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Speaker 1: So a few weeks ago, now several weeks ago, a

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study came out which decried the use of the phrase

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Christ is King in certain contexts. The study was put

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out by, or at least people that I know and

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am friends with, were involved in this study. I didn't

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really know about the study until one day before when

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we sent me the video and the study saying that

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they were going to put this out, you know, decrying

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the use of the phrase christis King. When I saw

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it at the outset, I was very angry about the

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study because I thought that the purpose of the study,

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which was to decry the use of christis King in

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certain contexts in order to stop anti Semitism, was going

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to backfire, that it wasn't going to do what you

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think it was going to do. I think that in

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the final analysis, my interpretation was right, but you know,

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I have some sympathy a little bit for the reason

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why this stuf that he was put out not completely

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as you can imagine. So I thought that I would

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go through a little bit of the history and a

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sense of the symbolism of this notion that Christ is

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a king. Well, look at it, we'll explain it. We'll

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kind of trace a little bit of the history of

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where it comes from and how it developed. And then

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we will also look a little bit at the resurgence

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of the phrase Christ is King in popular parlance and

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try to evaluate a bit what it is that's going

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on here. This is Jonathan Pegel, welcome to the symbolic world.

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And so the notion that Christ is king is there.

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Of course, in the New test we find it right

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at the outset when the magi come to worship Christ.

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You know, they say, you know, they are coming to

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worship the King of the Jews that has been born.

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They saw his star in the sky, and so they're

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coming to find him and to worship him. And then

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several times in the scriptures Christ is called king. In

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the Gospel of John, one of the disciples says, Rabbi,

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you are the son of God. You are the King

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of Israel. This happens several times. Of course, the biggest

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moment when this happens is when Christ enters into Jerusalem

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and the people greet him on Palm Sunday and they

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call him king. You know, they call him Basilaos, you know,

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which is the term for king. This is all through

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the scriptures and of course it is reiterated then in

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the prophetic texts, when we see Christ as the king

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of king and the Lord of lords, who is sitting

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on the throne. There are also the moments where it's

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it's darker or more ironic, when Christ is being mocked

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as king, when Pilot is having him flogged and is

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putting on his head a crown of thorns and read

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in his hand, and all the Roman soldiers are kneeling

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in front of him to mock him and calling him

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the king. Of course, the sign at the top of

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the cross where he is said to be the King

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of the Jews. So all of these images are there

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all through the scripture. Now the tradition, of course of

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talking about Christ is king, the notion of Christ as

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the pantocrats or which is when you see icons of Christ,

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especially Eastern Orthodox ones, the ones that you see up

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in the dome in the church, where Christ is dressed

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as a nobleman. He has a clavy which is a

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kind of ornament on his vestment, and he wears a

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kind of toga around his vestment. He's holding a book

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and he's blessing. This is an image of Christ as

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as king, as emperor as a great leader. That is

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the representation of him in the Book of Revelation as

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the King of the universe, as the as the king

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of kings and the Lord of lords. And so this

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representation is quite traditional, it's quite normal. The thing is

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that usually the way that we talk about it is

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not necessarily to say Christ is king. The phrase Christ

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is King is actually not particularly used. It you can

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find it exceptionally, it's not something that is normally used.

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And the reason is because when you say Christ is King,

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who are you you saying it to? You know, when

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you celebrate Christ is King, it's more like a title.

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You know, we say Christ the King, Christ the King

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of Kings, Christ the King of the Jews, Christ the

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King of you know, the great, the great King. So

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when we do that, what we're doing is we're attributing

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a title to him, and you were celebrating him with

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that title. And that is, of course the usual way

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that the term Christ is King is used. But what's

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interesting is that the phrase became more prominent, or that

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notion of Christ the King in the West became more

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prominent in the twentieth century because in nineteen twenty five,

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the post the Pope piss of twelfth started a was

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it Pisi twelfth or pist the eleventh? I always mixed

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them up. I'm sorry for the Catholics watching this if

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I'm mixing them up. The pope started a feast in

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nineteen twenty five called Christ the King, and in that feast,

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of course Christ as King is being celebrated more explicitly.

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But interestingly, enough about that feast is that the reason

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for the feast was in some ways to combat excessive

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nationalism and to remind people after World War One, you know,

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after all these European nations massacring themselves for a kind

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of nationalistic impulse, to remind them that we all have

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Christ as King, and that Christ transcends the national divide,

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and that we have to be careful not to put

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too much of our love into our nation, so that,

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you know, so that we remember that we have a

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transcendent king, we have a king in heaven, we have

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an eschatological king. So what's interesting, then, is what's going

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on now? You know, why is the phrase being used? Now?

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This is it, folks, This might just be the culmination

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on the live experience and register today. And so there

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are certain political figures in the last few years that

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have bragged that they have brought back the phrase Christ

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is King, and that they've done so in order to

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do two things. I think. One is in some ways

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to remind kind people of their allegiance to a transcendent

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good again. You know, obviously that is part of it.

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But there's also another aspect, which is the idea of

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the exclusion of people that don't have crisis king. You know,

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in this very context, of course, the exclusion of Jews

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from the statement, and this is of course the aspect

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of the statement that is particularly offensive to the people

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who put out the study. Now, one of the reasons

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why I was annoyed with the study is because there's

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a problem. I mean, I can understand when some people

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are being annoying about it and being kind of jerks

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about the statement in the exclusionary way. The problems that

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you can't avoid that it is part of a statement

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like that, which is that, just like every single identity,

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when you announce the allegiance of your identity, you are

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doing two things. You are both rallying people to it.

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You're saying, I'm telling you who my king is, and

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now all of you that recognize the same king as I,

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you will see that we are together in our allegiance

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to the king. But it's also simultaneously saying people that

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don't have an allegiance to this king will be excluded.

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So the problem, of course is that every single act

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of identity is both inclusion and exclusion. Now it's not

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particularly to this case, it's not particular to the case

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of crisis King. You know, when I was a teenager,

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for several years. A few years I lived in the

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United States and I was going to a middle school

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in Wheaton, Illinois, where every Friday they would stand and

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they would say the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, when they

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stood together and they put their hand over their heart

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and they said the Pledge of Allegiance, one of the

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things they were doing was excluding me from that. And

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that was completely normal. It was completely normal that I

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was being excluded because I did not pledge allegiance to

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the flag of the United States, because I wasn't an American,

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I was a Canadian, I was a visitor, I was

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a stranger in their land. And therefore I stood up

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out of respect. You know. The teacher said, well, maybe

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you can at least stand and just stand out of respect,

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you know, not say the pledge, but show that you

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have respect for the allegiance that these people have towards

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their flag. And so that's what I did. I would

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stand up and in respect, even though I didn't pledge

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allegiance to it. But I was excluded. And that is

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part of every single statement. And so the phrase Christ

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is King does definitely exclude Jews, and you know, and

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like I said, it's part of the Christian identity. Now,

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there are, of course things in Judaism that exclude Christians.

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There are many practices in Judaism that exclude Christians. You know,

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a very simple one is just kosher. You know, the

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fact of eating kosher is both a rallying of people

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together in one you know, together recognizing each other as

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you know, sharing the same body, you could say. But

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then at the same time it excludes. You know, if

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you invite an Orthodox Jew to your house, they will

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not eat your food, they will not eat with you.

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And that is a major act of exclusion. And that

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is just part, like I said, of how identity functions.

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You see the same in Islam or in any type

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of religious identity. It is both inclusion, including and excluding.

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So then what right, So now we have a problem,

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which is that in the study that was put out

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several I would say most actually most of the people

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in the study were not Christians. And they are calling

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out and they are telling Christians to decide within themselves

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between those that are using the statement to include and

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to exclude. Now, I can be annoyed, and I'll be

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honest with you, I am annoyed with not particularly a

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fan of some of the people that are using that

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phrase in this context, that are using the the phrase

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to just exclude There are people, by the way, in

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that group that aren't even Christians themselves, who are just

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using it as a kind of annoying move to exclude

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other people. But I also think that it is not

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a very good move when you are not part of

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a group to try to shame them into deciding, you know,

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who gets to use the statement of allegiance. So, you know,

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not particularly great. Now we have to say that, like

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I said, it's quite ironic that originally in the twentieth century,

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in relationship to all these questions of nations, the sense

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of Christ is King was the Christ the King was

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used mostly actually to transcend nations. Now we're in this moment,

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let's say, after a long time after World War Two,

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we are now facing the problem a kind of you know,

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vapid globalism, and people are trying to get a sense

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of more local identity. You know, there's a kind of

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return of the sense of nation. And I think that's

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that's fine, that's a good thing. But always remember that

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if you say Christ is King, actually what you're pointing

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to is something beyond the nation, and if you try

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to use it only to restore some kind of national identity. Yeah,

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you know, that phrase has its own reality and its

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own life, and it won't do what you think it's

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going to do, you know, because it it does point

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beyond our identities. And so uh it was these were

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just a few thoughts. I thought it was important to

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kind of think about it, to look at it, and

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to realize that exclusion is part of identity. And we

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also have to be reasonable because you know, especially as Christians,

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we are asked to love our neighbors. We were asked

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to love our enemies. And so when we say when

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we call our allegiance to Christ, we are obviously excluding

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people from that and that is completely normal and we

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should not be ashamed of how it excludes people. But

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we should also remember to always if you're going to

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say that phrase, always say it in the spirit of Christ,

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which is which is the one who was crucified, which

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is the one who was willing to give everything for

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the salvation of the world. So hopefully this was a

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little useful in thinking about this. And you know, for me,

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this is the uh right after Pasca. For all of you,

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this is after Eastern and so I want to kind

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of end this video and tell you that Christ has risen.

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And if you love the way that we're talking about

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symbolism and you think this is very useful, don't forget

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that I am starting a symbolism masterclass. I am kind

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of bringing all of the symbolic ideas together into an

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eighteen hour intense class that will start with an introduction,

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but we'll bring you all the way deep into symbolic thinking.

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We are starting that this week, and so I'd love

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to see you there. Thanks, bye bye,