137: Timothy Morton – Facing The Flames: Exploring Hell and Reality

About this episode

Dr. John W. Price and Timothy Morton discuss the concept of hell as a lived condition and its implications on ontology and ecology.

In this episode of The Sacred Speaks, Dr. John W. Price sits down with Timothy Morton, philosopher, writer, and Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University, for a wide-ranging conversation about hell, ontology, and what it means to live without an "outside." Morton is the author of Hell, along with numerous works on ecology, object-oriented ontology, and the entanglement of human and nonhuman worlds. Together, John and Morton explore hell not as an afterlife destination but as a lived condition of felt distance from the divine and deep entanglement with the biosphere. This conversation moves through ontology and how things exist, the critique of holism and mastery as tied to fascism and colonial habits of thought, the distinction between panic and grief as pathways to change, and why mystery, irony, and hesitation may be the most honest responses to reality. Morton frames social media as a continuation of 18th-century politics of sensibility, critiques metaphysics of presence and gnostic hierarchies, and suggests that paradise is not elsewhere but something we build inside hell. Rather than offering resolution, this episode invites listeners into an uncomfortable and…

People in this episode

Host: John W. Price

Guest: Timothy Morton

Topics covered

• hell
• ontology
• ecology
• social media
• colonialism
• politics of sensibility

Keywords

• ontology
• hell
• ecology
• social media
• colonialism
• politics
• grief
• mystery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Rice University

Books & works: Hell

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