https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=PLEvv0ITPzY
How do symbols function in our spiritual formation? I think that in asking that question, we always have to remember what my definition of symbolism is, which I don’t think is my definition of symbolism, which I think is in a way the most complete definition of symbolism. The notion of symbolism is simply the manner in which the world comes together in order to have meaning. In a way, symbolism is when a meaning and a fact are together and are full because the fact is full of meaning. In that sense, symbolism or symbols, they are little places of epiphany. When we all of a sudden intuit symbolism, it’s because we see the world as being full of meaning and full of pattern. In that way, it is the very manner in which reality lays itself out to us. I keep insisting on that. I’ve talked about that in different interviews and different talks. Symbolism, the way that I talk about it, is really the way in which the world comes to have meaning for us. In the stories, let’s say, sometimes those meanings can be more and more concentrated. In the stories of the Bible and in icons or in an image, let’s say like the cross, then you have a huge condensation of meaning into one place. Some symbols become extremely powerful. Anything can be symbolic in the sense that everything that exists carries a certain level of meaning to it. You have to see it as a hierarchy. Liturgy, religious texts are the types of stories or the types of structures which contain the most amount of symbolism, you could say.