You Are Gods by David Bentley Hart. Reflections on Vedantic Christianity #nondualism

A set of reflections liberally drawing on You Are Gods by David Bentley Hart (Notre Dame Press, 2022).
Bentley Hart says that the book could equally have been subtitled, Studies in Vedantic Christianity, which I take as a lead.
What might traditional Christian themes such as God and Jesus, Salvation and Spirit, Creation and Grace, Worship and Judgment look like within such a perspective?
A summary might be that the gospel is the discovery and realisation that, as Jesus puts it, You are gods. And that the kingdom is not here or there, but within.
As Bentley Hart puts it himself: “We are nothing but created gods coming to be, becoming God in God, able to become divine only because, in some sense, we are divine from the very first.”
But what might that mean, what does that look like, how can we know?

0:00 Vedantic Christianity in the Bible, as the gospel
7:58 The natural is already supernatural, our desire is for the infinite
18:26 The Trinity and nondualism as the circle of glory
23:07 Jesus and the Incarnation
29:08 Salvation as theophany
33:34 Paul and the Spirit of God within us
36:58 Creation is in eternity, returning in time
40:32 More on how we might know these things
45:03 Worship as beauty, reverence, longing, delight
47:43 Suffering and living in a violent world
55:22 Eschatology as our eternal Yes to God
57:58 The immanence of transcendence in Christian life
1:05:57 Guarding against inflation and emergent notions of God in history
1:16:05 Judgment, action and freedom

[doug_sponsler]

"You might even say that the scientific life is not satisfying because of the science but because of what the science radiates."

As a scientist (whatever that means), I completely agree.

[silencenow]

What a fantastic channel this is with superb content..
Thank you.

[EffortlessIFSwithSidFriedman]

Thank you so much for your summary and interpretation of David’s work! I took detailed notes and look forward to more. What a service you offered us in this video. Thank you for your kindness.

[strangecore]

Wonderful extension of your conversations with Rupert. Thank you for all the value you offer us, Mark.

[margaretinsydney]

Thank you so much for this talk. I have been researching Sergei Bulgakov today, which has caused the algorithm to give me so much wonderful stuff. I'm an admirer of DBH, but I've not read this book. But I believe you have given me some tools to understand it better -- he is so difficult to follow sometimes. 😊

[floslavandulae]

I am delighted with your speech and wonderful British accent. Thank you!

[phillipbrock]

This is big stuff, and thank you. I loved your quote of Eckhart of the “I” the looks for God as almost a mirror or window through which God seeks the “I” in return.

It brought to mind something I’ve been pondering for some time, something that might have gotten me burned as a heretic in days gone by: it’s that perhaps the journey of God to Incarnation through crucifixion actually taught God about human suffering. That it goes both ways — humankind learned how to be God through Christ’s divinity; that God finally and truly learned what we experience through Christ’s humanity. That God hadn’t truly felt what we go through before the Incarnation.

[MattFRox]

On this Sunday morning, I feel like I received a truly inspired sermon that was perfectly catered to my personal experience of transcendence

[JT-]

This is great thanks. I love DBH, but I find him very difficult to read. This is really helpful in understanding this important work.

[Joeonline]

Thanks for the video Mark. Your video gave me some great insights. I would love nothing more than a conversation between Bentley-Hart, John Vervaeke, and yourself. Hopefully that happens at some point.

[davidgreenwood]

You radiate a rediscovered spiritual happiness, Mark.I am glad that you are a friend of Rupert Sheldrake and a student of the magnificent DBH!

[shari]

“As the thoughts move in the mind of a man, so move the worlds of men and women in the mind of God, and make no confusion there, for there they had their birth, the offspring of his imagination. Man is but a thought of God.”
-George MacDonald

[dropable]

Very, very much appreciated this; I shall return to it. Thank you. DB Hart has been formative in my life and ministry. I have the book but have not started it yet, and I value deeply this extensive introduction. Looking forward to the text! I also take note of important and exciting (for me) points of intersection with Michel Henry's (French Phenomenologist) works, which also make masterful use of Meister Eckhart's writings. My favorite of Henry's texts is "I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity." I am finding a very profitable interplay between Dr. John Behr, Michel Henry, and DB Hart: key themes appear common to these authors and teachers, and they all point toward my own academic fascination: theological anthropology. Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to offer such a wonderful and inspiring introduction to Hart's book!

[richardwhiston]

It seems like a paradox that we often have to spill so many words to arrive at this simple Vedantic Christian nugget.

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God. (ACIM)

"simples innit" - Jesus

Thanks for the vid Mark, the Number 7 bus journey is a trip with you in my ears..

Richard

[Broc_S]

Thank you for this, I have been slow in reading it, now I think I can profit much more from my first reading because of your summary reflections.

[christopherjordan]

When suffering is explained away as "sweet suffering" it's always a subjective personal suffering. My personal suffering is never so great that it can't be
managed. It's the suffering of a 6 year old child that is chained to a basement floor who's only human contact is when she is tortured and raped....THAT is the suffering that needs to be addressed. I don't think it can be properly explained. "God works in mysterious ways". And indeed many believers of karma may tell you that the 6 year old child brought it upon herself. The worst suffering in creation is not our own suffering.

Edit: great work, Mark. I've listened to this twice and I enjoy so many of your other videos.

[amjrobbins]

Very interesting and helpful.Thank you for such a fluent and engaging commentary. I wonder if DBH gives any pointers as to how we, in our incipient divinity, can better deal practically with natural and human 'unlove' (sin) which is all over the news? What role for angels (if he acknowledges them)? If the 'unlove' originated with the 'bad' angels (and then us), how do we engage with the good ones and enlist their help? I guess by being more aware, and 'covering' with more love - as Paul says to Peter (1 Peter 5:8 and 4:8). Maybe I have to read the book! Thanks again for the review.

[moesypittounikos]

Douglas Harding always quotes the Christian mystics in his books. I had no idea Christianity was so spiritual before I started reading that guy.

[davidgreenwood]

Mark, this is your best!Glad you seem happy.I know, or I think, that you have been through a tough time?

[amywas]

Please turn the sound up. If Moses had descended from the mountain and made his pronouncements like that, we would all still be wandering around aimlessly in the wilderness.