Hey friend, thanks so much for joining me for Java with Julie.

I am your host, Julie Slattery, and this podcast is an outreach of authentic intimacy.

Well, my guest today is Marty Solomon.

Marty is the host of the Bama podcast, and I actually interviewed Marty, I think a couple

years ago, talking about his podcast, and we'll

link to that episode if you'd like to listen to it. But the reason I love the work that Marty

does on that podcast is he really encourages us to approach the scripture with curiosity and to

ask better questions of the Bible, not feel like we have to have all the answers.

And so today's conversation, we're going to follow up on that and talk about a new book

that he's just written called The Gospel of Being Human, how asking better questions of the

Bible reveals who we are. And it's all about what it means to know God, not just intellectually, but

relationally. In our conversation today, I'm going to talk to Marty about why Western Christianity

can be so focused on having the right answers. And instead, what it really means to understand

that we are so loved by God and just enter into that

kind of relationship with a God who doesn't use his overwhelming power to force us to love him

back.

Now, let me warn you in the beginning of this episode, I feel like I sort of nerded out a

little bit with Marty.

I asked him a lot of questions about theology, why theology is important,

why theology is limited. Hang in there if that's not really your cup of tea. We're just laying the

groundwork for the really practical things that we're going to get to later in the conversation.

I promise you it is going to be worth it. So let's head to the coffee shop for my conversation with Marty Solomon.

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