Can Beauty Save the Church?

From Exile to Sacrament | Seth Gschwandegger

In this episode of the Yours Truly Podcast, Christian Baxter sits down in the actual studio with longtime friend Seth Gschwandegger for one of the most personal and spiritually charged conversations the channel has hosted so far. What begins as a conversation between old friends slowly unfolds into a meditation on exile, grace, sacrament, suffering, music, memory, embodiment, and the strange spiritual hunger underneath modern life. Seth shares stories from a childhood marked by constant movement, fractured identity, and the search for belonging — from the hard rock and grunge scenes of the late 80s and 90s, to a spiritual collapse in Los Angeles, to a long pilgrimage through evangelicalism, Catholicism, art, addiction, shame, grace, and ultimately a deeply sacramental vision of reality. Together, Christian and Seth explore: * Growing up displaced and searching for identity * Guns N’ Roses, grunge, emo, and spiritual longing * The hidden spiritual hunger inside alternative culture * The tension between sincerity and “corporate Christianity” * Shame vs guilt and the long process of healing * Why Gen Z seems drawn toward liturgy and sacrament * Communion, embodiment, and the recovery of sacred space * Symbolism, thresholds, bridges, candles, altars, and holy places * The Eucharist, real presence, and sacramental imagination * Why modern people feel spiritually homeless * Friendship, betrayal, reconciliation, and grace This conversation sits directly inside many of the themes this channel has been circling for the last two years: the collapse of disembodied religion, the search for the Real, and the attempt to recover a Christianity that is not merely conceptual — but participatory, embodied, beautiful, and alive. If you've followed the channel for a while, you've already heard Christian reference Seth many times. This is the first time many of those foundational conversations are finally happening publicly. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and become a channel member if you want to support the ongoing work of the Yours Truly Podcast. #YoursTrulyPodcast #ConversationCraft #SacramentalOntology #ChristianBaxter #SymbolicTheology #FaithAndMeaning #GenZ #Liturgy #Eucharist #Catholicism #Evangelicalism #Orthodoxy #JordanPeterson #JonathanPageau #MeaningCrisis #SpiritualJourney #Embodiment #ChristianPodcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 03:12 – Growing up moving constantly 09:48 – Music, rebellion, and the search for identity 18:30 – Grunge, authenticity, and the collapse of corporate religion 28:45 – Shame, guilt, and learning self-respect 38:22 – Los Angeles, collapse, and crying out to God 48:11 – The long walk to the bridge 58:09 – Grace, suffering, and spiritual formation 1:09:14 – Evangelical sincerity and sacramental imagination 1:21:32 – Catholicism, Eucharist, and real presence 1:38:41 – Gen Z, liturgy, and the hunger for the tangible 1:48:55 – Final reflections Referenced voices and influences: Jordan Peterson Jonathan Pageau Billy Graham Jimmy Swaggart Kurt Cobain Pearl Jam Alice in Chains Creed Michael Knott

What’s Next for This Channel?

This is a channel update, but it is also a way of naming what this whole project has been becoming. For the last two and a half years, this channel has mostly lived inside a particular corner of the internet — downstream from Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, John Vervaeke, Paul VanderKlay, Martin Shaw, Paul Kingsnorth, and the wider conversation around meaning, symbolism, Christianity, and the search for reality. That conversation still matters to me. I am not done with it. But lately, more pieces have started showing up here: motorcycle rides, Arkansas backroads, Batesville stories, local conversations, video craft, music, church, place, and the attempt to bring my actual life into the same frame. So what’s next? Not a new channel. Not a clean niche. Not a total pivot. More like integration. Yours Truly is becoming a place where the digital pilgrimage, the local landscape, the podcast, the motorcycle, the studio, the church, and the people around me can start to belong together. If you have been here for the long conversations, thank you. If you have enjoyed the motorcycle films, thank you. If you are curious where this is going, stick around. We are going to see what is around the corner. Become a channel member to support the work: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join] Morning Light Music: https://morninglightmusic.io/ [https://morninglightmusic.io/] Speakeasy Rock Band: https://www.youtube.com/@UCMSrJD3kthH8RxbJw_N3XjQ [https://www.youtube.com/@UCMSrJD3kthH8RxbJw_N3XjQ] #YoursTruly #ChristianBaxter #ChannelUpdate #MotoCraft #Batesville #SymbolicWorld #JordanPeterson #JonathanPageau #PaulVanderKlay #JohnVervaeke

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/ [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 [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join] follow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_yt [https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_yt] https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt [https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt]

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 [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 [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 [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 [https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21] Trey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treyhuntley?igsh=MWxneXB6bHg2eXp5bA== [https://www.instagram.com/treyhuntley?igsh=MWxneXB6bHg2eXp5bA==] ⸻ 📍 Chapters: (Coming soon) ⸻ 🔍 TAGS @treyhuntley conversation with @PaulVanderKlay https://youtu.be/KDViTqb-zXQ?si=47bpVxbX8NOIFH0w [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

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.