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. 39 Heart Burnin’, Still Yearnin’: The Future of Faith w/ Brian Zahnd
Ep. 38: Recovering From Evangelicalism: The 5 Noble Truths of Deconstruction
Ep. 37: Deconstructing Trumpism with CNN’s Kirsten Powers
Ep. 36: Reflecting on Season 1
BONUS: Cussing, Smoking, & Tattoos—Oh My! w/ The Space Between & Uncertain
Ep. 35: Do I Have Religious Trauma? w/ Dr. Laura Anderson
Ep. 34: When Racism and Compassion Collide (pt. 2) w/ Deconstructing Black
Ep. 33: When Racism and Compassion Collide (pt. 1) w/ Deconstructing Black
Bonus: Responding to Joshua Harris & “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” w/ Uncertain Podcast & The New Evangelicals
Ep. 32: The Discipleship of Decolonization w/ Ched Myers
Ep. 31: Reclaiming Christian Politics w/ Charlie McCallie
Ep. 30: Does the Evangelical Church Need to Die? w/ The New Evangelicals (Tim Whitaker)
Ep. 29: Why Purity Culture Doesn’t Work (in More Ways Than One) w/ Talk Purity to Me (Blair)
Ep. 28: “Don’t Hurt the Witness of the Church” w/ That Loud Deconstructing One (Julia)
Ep. 27: Is God in Control? w/ Dr. Thomas Oord
Ep. 26: Rejecting Patriarchy, Finding Deeper Faith w/ Kelly Lamb
Ep. 25: Finding God in Wild Places w/ Dr. Belden C. Lane
Ep. 24: Liberation, Belonging, & Coming Out w/ Flamy Grant & Ben Grace (Heathen Podcast)
Ep. 23: Bad Religion, Shame, & Community w/ Anissa & Karyn (Heathen Podcast)
Ep. 22: Nourishing Your Soul with Reina Rose
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