Universal History Masterclass
By Dcn Seraphim Richard Rohlin
Universal History Masterclass
By Dcn Seraphim Richard Rohlin
Remembering the Story of Everything
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For the past four years, Jonathan Pageau and Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin have discussed the ideas, concepts, and texts of Medieval Universal History on The Symbolic World. In this course, they will delve more deeply into those themes and primary texts. Tracing the whole thread of medieval universal history and its threefold strands: the story of the Age of Heroes and the Trojan War, the story of Genesis and the sons of Noah, and the local stories of gods and heroes woven into this framework when various tribes and tongues and nations converted to Christianity. But this will not be merely an examination of ancient texts stuck in the past. Each lesson will establish the patterns of Universal History which still apply to understanding our own lives, local and national stories, and even the headlines of the day.
Overview
$180 USD
6 weeks, 12 hours
Live classes are on Wednesdays at 3-5 pm Eastern Time, starting August 5th through September 9th, 2026
Universal History Masterclass: Remembering the Story of Everything is a six-week course with Jonathan Pageau and Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin on the medieval vision of history as one great, interwoven story. For the past four years, they have returned again and again to these themes on The Symbolic World: Troy and the Age of Heroes, Genesis and the sons of Noah, Rome and Constantinople, Arthur and Alexander, local gods and founding heroes, and the strange way all these stories were gathered into Christian memory. This course gives them room to slow down, read the primary texts more closely, and trace the patterns that hold the tradition together.
Medieval universal history was not simply a timeline of old events. It was a way of seeing how peoples, kingdoms, cities, and families found their place in the story of the world. The course begins with the basic literature and themes of universal history, then moves through the Greek heroes, the Trojan War, Aeneas, Alexander, Arthur, Genesis commentaries, Ethiopia, Ireland, Scandinavia, the Far East, the New World, and the apocalyptic imagination. Along the way, Jonathan and Dcn. Seraphim will explore kingship, sacred geography, the founding and fall of cities, the movement from Troy to Rome to Constantinople, and the recurring search for the edges of the world.
The point is not to treat these stories as curiosities from a vanished past. Universal history still gives us a language for understanding identity, inheritance, nationhood, conversion, catastrophe, and hope. It helps explain why people tell founding stories, why the ideas of myths and cities matter (and can never really be separated), why history even now bends toward Jerusalem, and why the end of the world is never far from the beginning. Students will receive all course materials, live access to each Monday session, a live moderated Q&A, and recordings with downloadable audio after each lesson.
Event Details
LIVE Schedule
8/5 - Lesson 1: Intro
- Introduction to Universal History
- The Literature of Universal History -- the kinds of literature and other products of art that are part of Universal History and how they are received within a tradition
- Central themes of Universal History: Kingship, Jerusalem-orientation, Troy-to-Rome-to-Constantinople movements
8/12 - Lesson 2: The Age of Heroes
- The Greek Age of Heroes: Precursor Heroes; Jason and the Argonauts, Hunt for the Calydonian Boar
- The Thebaid: How Cities are Born, How Cities Die
- The Trojan War: Key themes, Survivor Stories
8/19 - Lesson 3: From Troy to Arthur
- Aeneid as Universal History, other Trojan Survivor Founding Myths
- Alexander Romances, Medieval Romances connecting Age of Heroes to Age of Arthur
- Arthur's connections to Universal History, Matter of Britain, Matter of France (Charlemagne)
8/26 - Lesson 4: Answers in Genesis
- Enochian readings of Genesis
- Syrian readings of Genesis
- Reception and influence of Genesis commentaries in the Western World
9/2 - Lesson 5: Stories from the Edge
- Ethiopia, the Kebra Negast
- The Far East, Gynosophists, Fourth Son of Noah, Gates of Alexander
- The Far West, Scyld, Fourth Son of Noah, Ireland, Scandinavia
9/9 - Lesson 6: The End Times
- Holy Week as the Christian Founding Myth
- Patterns of the End: Sibylline Oracles, Apocalyptic Apocrypha
- Universal History and the New World
livestream sessions
Associated Posts
Related Content
Presenters
Deacon Seraphim (Richard) Rohlin
Deacon Seraphim Richard Rohlin is a software developer, Germanic philologist, and now ordained deacon in the Orthodox Church of America (OCA), living in Texas with his wife and children. He speaks and publishes on Germanic poetry, the Inklings, and the Sacramental Imagination. He regularly contributes to Jonathan Pageau’s The Symbolic World YouTube channel through the Universal History series. Along with Jonathan Pageau he has co-presented a 6-week course studying the epic poem Beowulf, as well as several courses on Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso). He has also hosted his own course on this platform, Tolkien and Universal History.
Richard co-hosts The Amon Sul Podcast, and has published several works of fiction and non-fiction. He’s currently working on a collection of essays called Finding the Golden Key: Essays Toward a Recovery of the Sacramental Imagination. His superhero pulp novel Guardians: The Eye of Horus is currently under development as a graphic novel. Richard is also a life-long tabletop gamer and wrapped up a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to produce Amboria: Roleplaying in the World Under Starlight.
Jonathan Pageau
Jonathan Pageau is a renowned liturgical artist, writer, and public speaker. Through his popular YouTube channel The Symbolic World, he has become a sought-out interpreter of the deep patterns in stories. With his 2022 publication of God's'Dog: Monster, a graphic novel invented with his brother Matthieu Pageau and artist Cord Nielson, Jonathan proved himself a powerful storyteller in his own right. The project’s successful crowdfunding encouraged him to continue his efforts to reclaim the storytelling landscape by starting a publishing company called Symbolic World Press (SWP).
SWP’s maiden publication is The Tale of Snow White and the Widow Queen, the first of an eight-book series of fairy tales in which Pageau explores a new way of telling fairy tales: one which is both aware of our cultural moment and simultaneously committed to honoring the deeply celebratory of the roots these stories have planted in our common imagination.
Jonathan’s YouTube channel, The Symbolic World, now has nearly 200k subscribers, and the community that has developed around his listenership is an active, supportive, and talented collection of artists and thinkers from around the globe. He recently launched a new Symbolic World Website, where people can sign up to access exclusive content unavailable on the regular channel, and to engage in the Symbolic World Community for timely discussions around symbolism, literature, religion, art, and culture. The site has also begun hosting paid courses, where people can sign up for an interactive deep dive into specific works, such as Beowulf, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, and the rebirth of Christian Metaphysics.
