Who Thinks that God Is Still Speaking?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:51 pm by Tony Jones

Who Thinks that God Is Still Speaking? 2015-03-13T16:51:33-05:00 Tony Jones

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This post is part of the Patheos Book Club. Check out the Book Club for more posts on this book and for responses from other bloggers and columnists. And be sure to join the live chat with the author, 2-3pm EDT TODAY.

Some of us giggled a bit when, a few years back, the notoriously liberal United Church of Christ denomination inaugurated a marketing campaign with the tagline, “God Is Still Speaking.” What they were getting at is that God’s interest in contemporary issues didn’t end when the final book of the canon was penned.

But what’s ironic about the slogan is that liberal Christians are quite reluctant to affirm that God speaks to them individually. That’s the territory of conservative evangelicals, especially those of charismatic and Pentecostal stripes. Like, for instance, believers who attend Vineyard churches.

That’s exactly the group that Tanya Luhrmann studied and writes about in her excellent book, When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. Seriously, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you like this blog, you should read this book.

Luhrmann is a psychological anthropologist. That is, she studies human beings, with a special focus on the mind. She grew up in a liberal, relatively secular home (with a connection to a Unitarian congregation). She writes that she was always intrigued when her childhood friends would talk confidently about their intimate relationship with God.

That youthful curiosity led to a massive research project as a social scientist. She confesses to having a 13-foot-high stack of transcribed interviews in her Stanford office. The core of that research came from two years attending a Vineyard church in Chicago.

Luhrmann writes of her experiences in the Vineyard congregation with sensitivity and a keen eye. She has no axe to grind. Her writing is in the best of the social science tradition of participant-observer.

The goal of her research is to discover how it is that some human beings profess to hearing directly and personally from God, while most of us do not. She writes,

To become a committed Christian one must learn to override three basic features of human psychology: that minds are private, that persons are visible, and that love is conditional and contingent upon right behavior.

It may be that these three are overridden by a trick of the mind, by a psychological weakness, or even by a genetic mutation. According to Luhrmann, it’s none of these.

But I’m not going to tell you what she thinks it is, because that would spoil the plot, and I want you to read this book.

I’m working on a book write now called, Why Pray?, and I can tell you that Luhrmann’s book will factor heavily into my own thinking on prayer and the activity of God.

books

christianity in america

Prayer

why pray

Previous Post

April 26, 2012

Mark Driscoll's Church Vandalized by Angry Queers

Next Post

April 27, 2012 Misogynists Urged to Up Their Game

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category bible blogging books christianity in america church church history dissertation divorce Dog Training education emergent church essay family funny glbt jopa productions ministry minnesota movies music parenting philosophy politics Prayer publishing Questions That Haunt random same sex marriage speaking spirituality Teaching technology television theology Travels Uncategorized writing youth ministry

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 June 2006 May 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 June 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004 February 2004 January 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who is the apostle to deny Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Andrew Peter Judas Phillip