Reimagining God: The Faith Journey of a Modern Heretic

by Lloyd Geering

Described by the BBC as “the last living heretic,” Lloyd Geering has spent much of his life wrestling with God. Of late, however, he finds himself struggling with the absence of God. The rise of nonreligious, secular culture around the world testifies that he is not alone, that the concept of God has become problematical. Should God be abandoned altogether? Can God be reformed, so to speak?

Drawing from theology, science and his own faith journey—from his call to ministry, through his much-publicized heresy trial, to decades of public speaking, teaching and writing, Geering retraces key developments in the Western understanding of God. He imagines a new spirituality, one that blends a relationship to the natural world with a celebration of the rich inheritance of human culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2014

About the author

Sir Lloyd George Geering ONZ GNZM CBE is a New Zealand theologian who faced charges of heresy in 1967 for his controversial views. He considers Christian and Muslim fundamentalism to be "social evils". Geering is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He turned 100 in February 2018.

Reviews

[Judith Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am amazed that this 98 year old New Zealand minister and seminarian has been speaking and writing about Christianity with new eyes since at least the 1950's. He was even tried for heresy in 1967 for daring to suggest that Jesus did not rise bodily from the tomb. (He was somehow left in good standing.) This book is a collection of his writings and speeches from 1992 until 2010. He speaks cogently and powerfully to me. Just a few quotes to give a flavor of his positions: The church must surrender the belief in divine revelation.. All knowledge, not only scientific but also moral and religious, remains human in origin and nature...[After Jesus' death] did the attention shift from the message to the messenger, with the result that the messenger became the message..
He is very concerned about the environment and how humans are destroying it.
He does have hope for the future of the earth but it is founded on the the belief that all of mankind can be united with a common purpose. I am not so hopeful.

[Bo Gordy-Stith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where to From Here

This collection of Geering’s lectures offers both deconstruction of the idolatry of supernatural monotheism and a constructive vision of the emerging possibility of a shared global dedication to and awe of life (ecological, biological, and sociological). Geering traces the foundations of this reformation from St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) - then through a succession of mentors (Feuerbach, Jung, and Tielhard chief among them).

Having read several of Geering’s books (Christianity Without God, Coming Back to Earth, and Tomorrow’s God), I was drawn to this one as a summary of Geering’s thought and constructive proposal. The problem involves getting from here to there. In his chapter (1996 lecture) on idolatry, Geering quotes Kirsopp Lake’s 1925 prediction that the Church would “shrink from left to right” (“strong in conviction, but spiritually arrogant and intellectually ignorant”). Nearly a century later, this shrinkage in the west (and explosion in the East, Africa, and South America) is what we’re seeing.

Kirsopp, who wrote “The Religion of Yesterday and Tomorrow” the year of the Scopes Monkey Trial, wrote that Experimentalists who explored “new forms or expressions of the Christian faith that were more relevant to the current cultural and intellectual climate” had difficulty establishing a “viable identity.” Progressive Christians struggle with this identity crisis, which makes deconstructive options such as atheism look like the only intellectually honest game in town. Yet for anyone (like Geering, certainly) who gets that there is substance to the gods/God idea (e.g., God is love), atheism can only burn the human village to save it.

So though Geering does not map out how, this collection of lectures traces the outline of a new story of hope and possibility that might be forming in the maelstrom of intellectual and spiritual change in which we live. He does not hope for a new prophet rising up to save us, but a gathering network of global spirituality evolving as “more people become alert to the common threats and dangers ahead.” I finished this book in the seventh week of our American quarantine during the global Covid 19 pandemic.

Geering writes: “Out of a growing shared experience, human creativity may collectively rise to the occasion.” Amen to that.

[Barbara Ahlquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I usually get to where I'm going by walking away from where I am." - Winnie the Pooh
This is basically what I hear Lloyd Geering saying in this studied, thought provoking examination of religion--where it came from and where it is going.

The main take-away that I gained from Reimagining God is that if the human species is to survive we must recognize our total dependence upon nature, not God. Our focus must be in learning to live "in peace with one another and in harmony with the natural forces of the planet." Religious rituals of the future must celebrate the wonder of the universe and the mystery of life and be devoid of "authoritarianism, exclusivism, patriarchal character, otherworldliness, sexism, slave mentality, and condemnation." A new spiritually must focus on fellowship, hospitality, concern for the common good and goals for a nobler future.

Geering says that if such a spirituality comes (and he believes it is currently evolving), "it will rise spontaneously out of the common human predicament simply because its time has come." He ends the book with a list of Practical Premises of Ecological Spirituality which he believes must exist if humanity is to exist at all.

[Valerie Cottrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best “Theology” book!

The best “theology” book I have ever read! I would recommend it to everyone who has a deep interest in tearing away the fabrications of Church and society and discovering the truth about religion.

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the fundamentalist this is not interesting, as terms get redefined. But for the one in a faith crisis, this might be just the gift they need: it shows a way out, without having to throw away God, faith or religion.

[William Nist · Rating 5 out of 5]

The remarkable little book by the venerable dean of New Zealander theologians, traces the concept of God from prehistory till today. Geering simply describes the great divide in the Christian west in 1800 when Schleirmacher published a book "On Religion" that would institute the rupture between progressive and fundamental Christians the persists even to our era. He then goes on to address the influence of Ludwig Feuerback, Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin and John Robinsion on our concept of God.

It is how we have adjusted to the thought of these individuals that have transported us to our de-mythologized world. We can now look on how we created God, the foundation of ethics, the persistence of idolatry, and finally a Christianity without a Christ, while contemplating a future religion based the the sacred web of life, the ecological landscape and the theory of everything.

A tour de force. Elegant, informative, honest. (so what if its heretical!)

[Geoff Glenister · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this excellent work, Geering traces the history of modern critical scholarship surrounding the Christian faith, in order to demonstrate how Christianity is changing and must change in our modern times. He does this by dedicating a chapter each to a number of important figures. Later on in the book, he gives a summary of the history of the concept of God. This is an excellent book for anyone who has struggled with faith, is struggling with faith, or wants to understand people who have struggled with their faith and ended up in a place that might be referred to as a "liberal" or "progressive", skeptical version of faith. And I would also recommend this to atheists and agnostics, as it demonstrates that not all who have not completely thrown out religion or spirituality's usefulness are superstitious, premodern fools.