Was William Blake an Orthodox Christian? | Mark Vernon

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William Blake still awes and unsettles us. In this long-form discussion, Mark Vernon — psychotherapist, author, and former Anglican priest — joins Milo and Jack for a deep exploration of Blake’s religious imagination, visionary cosmology, and misunderstood relationship to Christianity.

Together we explore Blake’s prophetic works Milton and Jerusalem. We ask whether Blake changed his mind after the French Revolution, or whether a single spiritual vision runs through his entire oeuvre. We examine Blake’s critique of deism, mechanistic science, and moralism, his engagement with numbers and eternity, and his insistence that imagination is not fantasy but a mode of truth.

This conversation moves through Blake’s theology, his rejection of the theological currents of his day, his fascination with prophecy (including failed prophecy), and his enduring relevance in a disenchanted modern world. Along the way, we touch on Newton, Milton, Jesus, revolutionary politics, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, Tolkien, and the strange power of beauty as a marker of truth.

This is the first of two conversations on William Blake on the channel, with a contradictory companion discussion 'Was William Blake an Unorthodox Christian?' following soon.

If you’re interested in Blake studies, Christian mysticism, Romantic poetry, prophecy, imagination, or the spiritual crisis of modernity, this conversation is for you.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:05:31 Conversation Begins

00:09:10 Blake and Christianity

00:29:33 Did Blake change over time?

00:40:00 Blake and Mormonism

00:52:26 True vs. False visions

01:01:25 Problem of Evil

01:11:35 Blake and Mathematics

01:22:19 Blake and the Enlightenment

01:29:02 Blake and the Body

01:37:49 Blake and Painting

01:47:59 Mark Vernon taken up in a whirlwind

01:50:04 Mark Vernon brought back down in a whirlwind

01:58:45 1,000,000,000 monkeys

02:00:44 Blake and Tolkein

02:07:30 Is sensation meaningless?

02:12:53 Conclusions