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The Liturgists Podcast

The God Question

The Liturgists Podcast

The Liturgists

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.83.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2019

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, Michael Gungor asks leading theologians, scholars, teachers two questions: “Does God exist,” and “Who or what is God?”Guests on this episode include, Richard Rohr, Diana Butler Bass, Amy-Jill Levine, Sharon Salzberg, Reza Aslan, Science Mike, William Matthews, and Hillary McBride. Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the award-winning author of ten books, including Grounded: Finding God in the World —A Spiritual Revolution. Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Science; she is also Affiliated Professor, Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge UK. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (co-authored with Douglas Knight); The New Testament, Methods and Meanings (co-authored with Warren Carter), and the thirteen-volume edited Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Writing. Sharon Salzberg is a central figure in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher and NY Times bestselling author. She has played a crucial role in bringing meditation and mindfulness practices to the West and into mainstream culture since 1974, when she first began teaching. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and the author of ten books including NY Times bestseller. Reza Aslan is an internationally renowned writer, commentator, professor, producer, and scholar of religions. His books, including his #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, have been translated into dozens of languages around the world. He is also a recipient of the prestigious James Joyce Award.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey Richard Roar, does God exist?

0:04.2

First of all, I think we've not helped the conversation by making it a question of proving

0:12.9

if God exists or God doesn't exist. It becomes highly theoretical, theological, dualistic, abstract.

0:23.1

I think God is only known experientially and you don't move people toward inner experience.

0:32.3

You certainly don't move people toward deep inner experience by stating the question that way

0:38.3

does God exist because it lends itself to a dualistic answer and experience is much more subtle

0:45.4

than that. Didn't get a real clear yes or no from the mystical Franciscan monk about whether or not

0:52.8

God exists. Hey, Christian scholar and author Diana Butler-Bast has God exist?

0:58.4

You know, that's a really funny question because I never really thought about it. I was one of those

1:05.4

people who simply have assumed God my whole life felt the presence of something that was beyond

1:15.4

my own experience, beyond words. And that's what God is. So the question of God's existence is not

1:25.2

one that I've ever really stopped to consider. I think of other questions around God like where is

1:31.0

God or why does God allow certain kinds of things happen. But the existence of God that just

1:39.1

hasn't been my question. Well, I feel like I'm kind of striking out here. Maybe I'll ask my dear

1:44.7

friend, Science Mike. He's always good for a clear answer. Mike, does God exist?

1:50.6

I think both my Google search history and my Amazon purchase history would attest how much I've

1:58.4

wrestled with the question. Does God exist? I mean, honestly, my entire work emerged from struggling

2:08.1

with that question as an evangelical Christian. And as I reflected upon the question over time,

2:16.4

and as I contemplate the notion of God's existence today, I don't actually understand the question

2:24.5

anymore. Does God exist? Because there's a subtext when we ask, does God exist? And that subtext

2:35.5

is that there is some agreed upon definition for who or what God is. And I simply don't believe

2:44.8

that that agreement exists. I mean, what God are you asking me? The existence of, are you asking me

...

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