T.M. Luhrmann. When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012.
T.M. Lurhmann is a psychological anthropologist. She attended
Harvard and Cambridge, and she now teaches at Stanford University. She
says that she would not call herself a Christian (page 325), but she
spent time at the charismatic Vineyard church to learn about Christians
who claim to hear from God. These Christians were aware that they were a
part of her study. See here for information about other studies that she has done.
Here are some items from When God Talks Back that interested me:
1. Luhrmann tells the story of Lonnie Frisbee, a hippie preacher who
was prominent in Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard church. I am familiar
with Calvary Chapel because I have listened to a lot of Calvary Chapel
sermons over the years for my weekly quiet times in the Bible. And I
know about Vineyard on account of its music, acquaintances who have
attended Vineyard churches, and my own visit to a Vineyard church in my
church shopping days. Lonnie Frisbee reached a lot of people, but,
according to many tellings of his story, he was expunged from the
history of Calvary Chapel and Vineyard when it was learned that he was
gay. Luhrmann’s telling of this story interested me so much, that I
decided to watch the 2005 documentary Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher.
One person on the documentary denied that Vineyard expunged Lonnie
Frisbee from its history, even though the interviewer pointed out to him
that Lonnie was not mentioned by name in a book by the founder of
Vineyard, but was simply called a “young man.” The documentary also
showed Chuck Smith—-the head of Calvary Chapel—-preaching at Frisbee’s
funeral, offending attendees by saying that Frisbee did not live up to
his potential. Throughout the documentary, conservative Christians were
wrestling with how God could use someone so powerfully, when that
person engaged in homosexual activity.
2. When God Talks Back largely attempts to explain and
account for the religious experiences of charismatic Christians who
claim to hear from God. These religious experiences include people
hearing the voice of God in their head, or sometimes even hearing an
audible voice; it may also include feeling a presence. In some cases,
God tells the person information that the person later learns is
correct. Part of the explanation for such experiences is the way that
the people who have them are: people who are especially empathetic and
who can find themselves intensely absorbed in a storyline from a book or
movie are the types who are more likely to have those kinds of
religious experiences. But people can also train themselves to have
them. There is Ignatian prayer, in which a person uses his or her
imagination to become a part of a biblical story. A person can have a
picnic with God and share with God like God is an actual person. There
are books about how one can identify the voice of God in one’s head: if
you have a thought that is different from the thoughts that you usually
have, then it might be from God. Luhrmann also contrasts hearing God
with mental illness, saying that the former usually brings peace
(especially if a person believes in a benevolent God), whereas the
latter is much more negative. Luhrmann still explores the possibility
that hearing the voice of God may be a symptom of schizophrenia, without
actually indicating that the person having the experience has
schizophrenia.
3. Luhrmann also brings up religious experiences throughout history:
Jesus’ disciples experiencing the risen Jesus, people seeing the
Lubavitcher Rebbe after he had died, Augustine hearing a voice telling
him to read the Scripture, etc.
4. I enjoyed the stories and case studies in the book. I especially
appreciated the story about a Christian lady who worked early in the
mornings at the gas station, and she was annoyed at the people who came
in. One morning, someone came in wanting cigarettes, and the Christian
lady went to get them. The Christian lady heard God say that this
customer is made in God’s image, and so she should have respect for her.
5. Luhrmann was in a small group, and she relates that, while she
was interested in academic questions about the Bible (i.e., date of the
text’s composition, why something was written as it was, the concerns of
the community that composed the document, etc.), people in her group
were usually interested in spiritual questions—-what does the text tell
them about their relationship with God? I was wondering why one
couldn’t explore both! I liked when Luhrmann told about one person in
the group who was quite sympathetic when Luhrmann asked academic
questions. He did not have religious experiences of hearing from God,
and he learned to accept that. He was still respected within his
Vineyard community, though. I can picture the type: the dry, ironic
personality!
6. Luhrmann had some interesting insights about therapy. She said
that a therapeutic breakthrough occurs when the patient realizes that
the therapist has feet of clay, but that he or she (the patient) is
still profiting from the therapy. This resonated with me, as someone
who has wondered what exactly I should be getting out of therapy, has
seen my therapists as god-like, and has also recognized that my
therapists have feet of clay.
If I have any disagreement with the book, it is that I think that
Lurhmann depicts the Vineyard people as having a pet God, one who is
loving but not tough. I agree that many evangelicals tend to ignore the
hard passages of Scripture, and perhaps that is true of some in
Vineyard. But there may also be a tough element to their God’s
personality. I have heard more than once that, at Vineyard churches,
people are told not to take communion unless they have reconciled with
their neighbor. That is pretty tough, in my opinion!
Excellent book!