Christianity as a Set of Insistent Questions

Learning How to See with Brian McLaren

Center for Action and Contemplation

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 748 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if questions are God’s way of communicating? Could we learn to embrace asking questions as a spiritual practice? For this episode, Brian McLaren invites two great wisdom teachers of our time, Dr. James Finley and Dr. Barbara Holmes into a conversation about the simple steps we can take to celebrate the sacredness of each moment. This conversation journeys into the heart of embracing mystery and all that is unsolved in your heart. Resources: The transcript for this episode can be found here Brian's new book, Do I Stay Christian? can be found here Dr. Barbara Holme's podcast, The Cosmic We can be found on: CAC | Apple or wherever you like to download podcasts. Dr. James Finley's podcast, Turning to the Mystics can be found on: CAC | Apple or wherever you like to download podcasts. Everyone who purchases a copy of Brian's new book Do I Stay Christian? from our online bookstore will be invited to participate in an exclusive Community Read-Along on Facebook! There will be discussion questions, prompts, and shared practices as we move through the book each week. The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is an educational nonprofit organization whose mission is to strengthen compassionate engagement in the world. When you purchase this or any other book from our online bookstore you help us to introduce seekers from around the world to the contemplative Christian path of transformation. (Everyone who purchases a copy of Do I Stay Christian? will receive a URL to join the discussion group via email.) Connect with us: We’d love to hear your thoughts, comments or feedback. Send us an email at podcasts@cac.org Center for Action and Contemplation: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Brian McLaren: Website| Facebook | Instagram | Twitter This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at cac.org/podcastsupport Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	For many of us, Christianity was a set of answers.
0:09.0	We would change denominations or congregations when we became dissatisfied with those answers.
0:16.0	We would seek another faith community where the answers made more sense to us. But in so doing,
0:22.8	we strengthened the assumption that Christianity was about correct answers to a certain set of
0:28.6	questions. What happens when you become disillusioned not only with the answers Christianity
0:36.8	offers, but with the questions Christianity asks.
0:40.3	What if other questions are becoming more important to you?
0:45.3	For many of us, the big question that Christianity posed
0:50.3	was how do you go to heaven when you die? And that question drew from an even deeper
0:57.4	theological question, how can we resolve the problem of original sin or total depravity?
1:07.6	Others of us may have been raised with a different question, the question of the prosperity gospel.
1:14.8	How can God in the Bible help me make more money and be less sick and more successful?
1:21.2	I remember years ago a Salvation Army officer told me that he was having secret meetings with Catholic nuns and friars,
1:30.3	and he was discovering Catholic mysticism.
1:33.3	They were exploring a totally different question than the question he'd been raised with.
1:39.3	These Catholic nuns and friars were asking,
1:44.2	how can we experience God at the deepest levels of our being?
1:51.9	When I've engaged with Christians of different traditions,
1:55.9	I discovered that some of them were asking this question,
1:59.0	how can the poor and the oppressed be liberated from
2:02.4	oppression? How can the earth be saved from human greed? And how can human beings rejoin the
2:11.3	earth community? What is a good life? And what does it look like now?
	...

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