Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
Episode Summary:
Do you feel spiritually and physically domesticated? Are you struggling to free yourself from the long-term impacts of spiritual colonization? Do you feel disconnected from the natural world? Are you longing for something more than merely reconstruction? If so, spiritual rewilding might be the next step in your faith seeking journey.
Though an environmental term—meaning letting nature take care of itself and referring to conservation strategies that reintroduce species to their natural environment, restore wilderness areas and the land to its original state, and create corridors to connect these lands and species with each other—rewilding is a concept that just makes sense at a soul level.
The faith deconstruction movement has provided an unprecedented opportunity to rediscover the untamable within, to decolonize our souls, and to free ourselves from a fenced-in faith domesticated by dogma, ideology, whiteness, patriarchy, power, purity culture, and rationalism. We have the opportunity to trade in our certainty for wonder and our literalism for mystery. As stewards of a once-wild faith that has all but been domesticated, we have a duty to free our faith from some of the repressive, world-denying, and destructive practices that have facilitated our spiritual stagnation.
This episode with Holy Heretics host Gary Alan Taylor is an introduction to spiritual rewilding through the re-introduction of indigenous spirituality and Creation-centered Christianity. Along the way, we’ll look back at the history of our faith tradition and find examples of how our spiritual ancestors responded to spiritual domestication through their pursuit of a primeval faith.
Bio:
Gary Alan is the host and co-creator of Holy Heretics Podcast. He spent the first-half of his life in evangelicalism before beginning his faith deconstruction journey in 2020. He started Holy Heretics and The Sophia Society with his friend Melanie to serve the thousands of other individuals leaving toxic Christianity. Gary Alan has an undergraduate degree in History from Milligan University and a Master of Arts degree from East Tennessee State University. An international speaker, content creator, and writer, Gary Alan has over 26 years experience working in nonprofit ministry and higher education. He is in recovery from fundamentalist Christianity and his passion is to see others free themselves from toxic expressions of faith. He and his family live in Monument, Colorado and he works for the University of Colorado.
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Show notes:
http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/rewilding-christianity
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This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor. Music is by Faith in Foxholes.
Ep. 76: FKD Up By Faith w/Jude Mills and Gary Alan Taylor
Ep. 75: Faith and Mental Illness: What I’ve Seen in Dark Places w/Anna Gazmarian
Ep. 74: My Life and Faith After Evangelicalism w/Jonathan Merritt
Ep. 72: Nice Churchy Patriarchy w/ Liz Cooledge Jenkins
Ep. 71: Reconstruct Faith Your Way w/ Angela J. Herrington
Ep. 70 This is the Way: Contemplative Christianity w/ Father Brendan Williams
Ep. 69 We Don’t Have to Live This Way w/ Derrick Jensen
Ep. 68 Finding Your True Self w/ Heather Hamilton
Ep. 67 What is Christian Mysticism? w/ Keith Giles
Ep. 66 Saving Democracy From Her Christian Enemies w/ Dr. David Gushee
Ep. 65 Jaded: A Reckoning with White Evangelicalism w/ Marla Taviano
Ep. 64: What Are God’s Pronouns? w/ Gary Alan Taylor
Ep. 63: God Our Mother w/ Gary Alan Taylor
Ep. 62: Resisting American Apartheid w/ Dr. Miguel De La Torre
Ep. 61: We Resist: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance w/ Gary Alan Taylor
Ep. 60 (Part Two): Transgender and Christian? w/ Natalie Drew
Ep. 60: Transgender and Christian? w/ Natalie Drew
Ep. 59: Queer Jesus w/ Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk
Ep. 58: Becoming Fully Human w/ Barbara Brown Taylor
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