The Experience of God

Being, Consciousness, Bliss

By: David Bentley Hart

Narrated by: Tom Pile

Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion "God" frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths. Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, Hart explores how these great intellectual traditions treat humanity’s knowledge of the divine mysteries. Constructing his argument around three principal metaphysical moments, ”being, consciousness, and bliss", the author demonstrates an essential continuity between our fundamental experience of reality and the ultimate reality to which that experience inevitably points. Thoroughly dismissing such blatant misconceptions as the deists' concept of God, as well as the fundamentalist view of the Bible as an objective historical record, Hart provides a welcome antidote to simplistic manifestoes. In doing so, he plumbs the depths of humanity’s experience of the world as powerful evidence for the reality of God and captures the beauty and poetry of traditional reflection upon the divine.

©2013 David Bentley Hart (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Transcendent

Stunning. A book I will listen to over and over again. Beyond being a brilliant work of philosophy, it also manages to touch the heart of spiritual experience. It illuminated so many intuitions I have had and organized them into a coherent whole.

David Bentley Hart at his best!

I’ve enjoyed DBH’s other books so I thought I’d give this a try. I was not disappointed! I’d encourage any atheist to read this book and truly ponder these arguments. He will challenge you.

For believers like me, this book eloquently describes those transcendent glimpses of the Divine that I’ve experience through prayer, careful reflection on scripture, community, living out the Christian life, and seeking after God. At first it might seem a bit abstract but keep listening. By the end of the book, I found myself more encouraged than ever and excited to keep seeking after God.

Thoughtful, provocative and insightful

Hart’s book has stretched my heart and mind. I have a fuller view of God and more kind tools to help my confused friends. Thank you!

Brilliant defence of theism

David Bentley Hart takes no prisoners—he’s not afraid to use sarcasm as a weapon against the New Atheists—but his purpose in writing the book is to make a case for classical theism as, well, the ONLY way to understand life, consciousness, and the otherwise inexplicable “transcendentals”. His argument is brilliantly defended, and he opens the door to God in new ways, whether a convinced believer, a seeker, or, given an open mind, a skeptic. He’s obviously a genius, so it’s challenging, but it’s well worth hanging in for the whole ride.

Fresh Air in the God Topic

If you’re disillusioned with the God debates you might enjoy a fresh perspective. The author is clear to delineate an anthropomorphisized God from the “ground of all being”. Some, like myself, who were raised in Christian fundamentalism or evangelicalism will benefit from this book especially the last chapter. The chapters are long and can be arduous at times given the stringing together of similar thoughts and at times rapaciously refined rhetoric. All in all a big help to me in my recovery from an anthropomorphic theistic primitivism.

ultimately compelling

if you finish this book and still insist on being an atheist, you can claim no rational basis for doing so.

Difficult to follow

I enjoyed the book. It is pretty heavy philosophy. It isn’t really a book for someone who is trying to workout their relationship with God. I really liked it because I like philosophy and theology but definitely is not an easy read.

Basically made me believe in God

Shallow atheism is less attractive after hearing Aristotle's unmoved mover argument. That God is not a magician inside the world changed my view on Him.

CS Lewis on steroids

I think no one will ever accuse the polymath David Hart of “wearing his learning lightly.” He eschews the avuncular, amiable polemical style adopted by C.S. Lewis; he prefers the pugilistic style of someone like the late Christopher Hitchens. But he knows far more than Hitchens ever knew, both in scholarly depth and breadth; and he employs his mind, as did Lewis, to the vigorous presentation of an intellectually robust, classical theism—not merely a Christian theism, but one that he sees as shared by all of the major theistic traditions, both East and West. His willingness to incorporate Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, and other non-Western conceptions of God will alarm traditional Christian theists, but his aim in this book is not to defend Christian theism; rather, his aim is to demolish the trivial, ignorant, and superficial conceptions of God that “the New Atheists” regularly invoke when they make their anti-theistic arguments. Although he has done this elsewhere, as for example in his equally satisfying demolition of “the New Atheist” view of Western church history in his book *Atheist Delusions*, this is Hart’s fullest response to the theological misunderstandings of Richard Dawkins, et. al. Overall, a very enjoyable book, though it is likely to be somewhat opaque to those who have not previously been exposed to philosophical thought about Being and non-being.

And I should add that Tom Pile’s reading of the book was fantastic. I was worried that whoever read this book would make a mess of it; but I came away thinking that the hubristic edge that often characterizes David Hart’s writing was considerably softened by Tom Pile’s reading, and the overall effect was probably that of improvement.

Recommend story and performance

Enlightening book, thoroughly study presented in a magisterial style, and preformed in an eloquent manner....in short best audiobook I have had the pleasure of listening to!