Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus · The Sophia Society

What is Christian Mysticism? w/Keith Giles

·54 min·3 clips

Keith Giles argues that "I am in the Father and you are in me" applies to disciples, not only Jesus.

Tim frames the conversation as part of a Jesus centered, inclusive space for people pushed to the margins of evangelicalism. He describes a community that wants accountability and is willing to talk about Christian nationalism. The show treats the rooms of Christian tradition as places to explore, not fortresses to defend. The discussion then turns to knowing God as experience. Tim and the guest present knowing God less as collecting information and more as an encounter that changes the person having it. They keep coming back to the gap between information and transformation. That difference matters throughout the episode. They suggest that spiritual knowing can be real even when it resists tidy language or easy explanation. Some of the strongest faith, they imply, lives in memory, prayer, and change. The guest speaks from personal experience. He says those encounters helped him through deconstruction because he could doubt theology and question religion, but could not easily dismiss the times when God felt undeniably present. One story lands especially hard. He remembers waking with an overwhelming sense that a friend was in danger, praying for her for about three hours, and later learning that she had been in a frightening situation. The memory still shapes him. He uses it to describe a moment that can move someone from unbelief to belief in a way argument alone never could. Tim responds by naming how such experiences can steady a person during theological unraveling. The conversation stays warm and direct, with the two of them treating deconstruction not as an ending but as a process that can still make room for deeper trust and a less brittle relationship to Jesus. Tim keeps the tone pastoral. He asks with real openness, without pretending neutrality. The exchange makes space for the ache, relief, and lingering questions that often sit together in post evangelical faith. The episode closes in familiar podcast fashion. There is thanks, a nod to the people making the show possible, and a reminder that listeners can find more resources for spiritual journeying and deconstruction support. What remains is simple. The show treats lived faith as something tested in crisis and carried forward even when the old religious framework no longer fits.

As heard by us

An episode about knowing God as experience, where transformation matters more than information.

The episode treats knowing God as something lived, not just explained, and it keeps circling back to the gap between repeating the right words and actually being changed by them.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want Christian mysticism that sounds like lived experience, not jargon.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus