Risking the Questions podcast: An evolving God

A woman stands with her arms outstretched, facing a coast in this photo illustration. (Unsplash/Nathan McBride)

(Unsplash/Nathan McBride)

This is a conversation, based on a talk developed and refined over years, in which Sr. Joan Chittister describes how, in a life dedicated to serving God, neither God nor her idea of God remained static.

In the talk, she notes that belief in God is not an exceptional matter. "Every people on earth, in fact, has come to the juncture where only God is an answer to questions for which there are no answers. … It is not the idea of God that sets us apart in the history of humanity. It is the kind of God in which we choose to believe that in the end makes all the difference."

So what kind of God does she believe in today? And how did she come to that understanding?

Joan takes us from her experience of God as a youngster alone in a church to her rejection of the all-male stereotype of a God imagined by men to a God that can't be contained or boxed or fit into convenient descriptions.

Light shines upon pews in a church interior. (Unsplash/Channel 82)

(Unsplash/Channel 82)

Leaning on the sixth-century wisdom of St. Benedict, her order's founder, she states: "He says, in essence, you really don't have to worry about searching for God. You have God. We're all born with God. Why? Because we're born of God." Deep in her own tradition, she finds fascinating new ways of understanding and imagining God with us today.

"Risking the Questions" is a joint project of Benetvision and NCR. This podcast has been made possible in part by the generosity of Bill and Jeanne Buchanan.

How to Listen

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This story appears in the Risking the Questions feature series. View the full series.

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