Posts tagged when god talks back
What I was fascinated by, was that when people would enter the church, they’d say, ‘I don’t know what people are talking about. God doesn’t talk to me.’ And then they would try praying in this interactive, free-form imagination-rich kind of way, and after six months, they would start to say that they recognize God’s voice the way they recognize their mom’s voice on the phone.
Anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann observed people who attend a Vineyard church in California. There congregants were taught to discern thoughts coming from their imagination with thoughts that were coming directly from God. (via nprfreshair)
Sense of Presence Forum
T. M. Luhrmann’s website has an anonymous forum to post “unusual experiences,” especially those related to the subject of her new book on modern evangelicals. Do you have anything to share?
From our Q&A with T. M. Luhrmann, about her book When God Talks Back
- Knopf: What was the biggest surprise to you in your research?
- Luhrmann: I was startled by how real God could be for people—that some people were really able to experience God as an intimate friend, and sometimes even feel God’s touch or hear God’s voice. When people say that they heard God speak, it’s not just something they are saying to show how religious they are. They really experience themselves as interacting. And I was blown away to realize that they learn to experience God as real by talking to God about the little things—like what shampoo to buy.
