moves through historical criticism, archetypal meaning, sacramental imagination, developmental faith, and the difference between belief and participation. Rather than defending Christianity through certainty or abandoning it through reduction, we ask what it looks like to inhabit a tradition honestly after modern skepticism and postmodern critique. Topics include: • Why Christianity can’t be reduced to facts alone—or dismissed as mere metaphor • The difference between belief and participation • Archetype, story, and reality after deconstruction • Ritual, sacrament, and transjective meaning • Developmental faith, doubt, and second naïveté • Why “saving souls” may not be the same as cultivating a faithful life This is a conversation for those who still feel the weight of Christianity—but refuse to lie to themselves about history, psychology, or experience. 0:00 Intro & Re-Entering the Conversation 3:30 What’s Changed in the Last Year (Culture & Metamodernism) 11:45 Digital Liminal Spaces & Institutional Drift 22:10 Turning Toward Metamodern Christianity 33:40 Parenting, Formation, and Developmental Faith 50:15 Symbol, Archetype, and What “Real” Means 1:06:20 Liturgy, Sacraments, and Transjectivity 1:22:30 Final Reflections & Mutual Recognition 1:28:54 Closing ⸻ Become a channel member to support finacially - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join Related conversations: • Previous episodes with Brendan Graham Dempsey • Conversations on symbolic theology, liturgy, and the meaning crisis • Episodes exploring faith after deconstruction If this conversation resonates, consider subscribing, sharing, or leaving a comment. This channel exists for slow thinking, honest dialogue, and meaning worth inhabiting.

    1h 29m

  7. 12/16/2025

    Judaism, Christianity, and the Crisis of Trust

    Symbol, Tradition, and the Fracturing West — and the Limits of Modern Dialogue In this episode of the Yours Truly Podcast, I’m joined by Yosef, a Jewish participant in This Little Corner of the Internet, for a careful conversation on Judaism, Christianity, and the crisis of trust shaping the modern West. We explore how symbol, tradition, and religious memory function in an age of fragmentation—where dialogue is demanded, yet trust is increasingly fragile. Drawing from Jewish thought, Christian theology, cognitive science, and lived digital experience, Yosef offers a perspective rarely heard in contemporary religious and cultural debate. Our conversation touches on: • how modernity fractures shared symbolic worlds • why trust—not just belief—has become the central cultural problem • the limits of liberal dialogue and “view-from-nowhere” neutrality • Judaism’s encounter with modernity and its parallels with Christian crises • why Jewish voices are often spoken about rather than with We also reflect on the broader cultural moment—where figures like Benjamin Boyce and Nick Fuentes have surfaced difficult questions about identity, power, and influence—often without sustained engagement across traditions. This is not a debate or a polemic. It’s an attempt to think carefully in public, to hold difference without dissolving it, and to ask whether meaningful dialogue is still possible when our symbolic foundations no longer align. If you’re interested in religion beyond slogans, culture beyond outrage, and conversation beyond tribes, this episode is for you. 00:00 – Opening: Trust as the Real Crisis Why belief isn’t the core problem anymore 04:50 – Finding “This Little Corner of the Internet” Cognitive science, meaning crisis, and unexpected dialogue 11:30 – The Four Ways of Knowing Participatory, propositional, perspectival—and the poetic 18:40 – Jewish Thought and Symbolic Continuity Why Judaism never fully abandoned symbol 26:30 – Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism How Judaism encountered modernity before Christianity 38:40 – The Protestant Reformation’s Echo in Judaism Parallel crises of abstraction and disenchantment 47:30 – Symbol vs Rationalization What breaks when religion becomes purely conceptual 55:40 – Midrash and the New Testament Why Christians often miss Jewish interpretive worlds 1:05:10 – Trust, Liberal Neutrality, and Power The limits of “view-from-nowhere” dialogue 1:14:40 – Identity, Ethnicity, and the Fracturing West Why categories are collapsing—and re-forming 1:24:10 – Nick Fuentes, Benjamin Boyce, and Dialogue at the Edge Black-pilling, boundaries, and whether conversation can survive 1:33:10 – The Limits of Dialogue Zones of trust and where conversation breaks down 1:36:40 – Final Reflections Why trust—not consensus—is the future task

    1h 38m

  8. 12/12/2025

    Between Structure and Collapse | TLC & Developmental Theory

    How Meaning Forms at the Estuary | @rigelwindsongthurston This conversation with Rigel Thurston explores how people actually form—not through debate or certainty, but through trust, presence, and gradual participation. We talk about the internet as an estuary, where structure and openness meet, and why meaningful conversation happens when we stop trying to arrive and learn how to enter.

    1h 58m
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About

The Yours Truly Podcast is the place where host Christian Baxter goes to think out loud and practice some “conversation craft” with fellow sojourners on the journey of meaning making amidst a world struggling to make sense of everything.

Information

  • Creator
    chrbaxteryt
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    99
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Yours Truly Podcast