Reimagining God
The Faith Journey of a Modern Heretic
Lloyd Geering
with a foreword by Tom Hall
Description
Described by the BBC as “the last living heretic,” Lloyd Geering has spent much of his life wrestling with God. Of late, however, he finds himself struggling with the absence of God. The rise of nonreligious, secular culture around the world testifies that he is not alone, that the concept of God has become problematical. Should God be abandoned altogether? Can God be reformed, so to speak?
Drawing from theology, science and his own faith journey—from his call to ministry, through his much-publicized heresy trial, to decades of public speaking, teaching and writing, Geering retraces key developments in the Western understanding of God. He imagines a new spirituality, one that blends a relationship to the natural world with a celebration of the rich inheritance of human culture.
Religion for Life Interview – May 2015
Contents
Foreword Tom Hall
Preface Lloyd Geering
Part One: The Starting Point
1. God and Me
2. Faith to Doubt
Part Two: Learning from My Mentors
3. Friedrich Schleiermacher: God Is Experienced
4. Ludwig Feuerbach: God Is Humanity Projected
5. Carl Jung: God Is in the Unconscious
6. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: God Is Evolving
7. John Robinson: Honest to God
Part Three: Adjusting to the Challenges
8. How Humans Made God
9. Science and the Judeo-Christian Tradition
10. Idolatry in the Church
11. Ethics without God
12. Christianity without Christ
Part Four: Contemplating the Future
13. Tomorrow’s Spirituality
14. Spirituality for an Ecological Age
Works Cited
Index
For an index, click the Resources tab above.
Sir Lloyd Geering (D.D., University of Otago, New Zealand) is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. A public figure of considerable renown in New Zealand, he is in regular demand as a lecturer and as a commentator on religion and related matters on both television and radio. He is the author of many books including From the Big Bang to God: Our Awe-Inspiring Journey of Evolution (2013), Coming Back to Earth: From Gods, to God, to Gaia (2009), and Christianity without God (2002).
In 2001, he was honored as Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In 2007, he received New Zealand’s highest honor, the Order of New Zealand.
