In this program, we watched and discussed a selected TED talk. TED talks follow a unique format. Speakers at TED events have a maximum of 18 minutes to share their messages, which are delivered in highly polished, succinct speeches. TED talks are delivered by people from all walks of life on a multitude of subjects. A great many of these talks are about the insights gained by ordinary people–insights gained through extraordinary experiences or based on their contemplation of the ordinary events of their lives. Either way, their insights are genuine—not based upon theory or dogma, but through experience.
Add This Program to Your Calendar
*To add this program to your calendar click the three dots in the upper right-hand corner, then Copy, and then click Save.
The title of this Ted talk is “When God Talks Back” by Tanya Luhrmann.
Anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann’s research on the Evangelical relationship with God has led to astonishing discoveries about those who say they hear God speak to them, literally. For some, this intimate relationship with God includes putting out an extra cup of coffee for Him. Luhrmann explores how rational, sensible people of faith experience the presence of an invisible being and sustain that belief in an environment of skepticism. Tanya Marie Luhrmann is the Watkins University Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department. Luhrmann’s work focuses on the way that objects without material presence come to seem real to people, and the way that ideas about the mind affect mental experience. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003 and received a John Guggenheim Fellowship award in 2007. When God Talks Back was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. It also was awarded the 2014 Grawemeyer Award for the best book in religion, from the University of Louisville and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
This group was facilitated by Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert.
