Theology Discussion Group

First and third Thursdays, 12:00–1:30 PM, Chefo’s Pancake House in Kimberly and via zoom

Do you have faith questions? Would you like a place to talk more about your spiritual questions with other adults in a supportive way? This group meets twice a month to discuss questions, ponder readings and explore our faith over lunch. Come join us.

How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others,

by T. M. Luhrmann. 2020. 256 pp.  

Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion, T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work very hard to make gods real, and that this

effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them  the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann describes the strenuous and sustained efforts believers make to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real…including detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices.