Season 3, episode 4: "The World has Lost its Enchantment."

Key to the You Do You Era's self-focused ideas for what it means to be a human is this: The world is disenchanted; everything has a natural explanation; God is cool and all, but he can't be involved in the world and in our lives because it sounds dumb to say it out loud.

How do we talk about God in light of scientific discoveries?
Did God heal my loved one from cancer, or was it the oncologist?
How should I think about words like "sacred" and "spiritual"?
Why does my church gather in a multi purpose room instead of a sanctuary?

My friends, even Christians struggle with this topic. And that's OK, because we are swimming in the same You Do You Era cultural waters as everyone else!

We'll give you the spoiler alert up front on this episode: The world is enchanted. God is active. God works to achieve God's good, right, and just purposes for the world through human beings. God animates you and draws close to you through ordinary things: Bread and wine (communion), water (baptism), the prayers of the Church, acts of loving kindness, fasting, feasting, and (yes, this one is important) even through pain and trials of life. Sometimes, we can explain these things. Other times, we cannot. Either way, the world is enchanted and God is present.

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Throughout this season, we want to remove the cultural scales from our eyes using insight from:
Alan Noble (You are Not your Own)
Andrew Root (Ministry in the Secular Age series)
Alan Ehrenberg (Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age)
Charles Taylor (A Secular Age)
Andy Crouch (The Tech-Wise Family)
Leonard Sax (The Collapse of Parenting)
All of Jean Twenge's (SDSU) recent interviews / articles / and her books
James K.A. Smith's books and articles
N.T. Wright (The Day the Revolution Began among others)
Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue)
The New and Old Testaments... plus other works that we sprinkle throughout.

[The views presented are those of the speaker or author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.]

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Enchantment in the You Do You Era: Ep4