Deconstructing Everything All the Time Leaving the Self Looking for a Home

00:00 Harold Bloom's The American Religion & American Gnosticism06:00 The Sovereign Self vs. Historical Cradle Christianity09:00 TLC Live Streams, Community Hierarchies, & Estuary Groups15:00 Culture of Sincerity vs. Culture of Authenticity17:05 Raj on Sikh Attire, Family Lineage, & Generational Sacrifice21:34 Tim Blackmon & Raj on Rituals & The "Phantom" Internal Self30:52 External Stabilization: Orthodoxy, TLM, & Christian Nationalism33:56 Dan on Deconstruction Cycles & Epistemological Trust35:46 Urban Redevelopment, "Woke Mind Virus," & Institutional Unraveling41:06 Cultural Acceleration, Aaron Sorkin, & Missing Anchors46:50 Dan’s "Sports Liturgy" Theory: 2016 Cubs vs. 2020 Lockdowns47:57 Nihilism, Post-Modernity, & The Evolution of The Little Corner @TheTheologyPugcast Has Gnosticism Triumphed as the American Religion? : The Theology Pugcast Episode 413 https://youtu.be/r0zvTLJKePU?si=Dbeotc0WyWGDoEZj Stabilizing the Self in a World of Collapsing Institutions https://youtu.be/SGflyU5KfjY?si=wpQNtCZGMk_ZKEjf Sacramento Estuary Conference Oct 16 and 17 https://www.livingstonescrc.com/events/sacramento-estuary-conference-2026/2026-10-16 What is the TLC? ("This little corner of the Internet" also know as "the corner" https://youtu.be/Y3vqSjywot8?si=IVS3bnriwje5syPO TLC Search tool. https://thislittlecorner.netThe Flotilla List: https://thislittlecorner.net/channels https://www.livingstonescrc.com/give Paul Vander Klay clips channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0jIcadtoxELSwehCh5QTg https://www.meetup.com/sacramento-estuary/ My Substack https://paulvanderklay.substack.com/ Bridges of meaning https://discord.gg/UKg8k93c Estuary Hub Link https://www.estuaryhub.com/ Retro PVK Merch by his daughter a few years ago: https://www.redbubble.com/people/raindoodles1/shop There is a video version of this podcast on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/paulvanderklay To listen to this on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-vanderklays-podcast/id1394314333 If you need the RSS feed for your podcast player https://paulvanderklay.podbean.com/feed/ All Amazon links here are part of the Amazon Affiliate Program. Amazon pays me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you buy through one of the product links here. This is is one (free to you) way to support my videos. https://paypal.me/paulvanderklay Blockchain backup on Lbry https://odysee.com/@paulvanderklay https://www.patreon.com/paulvanderklay Paul's Church Content at Living Stones Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh7bdktIALZ9Nq41oVCvW-A To support Paul's work by supporting his church give here. https://tithe.ly/give?c=2160640 https://www.livingstonescrc.com/give In this episode, Pastor Paul Vander Klay explores how pervasive post-modern deconstruction extends far beyond ex-vangelicals to affect all modern institutions, traditions, and identities. Drawing on Harold Bloom’s The American Religion (1992) and Robert Bellah’s Habits of the Heart, Paul examines the rise of American Gnosticism and the worship of the "secret sacred self".Featuring clips from the Sacramento Estuary pre-conference session with Raj, Tim Blackmon, and Dan, the video contrasts modern expressive individualism with the stabilizing power of external rituals, family lineages, and local embodied community. They discuss: • Raj on adopting the external Sikh form (turban and beard) to stabilize the internal self against ego (Haumai) and honor generational sacrifice. • Tim Blackmon on Bernard of Clairvaux’s On Consideration and the implicit epistemology of religious attire. • Dan on deconstruction cycles, urban redevelopment, the "woke mind virus," and how Chicago's 2016 "sports liturgy" kept the city from burning. • The Little Corner (TLC) & Estuary: How local, in-person communities provide an antidote to live-stream hierarchies and algorithm-driven identity fragmentation.Key Topics & Algorithm KeywordsAmerican Religion & G