The Theology of Warhammer 40k

The God Emperor is not one character but two, and there is an ontological conflict between them. That is just one of the unexpected claims about the universe of Warhammer 40,000 that we will be arguing for in today's video. Warhammer is not just a cultural phenomenon or arguably the most influential fictional universe of our time. It is also a complex and, in many ways, unique theological system. There is no Christian God in this setting, yet there is a Trinity. It is one of the few fictional worlds where the material realm dominates the immaterial one. There is no Christianity in Warhammer, yet, as in Christianity, the central symbol of hope is a tortured man. It weaves together ideas from occultism, Islam, Gnosticism, and even the ideologues of the French Revolution. In short, this is going to be a challenging, unconventional, and demanding video. Patreon:   / orthopraxia   Thumbnail made using 3D art by Sam Keating Pontius's video about the Emperor's origins:    • 40K Lore - The True Origins of the Emperor...   The track list can be found here:    • Post   Timecodes: 00:00:00 What Is Warhammer 40,000? 00:04:02 A unique Cosmology 00:05:39 The primacy of the material world 00:09:54 Warhammer, Egregore and Anime 00:12:24 Where the chaos gods came from 00:16:24 The Library of Babylon 00:19:41 How does time work in Warp? 00:21:33 Faith and worship 00:22:48 Cognitive contamination 00:28:09 Who Is the god-Emperor? 00:35:09 The Emperor's contradictions 00:39:54 Heretical theory 00:45:54 An alternative interpretation 00:49:06 There is no God 00:50:06 and what that means for Warhammer 40K 00:54:25 The theology of the Golden Throne 00:57:40 Insulting the Gnostics 01:00:00 An atheist god 01:04:58 Knights of Faith 01:09:12 The Last Church 01:13:51 Between Kant and Kierkegaard 01:15:34 The Terminus Decree 01:18:40 The Domain of the god-Emperor 01:25:54 The Dark King 01:29:04 Can the Chaos gods create a god? 01:31:42 The death of the author 01:34:06 Five minutes of (not) talking about the Imperial Cult 01:39:26 Adeptus Mechanicus 01:44:40 The Trinity 01:45:16 The Machine-god 01:47:10 The Omnissiah 01:49:03 The motive force 01:52:14 ...and Islam 01:54:26 Mechanistic philosophy and Occasionalism 01:58:30 Eucharist of the Machine-god 02:02:38 Icons 02:04:43 Rambling