Yes, Gobekli Tepe! This one really rocked the anthropology and religious studies worlds. I'm so psyched to get to tell you about it. And I'm glad to be getting into some proper history of religions stuff. I love using music examples because they're what I've really felt in terms of my own spiritual experiences. But the main thrust of all of my life's work has been to develop a theology of a sort of religious experience that is about encountering what cannot be known. I've found this in my life mostly in the mystical service of the unknowable Other. The most simple reason for this is that I can forget myself for a while when I serve others. I can use some of what I "know" in this service, but the outcomes always surprise me. Grace abounds when knowing is left behind. Service purifies my intention for specific outcomes and opens me to mystery. This has been the meaning of my 31 year career as a public school teacher in situations of "high need." I've always been in over my head in the sense of not knowing what to do but having to do something anyways. Gobekli Tepe was a place where our ancestors voluntarily went to be with the liminal and celebrate the tricky company of others. This is my first attempt to differentiate an impulse for the holy that isn't about ordering the Universe according to our own intentions.

Baddass vibes mixed by James Reeves of Midnight Radio: jamesreeves.co

Trying Too Hard