What We Talk About When We Talk About God (16 page)

Seeing and hearing
is from Matthew 13.

She has done a beautiful thing to me
is from Mark 14.

May the eyes of your heart be enlightened
is from Ephesians 1.

 

For

God loves us
is from John 3.

Eight-pound six-ounce newborn infant
is from the book of
Talladega Nights
—“Shake 'n bake, that just happened.”

The poor in spirit / blessing
is from Matthew 5.

The nobodies
is drawn from chapter 4 of Dallas Willard's
The Divine Conspiracy
.

Repent
is the word
metanoia
in Greek:
meta
meaning
change
(as in
metamorphosis
) and
noia
meaning to
think
or
perceive—
that is, “to see in a new way, to have a new mind.”

Touches lepers
is from Matthew 8.

Hears the cry
is from Matthew 20.

Dines with tax collectors
is from Mark 2.

Talks with . . . Samaritan women
is from John 4.

Came for the sick
is from Luke 5.

New wine in old wineskins
is from Matthew 9.

First tells his followers that he's going to be killed
refers to Matthew 16.

My god, my God
is from Matthew 27 (which is from Psalm 22).

In regard to the early Christians seeing the resurrection as heralding a new era in human consciousness, note that when the apostle Paul writes to his friends in Corinth (1 Corinthians 15), he calls Jesus's being raised on the third day something of “first importance.”

Jesus talked about . . . fruit
draws on Matthew 7 and 13 and John 15.

Fullness of God residing in Christ
is from Colossians 2:9.

Causes the sun to rise . . . And sends rain
is from Matthew 5.

 

Ahead

Eye for eye
is from Exodus 21.

When you go to war
is from Deuteronomy 21. Many thanks to William Webb for his insightful writing on this passage.

There are more than 435 Hooters restaurants in the world.

God calls a man named Abraham.
the story of Abraham begins in Genesis 12.

Light to the Gentiles
is from Isaiah 49.

Let your light shine
is from Matthew 5.

Nuclear weapons
. I wrote about this with Don Golden in our book
Jesus Wants to Save Christians.

Because he is not one of us
comes from Luke 9.

A book about people having their minds blown
. See Peter's vision in Acts 10.

 

So

I talked about the birth of religion in my 2008 live film
The God's Aren't Angry,
which you can find at robbell.com.

Ripped
is from Mark 15.

On the concept of new, direct access to God, see Hebrews 10.

Holy, holy, holy
is from Isaiah 6.

The idea that God is confined to a temple.
I say this while also acknowledging that these ideas were already present in Jewish thought years before Jesus, like in 1 Kings 8 where Solomon says after building the temple that “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!”

We are the temple
is from 1 Corinthians 6.

The reference to the human body as a temple is from 1 Corinthians 6.

Accounts of Jesus on the night he was betrayed are found in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 13.

For an extraordinary essay on the Eucharist, see http://www .firstthings.com/onthesquare/2012/03/do-this.

Ephrem the Syrian prayed in the fourth century:

The spirit is in your bread,

the fire in your wine,

a manifest wonder,

that our lips have received.

Stephen Freeman offers profound insights on the eucharist in his book
Everywhere Present
.

Moses taking off his sandals
is from Exodus 3.

Holy the whole time.
the word
holy
is related to the word
holistic,
which is connected to the words
whole
and
heal
and
hale
(as in “hale and hearty”). Holiness is the bringing together of things in their entirety, healthy and complete.

Reunite and reconnect us to sacred depth
is from Colossians 1, where the apostle Paul writes that through the shed blood of Jesus, God is reconciling
all things, whether things on Earth or things in heaven.

As a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats
is from Matthew 25.

On God as all in all, see 1 Corinthians 15.

On God being through and over all, see Ephesians 4.

Things that were previously thought to be at odds.
For more on nondual awareness, read Richard Rohr's
The Naked Now
.

For more on my friend Tim Cusack, go to timcusack.com.

When I kept silent
is from Psalm 32.

God, have mercy on me, a sinner
is from Luke 18.

For a Psalm about destructive impulses, see Psalm 35.

A heart at peace gives life to the body
is from Proverbs 14.

What do you want?
is from Mark 10.

Splagchnon
is found in the New Testament eleven times.

Knew on a cellular level
is from an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow in
Harper's Bazaar,
March 2012.

Something primordial
is from Keith Richards's autobiography,
Life,
p. 244.

For more on monkeys and subcortical energy, see Daniel J. Siegel's great book
Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation
.

Talking about
spirit,
Christopher McDougall has a quote in his book
Born to Run
(at the beginning of chapter 30) from the Olympic champion Herb Elliot: “I came to realize that spirit, as much or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before a race.”

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Tim Royer and the fine folks at Neurocore for all they've taught me about the brain and how it affects every area of our lives.

For more on chairs and windows and sun—on the relationship between architecture and spirit—I highly recommend the following:

The Timeless Way of Building
by Christopher Alexander

Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Khan
by John Lobell

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
by Matthew Frederick.

Fruit of the Spirit
is from Galatians 5.

Complaining
is from Philippians 2.

Rejoicing
is from Philippians 4.

Grateful
is from Psalm 18.

Giving thanks
is from 1 Thessalonians 5.

Remembering
is from Exodus 13, Mark 8.

God taking great joy in how things look
is a reference to Genesis 1.

 

Epilogue

Began/good work/complete
is from Philippians 1.

And now I see God everywhere
reminds me of the Jesuit saying “Seeing God in all things,” which reminds me of a fantastic book about seeing called
Seeing God in All Things: The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
by James Martin, SJ.

 

Two Last Notes

Here are some awesome words and phrases and sentences I stumbled upon in my research that deserve to be repeated for no particular reason other than the enjoyment of words and their endless sounds, meanings, and combinations:

relic density

displaced vertex

propensity and power

the history of fishes

the ability of infinity to be boosted in magnitude and yet still remain the same size

a possible planet called Vulcan

the Englert-Brout-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble mechanism

superhuman creative restlessness

breathe deeply and unfurl energies

forms and configurations assumed by the divine spirit's torrent of energy

sounds of all protean creation

planetary regeneration

a radiance which no space can contain

driving vital power

unrestrained speculative exuberance

kinematically

comprehensive reference for life

sensory sociality

permeation of all matter by grace

indescribable elegance

ceaseless becoming

impelling potency

enhanced fluidity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I continue to find it pure joy to work with the fine folks at HarperOne. Their integrity, wisdom, passion, and excellence are extraordinarily inspiring to me. When I talk about them, I'm talking about Mark Tauber, Claudia Boutote, Michele Wetherbee, Laina Adler, Kathryn Renz, Suzanne Wickham, Darcy Cohan, Lisa Zuniga, Terri Leonard, and of course the one and only Mickey Maudlin, whose editing, endurance, and friendship mean the world to me.

And to think, we're just getting started.

A big shout as well goes to Tim Green at FaceOut Design, Chris Ferebee for twelve years of guidance, expertise, and fantastic salsa, and Rob Strong, Dr. Christopher Hall, and Dave and Sarah Vanderveen, Glenn Rogers, and the Mighty Iris, who provided valuable feedback along the way. And yes, Glenn, I'm including the time you fell asleep on the deck in Mexico late at night while I was reading an early draft of a chapter out loud. I will continue to attribute your actions to the strength of tequila and not the quality of the content.

And then K, for way too many things to mention. Where exactly would I be without you?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ROB BELL
is a bestselling author and international teacher and speaker. His books include
Love Wins, Velvet Elvis, Sex God, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and Drops Like Stars,
and he was profiled in
The New Yorker and in TIME
magazine, who named him one of 2011's hundred most influential people in the world. He and his wife, Kristen, have three children. Visit the author online at www.robbell.com.

 

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ALSO BY ROB BELL

Love Wins

Velvet Elvis

Sex God

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Drops Like Stars

The Love Wins Companion

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CREDITS

Cover design: Tim Green, FaceOut Studio

COPYRIGHT

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT GOD
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FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

is available upon request.

ISBN
978–0–06–204966–7

EPUB Edition JANUARY 2013 ISBN 9780062049674

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