Coming Back to Earth
Discussion Questions

Chapter 13 — handout

1. What made Ernest Renan’s The Life of Jesus so controversial? What elements of Geering’s description of that book should remind one of this book?
2. If “spirit” can no longer be understood as the name of a substance or thing, (p. 192), how can one justify the continued use of the word?
3. Explain Geering’s distinction between the substance of a religion and its practice.
4. What does he mean by saying that Buber secularized all God-talk (p. 196)?
5. Why do the words “synagogue” and “church” suggest a secular component of religion?
6. Can you accept the paradox of a “secular spirituality” that involves a “mystical relationship with the earth” (p. 200)?
7. Explain how the conclusion of this lecture prepares for the following one, which was written over a year later.