Overview of the Journey

As you read the chapter, note the following transitions:

• The introductory challenge to objectivity and modernity
• The spiritual exercise
• The ambiguities of God language
• The proposal for a “personalized universe”
• The three characterizations of the dynamics of the universe
• Ways postmodernism de-centers the conversation
• The relationship between Jesus’ teachings and disparate presence
• Addressing evil, pain, and suffering
• Biblical scholarship’s shyness in making meaning

Discussion Questions — Printout

1. Taussig describes his own life of prayer as a major dimension of his participation in what he alternately calls “a personal universe,” “God,” or “a godless personal universe.” Do you pray (or meditate) in order to involve yourself with the universe or God? Why or why not?
2. Read John Bell’s prayer again (p. 149). What are its possibilities and limitations for you?
3. Taussig says that he prays to flowers, sunlight, and paintings, but prefers generally not to think of them as “God.” What are the advantages and disadvantages of using God language in spiritual exercises like this?
4. Is there a difference for you between looking at something in nature or art and praying? If so, what is that difference?
5. What words of poets, prophets, teachers and other writers help you understand who you are and what life means?
6. What does it mean to say that the universe is personal?
7. Are there differences between affirming a “personal God,” “a personal universe,” and “a godless personal universe”? If so, what are they?
8. How do Swimme and Berry's description of the three basic characteristics of the universes (pp. 153–54) relate to Christian understandings of God?
9. What do you think of Michel Foucault’s and Jacques Derrida’s assertion that every articulation about objective truth reflects an inherent “power interest” of the one who proposes to know objective truth? How much or little does such thirst for power by those who would know the truth make reliable knowledge impossible?
10. What are the similarities Taussig sees between the “disparate presence” he experiences in his prayer/meditation and Jesus’ teachings about the “basileia of God”?
11. What is Taussig’s position on whether “disparate presence” can triumph over evil, pain, and suffering? What is yours?
12. Why does Taussig commend Robert Funk’s 1985 appeal for “a new fiction” in scholarship about Jesus? Do you seek fiction or fact about Jesus? Why?

Class Exercises

• Take a walk and repeat Taussig’s meditation/prayer exercise for yourself. (Use the language of John Bell, Augustine, William Laud, or Francis of Assisi.) Return and discuss whether you experienced a “disparate presence” in the objects which you addressed with the words of Bell, Augustine, Laud, or Francis of Assisi. What differences are there between your experience of the objects you addressed and your experience (or lack of) of God?
• Many twenty-first century thinkers characterize God as “energy” or “force.” Other, more traditional thinkers characterize God as a “person.” Divide the class into those who think of God as energy or force, those who think of God as person, those who do not believe in God, and those who are basically unsure about God. Taussig “disparate presence” sometimes appears personal (in that one seems to “pray” to it), sometimes seems something other than God (in that it is compared to “a godless personal universe), and sometimes seems like a force or energy. Have each of the four groups respond to the idea of “disparate presence” and how much it is like or different than the group’s position about God.

Theological terms for consideration — handout

• presence
• God
• prayer
• universe
• communion
• subjectivity
• glory

Religious leaders for consideration — handout

• Thomas Berry (1914–)
• Mary Oliver (1935–)
• Karen L. King
• Pierre Teihard de Chardin (1881–1955)
• Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–)
• David Tracy
• Sallie McFague (1933–)

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