On Being with Krista Tippett
Barbara Brown Taylor — “This Hunger for Holiness”
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Finding joy in the present moment and cherishing everyday experiences.
- Embracing the discomfort of the wilderness for personal growth and spiritual deepening.
- Striving for a balance between tradition and innovation in the evolving landscape of faith.
Deep dives
Rediscovering the Joy in Life
Barbara Brown Taylor emphasizes the importance of staying in the present moment and finding joy in the everyday. She shares her own experiences of being fully present in her local community and cherishing the small moments that bring meaning and connection. Taylor also reflects on the evolving nature of God and spirituality, noting that the divine can be found in the ordinary aspects of life.
The Value of Wilderness
Taylor discusses the significance of wilderness and how it provides an opportunity for self-discovery and transformation. She explores the biblical stories of the Israelites in the wilderness and Jesus' time of testing, highlighting the lessons of humility, dependence, and trust that can be learned in those challenging spaces. Taylor also encourages embracing the unknown and the discomfort of the wilderness as a means of personal growth and spiritual deepening.
Emptying and Evolving Faith
Taylor reflects on the changing landscape of faith and the decline of traditional church institutions. She acknowledges the struggles and disillusionment that many people have with organized religion, but also invites a shift towards a leaner, more subsistence spirituality that embraces the present moment and remains open to the unfolding mysteries of life. Taylor emphasizes the importance of finding a balance between tradition and innovation, where the church can continue to serve as a source of community and guidance.
The Sacredness of the Everyday
Taylor shares her love for the sacramental quality of ordinary life and the deep reverence that can be found in daily rituals and actions. She discusses the power of small acts of kindness and the recognition of the divine within the mundane. Taylor highlights the significance of paying attention to the present moment, finding gratitude in the simplest of experiences, and cultivating a sense of awe and wonder in the world around us.
The Mystery of God's Presence
Taylor explores the evolving nature of her understanding of God and the mystery of divine presence. She describes her personal practice of creating a small altar and engaging in contemplative prayer, where she feels a profound connection to the divine within herself and in the world. Taylor emphasizes the deep intimacy and closeness of God, which she experiences as an ever-present presence that permeates every aspect of life.
"I like it much better than ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ — to be a seeker after the sacred or the holy, which ends up for me being the really real."
– Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor
From Krista, about this week's show:
It's fascinating to trace the arc of spiritual searching and religious belonging in my lifetime. The Episcopal priest and public theologian Barbara Brown Taylor was one of the people I started learning about when I left diplomacy to study theology in the early 1990s. At that time, she was leading a small church in Georgia. And she preached the most extraordinary sermons, and turned them into books read far and wide. Then in 2006, she wrote Leaving Church — about her decision to leave her life of congregational ministry, finding other ways to stay, as she's written, "alive and alert to the holy communion of the human condition, which takes place on more altars than anyone can count.”
She's written other books since, with titles like An Altar in the World, Learning to Walk in the Dark, and Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others. Being in the presence of Barbara Brown Taylor's wonderfully wise and meandering mind and spirit, after all these years of knowing her voice in the world, is a true joy. I might even use a religious word — it feels like a "blessing." And this is not a conversation about the decline of church or about more and more people being "spiritual but not religious." We both agree that this often-repeated phrase is not an adequate way of seeing the human hunger for holiness. This is as alive as it has ever been in our time — even if it is shape-shifting in ways my Southern Baptist and Barbara's Catholic and Methodist forebears could never have imagined.
Barbara Brown Taylor is the author of many books, including An Altar in the World, Leaving Church, Holy Envy, and Learning to Walk in the Dark. Her 2020 book is Always a Guest, a compilation of recent sermons. She is the former rector of Grace-Calvary Episcopal Church of Clarkesville, Georgia, and she taught for two decades in the religion department at Piedmont College.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
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