Author Archives: Gregg Monteith

Deep Work (120)

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In this episode John and Gregg discuss John’s reading of Deep Work, by Cal Newport. A recent interview with Cal Newport is found on the Productivityist Podcast.

John wonders specifically about how the themes and concerns of the book relate to Christianity and lack of depth / thought in one’s beliefs. The author offers a philosophical argument for depth (or concentration that leads to “deep work”) and examines how “notions of sacredness and meaning have evolved though human culture.”

Referring to Descartes the author quotes All Things Shining (by Dreyfus and Kelly), that the thinking individual who seeks certain knowledge essentially trumps truth offered by kings or by God.  John wonders if this seems a fair presentation / how we are best to understand Descartes.
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Bible Pastiche (118)

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In this episode John and Gregg recap their discussion from last episode with long-time listener Anna.

John explains that he felt greatly encouraged to hear Anna’s story, despite the fact that Anna has experienced setbacks and that there certainly has been no “happy ending” in it for Anna.

Gregg also values the discussion with Anna and describes her story as “true to life,” particularly in the sense that he and John have had so many interactions with Anna over the past several years and yet the experiences that Anna highlights and the perspectives that she offers have a consistency that Gregg believes offers them a high degree of credibility.

Upon reflection John explains that he resonates most with the fact that Anna does not present a “success story” about her relationship with God but rather describes a relationship filled with various successes and failures, connections and disconnections (with both God and others). So despite the differences that John sees between his own experiences and those of Anna, John seems a number of commonalities.
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Anna’s Story | Interpreting Experience (117)

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In this episode John and Gregg connect with long-time listener “Anna.”

Anna was the first Untangling Christianity listener to respond with feedback to John and Gregg and has been listening for over 2 years now.  Anna explains how she was listening to many podcasts about Christianity at that time but responded to John and Gregg because she found them to be “approachable.”

Anna describes her own Christian situation as having had some remarkably intimate and compelling experiences of God’s presence, and yet finding other Christians unable (or unwilling) to accept that Anna’s experiences are valid.

More difficult still, Anna explains how these experiences have stopped, and how she longs to feel re-connected with God in this way (and lonely because of this absence).

Being Right Might be Wrong (116)

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In this episode John and Gregg follow-up to last week’s episode “You’re Wrong Unless You Have the Right Emotional Response” which discussed a popular post by Dr. Everett Piper’s titled “This is not a daycare. This is a university.”

John kicks this episode off by expressing concern that Dr. Piper’s letter so strongly emphasizes the view that “we (the university, the church, etc.) are right, you are wrong.” John wonders, in fact, what motives or orientations are operative such that someone wants so strongly to convey that s/he is right (and to convince others of this rightness).

Gregg raises the notion that, in his experience, Christians believe that the must follow / imitate the positive, biblical examples of Jesus’ followers (such as Paul on Mars Hill, in Acts 17) and the admonitions of biblical writes (such the indication that Christians should always be prepared to explain / defending their faith, in 1 Peter 3:15).

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