GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher - The Podcast

GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher - The Podcast is a true story of a philosopher’s conversations with God. Dr. Jerry L. Martin was a lifelong agnostic. But one day he had occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered - in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions. And God had a lot to tell him. Dr. Martin served as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Colorado philosophy department. Find out more at www.GodAnAutobiography.com

262. What's On Our Mind- Truth-Seeking Beyond Reductionism: Experience, Meaning, and a Developing God

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this episode of What’s On Our Mind, Scott Langdon and Jerry L. Martin explore truth-seeking beyond reductionism. Drawing on Radically Personal, lived experience, acting, spiritual stories, and prayer, they ask how we know what’s real—and why meaning cannot be reduced to just chemistry. The conversation ranges from new atheism and scientific exclusivism to Stoicism, human fulfillment, empathy, and a developing God who suffers with us. An invitation and re...

12-18
55:55

261. What’s Your Spiritual Story: Amanda on Love, Trauma, and Discovering a God Who Suffers With Us

Questions? Comments? Text Us! What’s Your Spiritual Story? is a continuing series from God: An Autobiography, The Podcast that invites real people to share the journeys that shaped their spiritual lives. Each episode explores how the search for meaning, identity, and connection unfolds through personal experience—and how God meets us in surprising ways. In this week’s conversation, Amanda joins Dr. Jerry L. Martin to reflect on the path that brought her from a childhood marked by instability ...

12-11
46:01

260. Radically Personal: A New Philosophy of God — Life Seeking Understanding

Questions? Comments? Text Us! What if theology is not a set of inherited doctrines, but life seeking understanding? Learn more in Jerry’s latest book, Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age, and subscribe for weekly episodes that explore God, spiritual experience, and the ongoing journey of the soul. In this second installment of Radically Personal, philosopher Dr. Jerry L. Martin explores what he calls Theology Without Walls — a seeker-centered approach that begins ...

12-04
20:00

259. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue- Pilgrimage, Prophecy, and the Call of a Woman’s Life

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this week’s episode of Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue, Jerry L. Martin and Abigail L. Rosenthal explore how God communicates through intuition, dreams, insights, and the quiet promptings that redirect a life. Their conversation speaks directly to listeners who wonder why God can feel hidden and how to recognize a true divine nudge. Jerry reflects on the moment he heard the message “Your work here is over,” a turning point that led him away fro...

11-27
01:11:30

258. From God to Jerry to You — Dharma, Swadharma & How God Reveals Your Personal Calling

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this week’s episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, Jerry L. Martin explores one of the most practical and urgent spiritual questions we face: How do we know what we’re meant to do with our lives—and how do we tell when God is guiding us? Drawing on the Hindu concepts of dharma and swadharma, Jerry explains the difference between our role-based responsibilities and our deeply personal calling; the tasks that “have your name on them.” From there, he turn...

11-20
28:00

257. What's Your Spiritual Story: Dr. Richard Oxenberg on his Spiritual Journey and the Peace That Passeth Understanding

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this deeply moving episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, philosopher Richard Oxenberg—co-author of Two Philosophers Wrestle With God—shares his full spiritual story for the first time. His journey begins with childhood tragedy: witnessing the sudden death of his seven-year-old sister. The shock shattered his early understanding of God, safety, and reality. From that moment, Richard became a lifelong seeker. He describes moving through secular Judaism,...

11-13
01:02:01

256. What's On Our Mind- Spiritual Nudges & Synchronicities: Is God Guiding You?

Questions? Comments? Text Us! How do we recognize when God is gently guiding us? Is it a voice, a feeling, or a moment of connection we might almost overlook? Scott shares a simple encounter at a bagel shop that turned into a surprising moment of synchronicity — a reminder that a radically personal God often reaches us through quiet intuition and ordinary experiences. Jerry reflects on why these subtle encounters matter, how spiritual discernment develops through humility rather than eg...

11-06
40:00

255. What’s Your Spiritual Story: Laura Buck on Becoming Visible, Intuition, Loss & the Inner Voice

Questions? Comments? Text Us! What does it feel like when God guides you from within? For Laura Buck, that quiet voice has been there all along, leading, nudging, comforting. In this intimate spiritual story, Laura opens up about growing up between religious worlds, learning to trust intuition over expectation, and discovering that God speaks through the feelings we often overlook. She shares powerful moments of being held by grace during panic, the breathtaking sign that appeared after...

10-30
46:12

254. Radically Personal: How Divine Reality Reveals Itself In Every Spiritual Journey

Questions? Comments? Text Us! Radically Personal is a new series exploring how divine reality reveals itself within the lives of individual seekers. Based on Dr. Jerry L. Martin’s newest book, Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age, the series invites listeners to rethink what it means to encounter the divine as intimately present and personally responsive. Each episode follows the unfolding conversation between human experience and transcendent reality, uncovering how the...

10-23
14:01

253. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue: Romantic Love and Divine Revelation: When Trust Becomes a Spiritual Calling

Questions? Comments? Text Us! When can love—and even pain—become a form of revelation? In this powerful dialogue, Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal trace the mysterious link between romantic love, moral conscience, and divine communication. Abigail shares two defining experiences of spiritual discernment: a moral act that cost her a lifelong family bond, and the unexpected moment she realized she was falling in love. Both called for the same inner movement—trusting what had her...

10-16
45:00

252. From God to Jerry to You- Hearing God Speak: An Agnostic Philosopher’s Awakening

Questions? Comments? Text Us! What happens when a lifelong agnostic philosopher prays for the first time—and God answers? In this episode, Jerry L. Martin reflects on the experience that transformed his life and inspired God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher. Through love, gratitude, and trust, Jerry moves from intellectual doubt to an intimate conversation with the Divine. He shares how falling deeply in love opened him to the reality of spiritual experience, leading to his first a...

10-09
22:00

251. What's On Our Mind- Has This Task Got Your Name On It? Intuition, Ego & Energy Signs

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this What’s On Our Mind episode, we ask: how do you know when a task has your name on it? In a noisy world full of choices, it can be hard to discern your true path. Is it just hard work, or a sign you’re on the wrong road? We explore stories of callings, intuition, and spiritual discernment, and how energy, peace, and prayer become signposts for purpose. Through everyday examples — from saying no with clarity, to receiving encouragement from others, to ...

10-02
30:00

250. Special Episode: Suffering, Growth & Divine Love | Celebrating 250 Episodes

Questions? Comments? Text Us! Five years. 250 episodes. Countless stories of faith, struggle, and discovery. This milestone episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast is a deep reflection on what it means to grow spiritually through suffering, to find joy again, and to experience divine love as a personal reality. In this special episode, Scott, Jerry, Abigail, Laura, and Mandi come together to look back on the last five years and explore how this project has transformed each of them. You’...

09-25
48:49

249. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – The Summons of Love and Life’s True Calling

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this wide-ranging conversation, Jerry and Abigail pick up where last week’s episode left off, turning from the idea of swadharma — one’s unique calling — to how that calling actually plays out in a real life. Jerry reflects on the Bhagavad Gita’s teaching that it is better to follow your own duty, even imperfectly, than to live someone else’s well. Abigail shares what it feels like when a fight “has her name on it,” telling the story of the battle to sav...

09-18
58:00

248. From God to Jerry to You- God on the Bhagavad Gita: Moral Complexity, Swadharma, and Your True Calling

Questions? Comments? Text Us! What does the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata, often called “India’s Iliad,” have to say about your life today? In this From God to Jerry to You, philosopher Jerry L. Martin shares what God revealed to him while praying through the pages of this vast epic and its centerpiece, the Bhagavad Gita. God’s surprising message is clear: the purpose of life is not to escape through yoga, asceticism, or lofty philosophy, but to engage; to face sin, suffering, mortalit...

09-11
11:00

247. What's On Our Mind- The New Axial Age: God’s Story Told Again

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, host Scott Langdon and philosopher Jerry L. Martin explore the meaning of the New Axial Age: a transformative era of spiritual development that God revealed to Jerry during their dialogues. What does it mean that “the old religions are coming apart, yet there is a renewal of religious spirit”? Together, Scott and Jerry reflect on how history’s first Axial Age, with figures like the Hebrew prophets...

09-04
40:00

246. What’s Your Spiritual Story: Joel Weiner on Rediscovering Judaism, God, and the New Axial Age

Questions? Comments? Text Us! What’s your spiritual story? In this episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, philosopher Jerry L. Martin sits down with Joel Weiner to explore a journey that moves from childhood faith, through rejection, to rediscovery and renewal. Joel grew up in a Jewish home in Philadelphia, went through Hebrew school, and walked away from synagogue life right after his bar mitzvah. Years later, he found his way back, first through the Reform movement at Keneseth Israe...

08-28
36:00

245. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – The New Axial Age & The Future of Faith

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this episode, Jerry and Abigail return for their fourth conversation in the series Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue, exploring the most profound theme of God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher: the New Axial Age. The term “Axial Age,” introduced by philosopher Karl Jaspers, describes the pivotal era when some of the world’s greatest spiritual figures appeared within a few centuries of one another: Socrates, the Hebrew prophets, the Buddha, Con...

08-21
44:44

244. From God to Jerry to You – Entering the New Axial Age: The Future of Spiritual Development

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this episode of From God to Jerry to You, Dr. Jerry L. Martin explores a profound and timely revelation: the arrival of a New Spiritual Axial Age. God’s message to Jerry wasn’t just about retelling a familiar story; it was about reframing it for an era in which the world’s faith traditions meet, interact, and evolve in ways never before possible. Jerry shares how God explained that humanity is living in an extraordinary period of spiritual transformation...

08-14
12:12

243. What's On Our Mind- Why God Allows Suffering: A Conversation About Pain, Purpose, and Presence

Questions? Comments? Text Us! In this moving episode of What’s On Our Mind, Scott and Jerry revisit one of the most difficult questions in spiritual life: why does suffering exist? Drawing from God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher, they reflect on God’s response to Jerry’s early questions about pain and meaning. God doesn’t minimize suffering—He calls it “the law of growth in the universe.” Jerry and Scott explore how suffering shapes the soul, how grief expresses love,...

08-07
34:00

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