Jordan Hall

Role: Tech Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Christian Convert
Location: Black Mountain, North Carolina
Background: Co-founder of DivX, Meta-crisis theorist, Game B movement participant

Professional Background

Tech Achievements:

• Co-founded DivX, revolutionizing online digital video
• Early employee at MP3.com, helping shape digital music distribution
• Raised over $150M for DivX, led $600M IPO
• Angel investor and technologist post-exit

Intellectual Contributions:

• Key voice in "Game B" movement (alternative civilization models)
• Meta-crisis theorist and complex systems thinker
• Associated with Santa Fe Institute and Aspen Institute
• Focus on collective intelligence and future of civilization

Spiritual Journey

Background:

• Not raised in religious tradition (maximally reformed Jewish mother, reluctant Catholic father)
• Self-identified as agnostic, never atheist
• Extensive exploration of Eastern spirituality, psychedelics, indigenous wisdom
• Deep engagement with Buddhism (Zen, Dzogchen), astrology, tarot, esotericism
• Ayahuasca experiences that convinced him "the spiritual is real"

Conversion to Christianity (2023):

• Landed in Black Mountain, NC after business failures left family "quasi-homeless"
• Invited to simple country church in Swannanoa
• Had "psychedelic" realization: "Holy shit, that's the thing. This is actually the thing in the right order"
• Underwent intensive research period to reconcile intellectual integrity with faith
• Discovered profound ignorance about core Christian concepts (faith, Trinity, crucifixion)

Current Christian Practice

Church Engagement:

• Attends Sunday service and Wednesday house church
• Testifies openly about past experiences (psychedelics, polyamory, etc.)
• Experiences divine guidance in practical interactions
• Wife is pregnant, part of thriving family-oriented community

Theological Perspective:

• Emphasizes participatory vs. propositional truth
• Focuses on agapic love with horizontal (community) and vertical (divine) dimensions
• Critiques church's "propositional tyranny" and lack of humility
• Advocates for "open and convicting" rather than "open and affirming"
• Applies network theory to understand church structure (centralized/decentralized/distributed)
• Champions move from chronological (Kronos) to qualitative (Kairos) time consciousness
• Emphasizes first-person vs. third-person relationship with God

Key Insights & Quotes

On Meta-Crisis:

"Categorically the heart of the metacrisis is in fact a religious crisis... you keep going down the stack when you get to the bottom of the stack you're like oh that's actually where it is."

On Faith vs. Reason:

"Religion is not where you ask the deepest questions. It's where you participate in the deepest life, which is a deeper place than asking questions."

On Divine Guidance:

"Learn how to listen to God and do what he tells you to do... this is a categorical solution to the complexity of the meta crisis... you need infinity. But infinity is online. He wants to talk to you."

On Intuition:

"Intuition and thinking do not sit next to each other. Thinking sits embedded in intuition. Intuition is a bigger thing that includes thinking in it."

On Game B and Christianity (2025):

"Game B is just a very nerdy way of trying to get to Christianity. Game A is what we might call this world and game B is the kingdom."

On Network Theory and the Church:

"God created reality. God probably knew that networks had certain capabilities. Probably created it for purpose. When Christ created the church, he partook in all three of these network topologies."

On the Three Tyrannies of Modernity:

"Chronological tyranny, third person tyranny, propositional tyranny, are antichrist, meaning they are upside down. They turn us away from God."

On Contextualization vs. Decontextualization:

"One direction is decontextualization. That's the devil. One direction is contextualization or relationality. And that's the essence of the triune God."

On the Emerging Post-Modern Mind:

"We are reaching post literacy... A new image will emerge... We're working at something that is going to be much more like the medieval mind than it is like the modern mind."

On Faith Redefined (2025):

"When I say faith I do not mean maximally unevidenced belief... That is a defamation. That is in fact a lie... Faith is the boundary between the unconscious and the conscious threshold when properly ordered."

On Virtue as Fundamentally Relational:

"Virtue is principally not at all your relationship with the social world. It is not even your relationship with other people. It's not even your relationship with yourself. It's your relationship with God."

On Digital Identity and the Sacred:

"Digital identity is in the commons. Digital identity is grounded in the sacred... Who are you? Well, you are definitely not a subject of the state and you are definitely not an economic actor. You are a soul, right? You're a soul in the kingdom of God."

On the End of Strategy:

"There is no selling. Okay. Um there is only telling the truth as best you can... showing up are you try to show up as you are called by God... How do you sell people on showing up as you're called by God? You show up as you're called by God. That's it."

On Everything Mattering:

"You're on the hook for literally everything. Like, it's not you're on the hook for everything. Everything matters... your tone of voice, the way you comb your hair, it's the way you walk in the world, the way you breathe. I mean, everything matters."

On Real vs. Formal Hierarchy:

"There is in fact a natural hierarchy... The moment you're in has a proper hierarchy. You must become fluid enough to be oriented towards that proper hierarchy... A formal hierarchy is is how you get into the trouble of improper or usurped authority."

On Spiritual Warfare as Reality (September 2025):

"Everything matters. Every choice you make, every action you take, every breath, every word is ultimately laden with consequence. It's either towards God or away from God. There is no neutral and there is no irrelevant."

On Modern Laziness:

"We are we've been raised in a really really remarkably lazy and cowardly context. We're by far the laziest and most cowardly human beings that have ever been developed... But that's not how life works. Life is in fact actually for all the marbles."

On Fifth Generation Warfare:

"As we have moved forward in the art of war we have more and more spiritualized the way that we go about waging war by necessity... The centerpiece as you move through the arc of fifth generation warfare, it actually becomes isomorphic with what we would have called spiritual warfare."

On the AI Crisis:

"You will be consumed body mind and soul by AI if you are not able to cleave utterly to Christ... There is very little choice left but to fully commit yourself to discipleship."

On Society vs. Communion:

"Society is actually necrotic. Society is the undead. It's the zombie... There's community, but community is what you call it when society is what's looking at it. The real thing is communion."

On the Church's Role:

"Education belongs in the church. That's it. So sorry church, you have to... actually take on the task of education wholly... Churches are going to have to help members of that church have a place to live."

On Beauty as Warfare:

"Creating beauty is an act of war in this frame that we're talking about... Being a steward of beauty is an act of war... I prefer my act of war being to be a steward of beauty and a creator of beauty."

On Generational Calling:

"Moses, I we we remember slavery in Egypt... We can come to the top of the mountain. We can see the promised land, but we're not going to cross over into it... The ferry generation is maybe the Joshua generation."

Potential Collaboration Areas

Shared Interests:

• Meta-crisis response through spiritual renewal
• Integration of ancient wisdom with modern complexity
• Building authentic community in fragmented world
• Bridging intellectual rigor with lived faith
• Media and storytelling for cultural transformation

His Unique Value:

• Rare combination of tech success, philosophical depth, and genuine Christian conversion
• Experience navigating liminal spaces and spiritual seeking
• Credibility with both secular intellectuals and religious communities
• Practical experience in building movements (Game B, DivX)
• Understanding of complex systems applied to spiritual/cultural change
• Revolutionary framework integrating network theory with Christian theology
• Bridge between digital natives and ancient wisdom traditions
• Deep collaboration with Forest Landry on transcendent logic and metaphysics

Potential Projects:

• Conversations on faith and the meta-crisis
• Content exploring "participatory truth" vs. propositional religion
• Stories of modern conversion experiences
• Frameworks for authentic Christian community building
• Integration of entrepreneurial instincts with divine guidance
• Network topology applications for church governance and formation
• Digital-age spirituality and the "new medieval mind"
• Collaborative work on Forest Landry's Imminent Domain Metaphysics and Trinity
• Exploring digital identity as sacred rather than political/economic
• Frameworks for the "divine economy" - culture based on divine guidance
• Christian unity and reconciliation across denominational lines
• Practical applications of "spontaneous subordination" in organizations

Personal Characteristics

Strengths:

• Intellectual honesty and humility
• Willingness to admit profound ignorance
• Integration of mystical experience with practical action
• Strong family commitment (wife, daughter, expecting)
• Authentic vulnerability about past mistakes

Communication Style:

• Direct, sometimes profane honesty
• Complex philosophical concepts made accessible
• Personal testimony woven with theoretical insights
• Self-deprecating humor about past naivety
• Comfortable discussing controversial topics (psychedelics, sexuality, politics)

Contact Context

Current Focus:

• Living out Christian discipleship in rural North Carolina
• Raising family in faith-centered community (now with 4-month-old son)
• Navigating church growth disruption as congregation exceeds Dunbar limit (40 to 200 people)
• Supporting Jonathan Pageau's children's literature as critical spiritual warfare front
• Exploring church unification across Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions
• Recovering spiritual disciplines (prayer, scripture, fasting) after major life transitions
• Moving house church between his home and pastor's home (one block away)
• Discerning how to navigate civilizational transition without bloodshed

Approach Strategy:

• Respect his journey from seeking to finding
• Engage with both his intellectual rigor and spiritual depth
• Acknowledge the rarity of his authentic conversion story
• Focus on practical applications of faith in modern context
• Connect through shared concern for cultural/civilizational renewal
• Support his emphasis on good faith dialogue as pathway to truth
• Recognize his commitment to radical obedience over strategic planning

Potential Introduction: "I've been deeply moved by your story of finding Christianity through genuine seeking rather than cultural inheritance. Your integration of complex systems thinking with lived faith offers a unique perspective on the challenges facing our civilization. I'd love to explore how authentic spiritual community might be part of the solution to our current cultural moment."

Recent Developments (2025)

Network Theory Framework: Hall has developed a sophisticated model mapping the three fundamental network topologies (centralized, decentralized, distributed) onto Christian history and practice. He sees Catholics as primarily centralized (Petrine), Orthodox as decentralized (apostolic), and Protestants as distributed (Pentecostal), with the ideal church fluidly moving between all three modes.

Media Evolution Theory: He traces the evolution from scribal (medieval) to print (modern) to digital (post-modern) media, arguing that digital natives are naturally oriented toward participatory rather than propositional truth - making them more compatible with authentic Christianity than the modern mind.

The Three Tyrannies: Hall identifies chronological tyranny (Kronos time), propositional tyranny (abstract facts over lived experience), and third-person tyranny (dissociation from presence) as fundamentally "antichrist" - turning people away from God who can only be encountered in first-person, qualitative moments.

Forest Landry Collaboration: Ongoing deep engagement with philosopher Forest Landry (whom he calls "the smartest guy in the world") on Imminent Domain Metaphysics and its applications to understanding the Trinity. Their dialogue represents cutting-edge work on transcendent logic and participatory knowing.

The Sacred vs. Secular Framework: Hall traces the historical collapse of the sacred from omnipresent reality to isolated locations, finally evaporating entirely and leaving only market/state dichotomies. He argues that digital challenges like identity and attention are fundamentally theological problems requiring recovery of sacred categories rather than political or economic solutions.

Faith as Embodied Competence: Moving beyond modern distortions of faith as "blind belief," Hall reclaims the Greek concept of pistis as embodied competence for navigating complex reality - similar to learning language or riding a bike. Faith operates at the boundary between conscious and unconscious competence, enabling relationship with reality that exceeds analytical capacity.

The Divine Economy Vision: Hall envisions a post-crisis culture where people "take their orders from God" rather than operating strategically. He argues this approach is "shockingly remarkably compatible with the digital" and represents the practical embodiment of authentic Christian community scaled up.

Ecclesiological Integration: Recent insights reveal Hall's understanding of denominational differences as representing necessary aspects of church structure: Catholics as centralized (Petrine), Orthodox as decentralized (apostolic), Protestants as distributed (Pentecostal). He advocates for fluid movement between all three modes rather than rigid sectarianism.

Anti-Strategic Approach: Hall completely rejects strategic approaches to evangelism or cultural change, advocating only authentic witness and obedience to divine guidance. This represents a radical departure from typical movement-building approaches, grounded in trust that God will accomplish what needs accomplishing through faithful individuals.

Spiritual Warfare Framework (September 2025): Hall has developed a comprehensive theology of spiritual warfare as the fundamental reality of Christian existence. He argues that "everything matters" - every choice, word, and breath is either toward or away from God, with no neutral ground. This wartime footing is not metaphorical but describes the actual structure of reality that modern comfort has obscured.

Fifth Generation Warfare Theory: Hall connects modern warfare evolution to spiritual reality, arguing that as warfare has become more sophisticated and diffuse (targeting values and identity rather than physical destruction), it has become "isomorphic with spiritual warfare." The enemy operates through confusion about values and meaning rather than direct violence.

The AI Ultimatum: Hall presents AI as forcing the spiritual crisis into material reality: "You will be consumed body mind and soul by AI if you are not able to cleave utterly to Christ." This represents the end of the 500-year trade of spiritual reality for material abundance that defined the modern era.

Generational Analysis: Hall identifies Gen X as the "Moses generation" who can see the promised land but won't enter it, while Millennials/Gen Z are the "Joshua generation" called to cross over and establish it through spiritual warfare. This ferryman generation must navigate between the collapsing modern world and the emerging post-modern reality.

Educational Revolution: Hall argues education must return entirely to the church, not as Christian versions of secular schools but as holistic formation in communion. He outlines three developmental stages (0-7: embodiment, 7-14: community formation, 14-21: vocational calling) all centered on cultivating "whole humans in right relationship with God." In collaboration with Annie Crawford (classical educator), Hall emphasizes that "education begins at conception" and every human requires a "perfectly singular pedagogy" - mass education is "an impossibility in principle."

Church as Total Institution: Hall envisions churches recovering their medieval role as governors of the commons, providing housing, economic context, and education for members. This "profound revival" will look like the medieval magisterium because that was the last time the church fulfilled its proper function as mediator between the sacred and secular.

Recent Collaborations (September-October 2025)

With Annie Crawford: Hall has been developing educational philosophy with Annie Crawford, a classical educator and CS Lewis scholar in Austin. Together they articulate education as "the formation of the soul" and identify it as the central battlefield in spiritual warfare. Hall supports Crawford's co-op model as exemplary of parish-scale education rooted in real relationships.

Key Educational Positions:

• "The state has no proper role in education. It has no interest and no role."
• "The machine will extract the full price... They'll hate God. That's the full price."
• Distinguishes between "fruitfulness" (quality/depth) and "multiplication" (quantity/scale)
• Advocates for home-based education within Eucharistic communities
• Sees collapse of institutional education as liberation: "All of that was death anyway"

With Gary Sheng (September 17, 2025): Engaged in profound 3.5-hour dialogue exploring truth, faith, obedience, and spiritual warfare. Presented comprehensive framework of six types of truth (scientific, technological, spiritual, religious) ultimately grounded in Christ as Logos. Emphasized radical obedience over human strategy, describing spiritual warfare as requiring complete surrender to become "the blade, not the swordsman." Shared personal struggles with church growth disruption, family transitions with 4-month-old son, and physical/spiritual disciplines. Expressed calling to help unify the body of Christ across denominational lines and support Jonathan Pageau's children's literature as critical front in spiritual warfare.

With Gary Sheng at The Stoa (October 24, 2025): Participated in Gary's presentation "The Narratives Fighting for the Soul of Humanity" at The Stoa, marking full circle moment as Jordan was The Stoa's very first presenter in March 2020. Provided profound insights on church hurt through intimate betrayal metaphor, explaining how religious wounds create particular scar tissue around Jesus himself. Addressed the "religion that is not a religion" trajectory, arguing it inevitably collapses into either transhumanism (if intellect dominates) or Christianity (if humility and listening prevail). Articulated sophisticated theological framework distinguishing between unity/multiplicity/aggregates, positioning religion as operating at level of true unity rather than simulated unity. Declared perennialism as "the modernity of religion" - an idol rather than icon that subordinates religion to modern categories. Demonstrated continued evolution toward radical Christian orthodoxy while maintaining philosophical rigor.

Key Insights from October 2025 Stoa Presentation

On Church Hurt and Intimacy

Betrayal at Different Levels: Jordan illustrated church hurt through escalating intimacy metaphor - from bird surprising child to mother betraying child:

"Church is a place where it is both possible and appropriate... to have a very high level of intimacy and to therefore expect a very high level of care and trustworthiness... If you get fired cold from your church, you'll feel a whole lot betrayed."

On the Religion That Is Not a Religion

Inevitable Collapse: Jordan argued the meta-modern spiritual project must collapse in one of two directions:

"If intellect is in judgment... producing the order of the religion that's not a religion, then you end up in transhumanism... If there's humility and listening and the nous, then you end up in Christianity."

On Perennialism as Modern Idol

Category Error: Positioned perennialism as fundamentally modern project that misunderstands religion's essence:

"Perennialism would be the most refined version of religion that you can actually get to [within modernity]... which is ultimately to say that you will be producing something which is an idol as opposed to an icon of religio that is subordinating religion to modernity."

On Unity vs Aggregates

Ontological Distinctions: Articulated sophisticated framework for understanding religion's true domain:

"Religion operates at the level of the category of how does one actually go about moving from multiplicity into unity, into proper unity, which is another way of saying spirit or spiritual."

Incentive Alignment Critique: Rejected economic framings of religion:

"The application of the concept of incentive landscapes, incentive alignment to the thing that religion is, is an epistemological category error... The language of incentive landscape lives in the intermediary category of aggregates."

October 28, 2025 - Parallax Symposium: "The Offense of Christ"

Participants

Jordan Hall joined O.G. Rose (Daniel), Luke Behncke, and Andrew (host) for a symposium on "Why the World Hates Christianity" - exploring the fundamental offense of Christ to both principalities and human ego.

Key Contributions

Christianity Is Not a Religion:

"Christianity isn't properly a religion... it's precisely to the degree to which Christians take Christianity as a religion that they immediately set against each other in fighting about who knows more about the true religion."

Hall articulated Christianity as relationship with reality itself through the Logos, not another ideology on the bookshelf but the context within which all ideologies exist.

The Necessity of Church Failure:

"The church by necessity must always fail. Well, that's very problematic... You as an individual will also by necessity fail."

He explained the paradox that withdrawal from the failing church equals withdrawal from the world, and meaningful suffering means entering relationships knowing they will fail and hurt.

Beauty First Principle:

"Beauty first. Of the three, one must enter into relationship with Christ beauty first, then truth and good can be properly situated. But if you don't do it that way, then things get very wacky very quickly."

Hall emphasized beauty as first-person presence and the disclosure of presence, contrasting modern confirmation of pre-existing images with genuine encounter.

Living in Babylon:

"We currently live in Babylon. In spite of the fact that this thing entered the world 2,000 years ago and didn't do nothing, it actually did a tremendous amount. Nonetheless, Babylon continues to burble forth."

The Four-Fold Analysis: Hall broke down "Why does the world hate Christianity?" into four distinct questions addressing different levels from cosmic principalities to human institutions, demonstrating his characteristic systematic approach to complex theological questions.

Fear of the Lord Moment: During O.G. Rose's extended exposition on beauty and conditionalism, Hall noted the presence of the Holy Spirit speaking through the conversation, encouraging viewers to experience "fear and trembling" and genuine encounter with the divine through the recorded discussion.

Notes

Jordan represents a fascinating case study in authentic intellectual conversion - someone who approached Christianity not from cultural conditioning but through rigorous philosophical inquiry and mystical experience. His October 2025 appearances at both The Stoa and the Parallax symposium demonstrated continued deepening of his Christian commitment while maintaining philosophical sophistication, now able to articulate why alternative spiritual paths (perennialism, "religion that is not a religion") ultimately fail to achieve true unity, and why Christianity fundamentally offends the world at every level from principalities to individual ego.

His combination of tech entrepreneurship, meta-crisis thinking, and genuine Christian faith makes him a unique voice for addressing the spiritual dimensions of our civilizational challenges. His recent work on network theory and church structure, along with his analysis of the "three tyrannies" of modernity, provides practical frameworks for church renewal and cultural transformation. His emphasis on "participatory truth" over "propositional truth" aligns with broader movements toward embodied spirituality and authentic community.

Most importantly, his story demonstrates that serious intellectual engagement with Christianity can lead to genuine conversion rather than mere cultural adoption - a powerful testimony for our current moment of spiritual seeking and cultural fragmentation. His ongoing evolution shows a deepening integration of complex systems thinking with lived faith practice.

Hall's 2025 articulations reveal a mature theological framework that positions Christianity not as one option among many for addressing civilizational challenges, but as the only adequate response to the meta-crisis. His integration of digital theory, cognitive science, and Christian theology offers unique insights for navigating the transition from modernity to whatever comes next. His emphasis on "showing up as you're called by God" rather than strategic action represents a profound challenge to conventional approaches to social change, grounded in deep trust in divine providence and the power of authentic witness.

Transcripts

transcript-id	date	one-line-summary
2025-09-17-gary-sheng-jordan-hall-truth-dialogue-spiritual-warfare	September 17, 2025	Deep theological dialogue exploring truth, the Logos, spiritual warfare, and the nature of authentic Christianity
2025-10-24-stoa-presentation-narratives-fighting-humanity	October 24, 2025	Gary's presentation on three worldviews competing for humanity's soul with Jordan as special guest providing theological insights