Metamodern Spirituality Brendan Graham Dempsey

Integrative thinker Layman Pascal joins me to talk about the meaning of "God" from a metamodern perspective. How does thinking in terms of "surplus cohesion" point us to a helpful way of relating to all the meanings of the term? Why and when is a 2nd person relationship with Reality warranted? Who is this Face in the Universe summoning us to greater communion and transcendence? How do we communicate about all this across the various memetic sensemaking structures of culture (traditional, modern, postmodern metamodern)? Finally, what can folks expect about the upcoming metamodern spirituality gathering on the topic, which will be hosted at Sky Meadow in May and led by Layman?



0:00 Introduction

1:21 Layman's "Surplus Cohesion" Framework

4:48 God as Ultimate Reality in the 2nd Person

9:52 The Face of the Universe: Seeking the 2nd Person in the Complexity Stack

16:27 Some Framing: Reality as Dynamic Becoming, Not Static Being

21:36 Reflecting on the Alpha and the Omega: Problematizing the "Creator" Image

27:46 But Is This Still God? Communicating across Memetic Tribes

37:22 "Real in What Way?" across Levels of Memetic Complexity

45:05 Summarizing a Metamodern Sort of God

47:06 "God" in Quotation Marks: Moving beyond Totality

52:10 The God Encounter

1:08:12 The Divine Other

1:13:33 Praxis: Courting Visio Divina

1:16:41 Pluralistic Mysticism

1:23:10 Trinity as Dynamic Architectonic Plurality

1:27:08 Naturalism and Metaphysics

1:30:46 God is Love

1:37:20 Talking about "The G Word"

1:39:40 The Upcoming Metamodern Spirituality Lab on "God" at Sky Meadow (May 24-26)



More on the metamodern spirituality lab at www.skymeadowinstitute.org

Process theologian Jay McDaniel joins me to discuss the contributions of process thought to the Christian tradition. What points of similarity and dissimilarity are there between process thinking and traditional, modern, and postmodern lenses?



0:00 Introduction

1:06 What Does Theology Look Like from a "Process" Lens?



Relationship with Traditional Faith

5:44 A Feeling, Responding God

8:40 Not All-Powerful

14:40 A Dynamic, Living Whole



Relationship with Modern Thought

19:41 The Naturalistic Paradigm and (the) Beyond

24:30 A Theology of Organism and Complexity

29:30 "God" as Counter-Entropic Lure and Preserver of Good

39:33 A Modern Gestalt for Christianity?

49:31 Looking Forward, Not Back

54:52 The Pathos of God



Relationship with Postmodern Thought

1:04:38 Play, Beauty, Reality



Relationship with Metamodernism

1:10:33 Lineages, Legacies, and Futures



1:14:40 Conclusion

Here I lay out my conception of what a metamodern version of Christianity looks like. Drawing on the insights of all the previous cultural paradigms, the revelation of God's nature and the deepening quality of the relationship between God and man can be understood as progressing through a series of covenants/dispensations that map to a learning process unfolding through time. Such a perspective helps us non-arbitrarily coordinate tribal, imperial, traditional, modern, and postmodern conceptions of God that have manifested across sacred history. All of these are necessary and contribute to a coherent story of deepening understanding about and relationship with the ever-transcendent Divine.



0:00 Introduction

0:56 "Metamodern"

5:50 "Christianity"

9:00 Sacred History as Learning and Expansion

11:43 Dynamics of Learning: Assimilation and Accomodation

16:47 Learning as Complexification of Thought

18:04 The Revelation of God as a Learning Process

24:34 1. The Sacred Relationship in the Tribal Epoch

26:12 2. Relationship with God in the Monarchy

29:02 3. Deepening Divine Relationship in the Prophets and Gospels

31:10 Recap: The Arc of Learning God Better

33:41 4. Revelation in the Modern Era

40:05 5. The Way of Jesus in Postmodernity

42:09 6. Metamodern Christianity: Embracing All Stages of Revelation

53:37 Conclusion

In this episode, I assume the modern historical-critical perspective with pastor and 'This Little Corner of the Internet' thinker Paul VanderKlay to explore the tension points it has with the traditional-devotional lens--and to consider if and how these impasses might be transcended. Does history matter to faith and to the faithful? If so, how, when, and why? Can we avoid equivocating discussions around the "reality" of Christianity? How crucial is the nonrational? Overall, we rehearse what challenges the traditional approach to Christianity faces as it develops into modern expressions and interpretations on the way towards a metamodern instantiation.



0:00 Introduction

0:55 The "God Pivot" and Metamodernism: The Missing Modern

7:39 How Does Faith Relate to Modern & Postmodern Critical Approaches?

24:30 The Reality of Religion in Different Psycho-Social Contexts

36:18 Reality vs. History: Language as Metaphor or Fact

52:38 Worldview, Rationality, and Projection

1:04:28 "Spirit": False Substance Reification vs. Real Transjective Relationality

1:07:22 Avoiding Equivocation and Taking Modern Science Seriously

1:20:59 Pragmatic and Developmental Hermeneutics

1:44:16 Nonrationality and the Meaning Crisis

1:59:15 Different Metamodern Spiritual Arcs: The Theological is Personal

2:16:00 Conclusion

In this episode, I offer my own take on the "God Pivot" towards Christianity in the Intellectual Dark Web and adjacent communities (e.g., the liminal web, "This Corner of the Internet," and beyond). Reflecting on my recent interview with Jordan Hall, I see something glaringly absent from the broader conversation: the modern historical-critical perspective. Therefore, I ask: 1) How does the Traditional-Devotional perspective differ from the Modern Historical-Critical one with regard to the Old and New Testaments? 2) What might a metamodern Christianity look like that could successfully and syngergistically toggle between these different lenses to yield something progressive and robust?



0:00 Introduction

4:40 Hermeneutic Lenses: The Traditional-Devotional and Modern Historical-Critical Perspectives

7:46 Old Testament: Traditional-Devotional

13:13 Old Testament: Modern Historical-Critical

32:01 New Testament: Traditional-Devotional

37:53 New Testament: Modern Historical-Critical

47:58 Implications and Synthesis

Following a recent conversion to Christianity, Jordan Hall offers his perspective on the Christian worldview, its orienting beliefs and how they inform (and affirm) ways of being in the world. Brendan brings his own background of being raised in and and leaving the church to the conversation, trying to gain deeper understanding about how one can affirm Christian doctrine in the context of a metamodern world.



0:00 Introduction

2:47 Faith and Understanding: Christian Propositional vs. Participatory Knowing

15:36 Beyond a "Religion vs. Reason" Debate

20:26 Jordan's Reasons to Believe: Scripture, History, 1st Person Experience*

30:36 Jordan Not Impressed by Naturalistic Challenge to the Resurrection

35:56 Notions of Gospel and Sin: Faith Changing Behavior --- For Good or Ill

41:53 Jordan's Rejection of Naturalism and His Faith in Christian Historicity and Ontology

52:21 (Brendan Has a Lot of Responses He Won't Get Into in This Context)

53:07 Self-Confirming Faith: Reciprocal Opening in Other Faiths?

1:02:32 Excursus: Historicity and Hermeneutics of the Doctrine of the Trinity

1:08:52 Self-Confirming Faith: Pathologies in Self-Justifying Beliefs

1:16:20 Self-Confirming Faith: Participatory Knowing and Confirmation Bias

1:27:53 Conclusion