Martin Luther said that God punishes us through intermediaries like Satan, and I had asked about that.
Now to the other part of your question, why (are people punished) through the world and Satan? Immersion in the world—with its causal networks, its guilty resistance—is necessary for growth. One needs a hard reality to work against that conditions one’s actions and experience and decisions. Otherwise, nothing would be serious.
Status-
There were other reasons not to accept the assignment. To devote the required time, I might have to quit my job. And my reputation and status would be jeopardized.
It’s your status with Me that counts. Jerry, you have great talent to give Me, to put in My service. Remember that it is not your talent, but Mine. I do not want to put you through unnecessary disruption. I have no desire to upset you or disrupt your life. But I need you to begin telling My word, My story. Not everyone can do this. You can. There are many fine voices, already testifying but they are not your voice. I need your voice too. You can offer something different. You can have a special mission, ministry, you’ll see.
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God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher – is the true story of a philosopher’s conversations with God. Dr. Jerry L. Martin, a lifelong agnostic. Dr. Martin served as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Colorado philosophy department, is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at AAR, and editor of Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative. Dr. Martin’s work has prepared him to become a serious reporter of God’s narrative, experiences, evolution, autobiography and sparks of wisdom. In addition to scholarly publications, Dr. Martin has testified before Congress on educational policy, appeared on “World News Tonight,” and other television news programs
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.
Ritualism and creeds have been overemphasized, and I am Myself partly to blame, since at one point those were the most important thing in the world to Me. I am hoping I can open their hearts to something new, without unduly disturbing their good and faithful practices.
Reveal-
“Lord, it sounds as if You want to announce a new revelation. In this day and age?”
I reveal things to people all the time in many different ways—in prayer, inspiration, intuition, ethical insight, even aesthetic response.
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God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher – is the true story of a philosopher’s conversations with God. Dr. Jerry L. Martin, a lifelong agnostic. Dr. Martin served as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Colorado philosophy department, is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at AAR, and editor of Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative. Dr. Martin’s work has prepared him to become a serious reporter of God’s narrative. As well as experiences, evolution, autobiography and sparks of wisdom.
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Listen to this and new series on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
One day, Jerry had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.
Abigail’s train had still not arrived. I paced back and forth, no longer seeing the other people in the station. What to think? What to feel? Finally, I forced a deep breath and, with irritation mitigated by resignation, asked, “Lord, what exactly do You want of me?”
The inner life of God? What it is like to be God? I didn’t know what this could possibly mean, but I forged on. “Lord, why is that important for us to know?”
Mankind sees God only from the outside and that leads to distortions in its view of God (as it would of anyone)—too distant, awesome, oppressive, Other. Even mystics are very one-sided. They experience oneness but that is not the same as empathizing with My subjective experiences.
Okay, I could see that, if God is too distant, it would be hard to relate to Him. But there was still a problem. “Lord, we think of God as being so infinite and ethereal that ‘subjective experience’ doesn’t even make sense.”
Although I am much more than a Person, I am a Person, a soul, like you. You—people—cannot relate properly, constructively, to Me unless you understand that. (Take) love, for example. My love comes across as impersonal, generic, oceanic wallowing, but (in fact) it is quite specific, concrete, with feeling, with response to the particulars of your being, of your life.
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God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher – is the true story of a philosopher’s conversations with the Divine. Dr. Jerry L. Martin, a lifelong agnostic. Dr. Martin served as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Colorado philosophy department, is the founding chairman of the Theology Without Walls group at AAR, and editor of Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative. Dr. Martin’s work has prepared him to become a serious reporter of God’s narrative, experiences, evolution, autobiography and sparks of wisdom. In addition to scholarly publications, Dr. Martin has testified before Congress on educational policy, appeared on “World News Tonight,” and other television news programs
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
Arms Length-
The next day, the words—“an instrument of revelation”—came to me. “Lord, is this what you want me to be?”
“What kind of revelation?”
First, I want you to model the spiritual life. Live it deeply. Theology is not just an intellectual exercise. It must be grounded in an intimate relationship with Me, an intimate openness to My Word.
“Aren’t I already open, Lord?”
You know the problem- you hold Me at arm’s length. And listen to Me only part of the time, and only partially, not as a whole person. Draw Me into yourself totally—live through Me—and let Me guide you totally.
“But that sounds miserable. I couldn’t have fun and enjoy life any more.”
This reminded me of saying a sad farewell, before getting married, to all I would be “giving up”—having my apartment as messy as I wanted, living on pizza, watching the Late Late Show. It’s amazing what a bachelor can cherish as the good life.
“Lord, what do You want me to do?”
It doesn’t mean you have to interrupt other things you’re doing. But I will be co-present and a co-participant. Try that now, as you eat your lunch.
“Okay, Lord.” I drew Him in and unwrapped my sandwich. “Let me share this with You, Lord.”
That day I ate lunch “with God.” But most days I do not.
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.
“I can only remember the two experiences. The first was the I-Thou with a drop of water.”
“I understood the subjectivity of all things … but I’m not sure that is quite right. I did not imagine the drop of water looking out at me or having feelings or the like. I just encountered the ‘suchness’ of it, its full independent integrity, my respect for it, that we were in some kind of relationship …”
Why not? Where else would I be? I am in everything. You suddenly became open to My presence in that drop of water. You did not think of it that way, and you were right. It is not that I as a great mystical being somehow inhabited this tiny object, but you rightly experienced the drop for what it was, and that is precisely how I am “in” things. As you can tell, I am in each thing “fully.”
That is a very significant experience, on a par with the great mystics and seers. You have had that sense of reality ever since. That was the foundation, or at least part of it, for your sense of piety with regard to the universe.
“Yes, I have always had the sense that somehow, even with all the suffering, everything is basically alright with the universe. Piety is respect or gratitude for the sources of one’s being. I felt that.”
I want you to come back to this experience from time to time. It has much to tell you. That is enough for now.
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.
Moved away-
“In the fifties, my family moved to Riverside, California, and we attended a Baptist church. We were taught that if you die as an infant, your soul automatically goes to heaven. They sure lucked out, I thought. Twelve is the age of reason and, after that, you go to hell unless you are saved. I had reached that dangerous age. I was on thin ice.
“About that time, my family went to a huge tent revival by Oral Roberts. The sermon was dramatic. The evangelist told about Judas betraying Jesus, and I can still picture him making a noose out of the microphone chord as he tearfully pleaded with Judas not to hang himself—“don’t do it, Judas, don’t do it”—and slowly placed the noose around his own neck and enacted the whole scene before our very eyes. I felt an urge to go forward and did so with the blessing of my parents.
“Afterwards, those of us who had come forward were directed to a side tent. A nice woman knelt and prayed with me. I felt nothing but the chill in the air. Nevertheless, like Pascal, I thought I had better cover my bets and was baptized.”
An epiphany is a moment of insight or revelation. My experience had subtracted insight.
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
One day Jerry had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.
My friend’s experience was in a more impressive setting than the two experiences I remembered from years ago. The first occurred when I was just a kid. One of my chores was watering the lawn. I had just finished running water in the shrubs and bent down to turn off the outdoor faucet. Don’t know why I lingered for a moment, crouching down, looking at the tap but, as I did, a last drop of water slowly formed on the bottom edge.
I looked at that drop of water in a way I had never looked at anything before. Saw it—how to describe it?—in its full presence, its suchness, its integrity as an independent existent in the community of being. When I later read in Buber about seeing Nature as a Thou, this experience came to mind. It was not as if the drop of water had a mind or soul or was looking back at me or anything like that. But I no longer saw it as merely an it, merely an item in the inventory of the universe. I saw the drop of water as, in a sense, a member of what Immanuel Kant calls the Kingdom of Ends—the community of all beings who should be respected as ends-in-themselves, not just means for the use of others. This is, of course, language I now use. I don’t know how I would have described the experience at the time. I was just a kid, after all, and the experience did not seem worth telling.
Profound Spiritual Effort-
I was struck by how “Jewish” it is. And I don’t just mean the obvious—that it is by Jews and about Jews. What had struck me is how realistic, feet-on-the-ground, unsentimental, non-ethereal the Jewish attitude to life is.
No matter what happened—I remember the cat knocking over a lamp—my great aunt Ruth, a very sweet and wonderful lady, had the same response: “Praise the Lord!” A school can burn down and a Christian might say, “Thank God it wasn’t a school day.” If it was school day, they would say, “Thank God it was during recess.”
When things are bad, they don’t pretend they are good. When they have a complaint, they voice it guiltlessly. They even argue with God and sometimes, as when Abraham persuades God to save Sodom if it contains “ten righteous men,” they win the argument.
The writings are from a time when Christians, like Jews before them, refused to bow to Roman gods and were viciously persecuted. “What a beautiful sight it is for God,” writes one, “when a Christian wrestles with pain; when he takes up the fight against threats, capital punishment, and torture; when smiling he mocks at the clatter of the tools of death and the horror of the executioner … For he is the victor who has reached the goal of his aspirations.”
Cut by scourges until the anatomy of the body was visible, even to the veins and arteries, they endured everything. Even the spectators pitied and bewailed them. The noble martyrs of Christ attained such towering strength of soul that not one of them uttered a cry or groan. They proved to all of us that in the hour of their torture they were free of the body, or rather that the Lord himself stood by them and talked with them.”
“It is our wish to be martyred for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and so be saved.”
“Lord, is this early Christian extremism justified? Isn’t it too other-worldly?”
“The desire to die?”
They went through extraordinary suffering—so great it is almost shameful for you to question it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the course of worldly renunciation and love, but it is not required (of all). Some must fight and defend the others. But it was a corrective, a balancing to Old Testament war, conquest, and vengeance.
“You mean ‘unrelenting’ love?”
Yes—unselfish, sharing, uninhibited love.
“If that is long time off, then whatever is done by people living now will not be directly related to—in fact, will be irrelevant to—bringing it about.” I found this thought distressing. What we do won’t matter.
History has to be lived through. You can’t start out at the final chapter. What happens in Chapter Three is just as important.
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Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.