
The Experience of God
Being, Consciousness, Bliss
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Tom Pile
About this listen
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.People who viewed this also viewed...
-
You Are Gods
- On Nature and Supernature
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the theological—and, more specifically, Roman Catholic—question of the supernatural has made an astonishing return from seeming oblivion. David Bentley Hart's You Are Gods presents a series of meditations on the vexed theological question of the relation of nature and supernature. In its merely controversial aspect, the book is intended most directly as a rejection of a certain Thomistic construal of that relation, as well as an argument in favor of a model of nature and supernature at once more Eastern and patristic.
-
-
A Path for Hope in Faith
- By Vatoussis fam on 01-22-23
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
The Story of Christianity
- A History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Story of Christianity, the distinguished theologian David Bentley Hart provides a broad picture of Christian history. Presented in 50 short chapters - each focusing on a critical facet of Christian history or theology, and each amplified by timelines, and quotations - his magisterial account does full justice to the range of Christian tradition, belief and practice - Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Evangelical, Coptic, Chaldean, Ethiopian Orthodox, and more....
-
-
Great Brief Overview of Christianity
- By James Mikkelson on 01-26-22
-
Atheist Delusions
- The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Ralph Morocco
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this provocative book one of the most brilliant scholars of religion today dismantles distorted religious "histories" offered up by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and other contemporary critics of religion and advocates of atheism. David Bentley Hart provides a bold correction of the New Atheists’s misrepresentations of the Christian past, countering their polemics with a brilliant account of Christianity and its message of human charity as the most revolutionary movement in all of Western history.
-
-
A Conversion Experience.
- By Ted on 12-01-14
-
That All Shall Be Saved
- Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea once observed that, in his time, most Christians believed that hell was not everlasting, and that all would eventually attain salvation. But today, this view is no longer prevalent within Christian communities. In this momentous book, David Bentley Hart makes the case that nearly two millennia of dogmatic tradition have misled readers on the crucial matter of universal salvation.
-
-
The most important part...
- By Mary Benton on 11-24-19
-
The New Testament
- A Translation
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Bentley Hart undertook this new translation of the New Testament in the spirit of "etsi doctrina non daretur", "as if doctrine is not given". Reproducing the texts' often fragmentary formulations without augmentation or correction, he has produced a pitilessly literal translation, one that captures the texts' impenetrability and unfinished quality while awakening listeners to an uncanniness that often lies hidden beneath doctrinal layers.
-
-
Back To the sources of The Source
- By Canon John 3 on 07-04-18
-
You Are Gods
- On Nature and Supernature
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the theological—and, more specifically, Roman Catholic—question of the supernatural has made an astonishing return from seeming oblivion. David Bentley Hart's You Are Gods presents a series of meditations on the vexed theological question of the relation of nature and supernature. In its merely controversial aspect, the book is intended most directly as a rejection of a certain Thomistic construal of that relation, as well as an argument in favor of a model of nature and supernature at once more Eastern and patristic.
-
-
A Path for Hope in Faith
- By Vatoussis fam on 01-22-23
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
The Story of Christianity
- A History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Story of Christianity, the distinguished theologian David Bentley Hart provides a broad picture of Christian history. Presented in 50 short chapters - each focusing on a critical facet of Christian history or theology, and each amplified by timelines, and quotations - his magisterial account does full justice to the range of Christian tradition, belief and practice - Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Evangelical, Coptic, Chaldean, Ethiopian Orthodox, and more....
-
-
Great Brief Overview of Christianity
- By James Mikkelson on 01-26-22
-
Atheist Delusions
- The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Ralph Morocco
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this provocative book one of the most brilliant scholars of religion today dismantles distorted religious "histories" offered up by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and other contemporary critics of religion and advocates of atheism. David Bentley Hart provides a bold correction of the New Atheists’s misrepresentations of the Christian past, countering their polemics with a brilliant account of Christianity and its message of human charity as the most revolutionary movement in all of Western history.
-
-
A Conversion Experience.
- By Ted on 12-01-14
-
That All Shall Be Saved
- Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The great fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea once observed that, in his time, most Christians believed that hell was not everlasting, and that all would eventually attain salvation. But today, this view is no longer prevalent within Christian communities. In this momentous book, David Bentley Hart makes the case that nearly two millennia of dogmatic tradition have misled readers on the crucial matter of universal salvation.
-
-
The most important part...
- By Mary Benton on 11-24-19
-
The New Testament
- A Translation
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Bentley Hart undertook this new translation of the New Testament in the spirit of "etsi doctrina non daretur", "as if doctrine is not given". Reproducing the texts' often fragmentary formulations without augmentation or correction, he has produced a pitilessly literal translation, one that captures the texts' impenetrability and unfinished quality while awakening listeners to an uncanniness that often lies hidden beneath doctrinal layers.
-
-
Back To the sources of The Source
- By Canon John 3 on 07-04-18
-
Tradition and Apocalypse
- An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Jim Denison
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 2,000 years that have elapsed since the time of Christ, Christians have been as much divided by their faith as united, as much at odds as in communion. And the contents of Christian confession have developed with astonishing energy. How can believers claim a faith that has been passed down through the ages while recognizing the real historical contingencies that have shaped both their doctrines and their divisions? In this carefully argued essay, David Bentley Hart critiques the concept of "tradition" that has become dominant in Christian thought as fundamentally incoherent.
-
-
Colorful but somewhat vacuous
- By Anonymous User on 05-08-23
-
The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As news reports of the horrific December 2004 tsunami in Asia reached the rest of the world, commentators were quick to seize upon the disaster as proof of either God’s power or God’s nonexistence, asking over and over, How could a good and loving God - if such exists - allow such suffering? In The Doors of the Sea, David Bentley Hart speaks at once to those skeptical of Christian faith and to those who use their Christian faith to rationalize senseless human suffering.
-
-
An interesting short audio book
- By Nick on 09-27-21
-
Ways of Attending
- How Our Divided Brain Constructs the World
- By: Iain McGilchrist
- Narrated by: Mike Fraser
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Attention is not just receptive, but actively creative of the world we inhabit. How we attend makes all the difference to the world we experience. And nowadays in the West we generally attend in a rather unusual way: governed by the narrowly focused, target-driven left hemisphere of the brain.
-
-
Great summary
- By L_Haynes on 05-11-25
By: Iain McGilchrist
-
On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ
- Popular Patristics Series, Book 25
- By: Saint Maximus Confessor
- Narrated by: Jonah Martin
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The last half of the 20th century saw the establishment of the reputation of St Maximus the Confessor as the greatest of all Byzantine theologians, with a wholeness of vision that speaks directly to many of our concerns today. Until very recently, however, little of his work has been available in English translation, save for some collections of brief reflections arranged in centuries and a few brief treatises, too easily classified as "spirituality."
-
-
Maximus and Jordan Daniel Wood
- By Kindle Customer on 07-15-24
-
Discovering Christianity
- A Guide for the Curious
- By: Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Rowan Williams
- Length: 3 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rowan Williams' guide to the essentials of the faith will get you thinking about God in fresh and exciting ways. It will help you to grasp the way in which the best Christian theology is arrived at through the creative interplay of scripture, tradition and reason. And it will help you develop a broader and deeper appreciation of the positive difference Christianity continues to make in the world today.
-
-
Profound concise simple and alive. Great interviewer as well.
- By James Rhodenhiser on 03-03-25
By: Rowan Williams
-
How God Becomes Real
- Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
- By: T.M. Luhrmann
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people - as if they were standing right next to them? But it isn't easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort helps to explain the enduring power of faith.
-
-
An Exquisite and Thoughtful Reflection on Belief
- By L. Alexandra on 05-08-22
By: T.M. Luhrmann
-
A Secular Age
- By: Charles Taylor
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 42 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.
-
-
Needs Guest Narrators for French and German
- By Norman on 06-13-15
By: Charles Taylor
-
Destined for Joy
- The Gospel of Universal Salvation
- By: Alvin Kimel, David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Boyd Barrett
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Destined for Joy is a collection of essays devoted to the theme of the absolute love of God and the gospel of universal salvation. Written over a period of 10 years and revised for publication in this volume, they represent the fruition of the author’s theological and spiritual development over a span of four decades in parish ministry. If God has truly revealed himself in his incarnate Son Jesus Christ as absolute and unconditional love, does this not mean that he intends the salvation of all?
-
-
Hope after death
- By Frimann on 10-29-24
By: Alvin Kimel, and others
-
Meister Eckhart's Living Wisdom
- Indestructible Joy and the Path of Letting Go
- By: James Finley
- Narrated by: James Finley
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart was the most brilliant Christian scholar of his day, but he was also legendary for the way that he opened listeners to the direct experience of God during his public talks. Today, his written wisdom remains alive as ever, ready to illuminate us. With Meister Eckhart's Living Wisdom, James Finley, one of today's best-known teachers of the Christian contemplative tradition, invites us into Eckhart's insights in the same way that this luminary teacher delighted in sharing them.
-
-
Great stuff but missing links are unfortunate
- By LEVI on 08-21-19
By: James Finley
-
On Augustine
- By: Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since his retirement as Archbishop of Canterbury and his return to academic life (Master of Magdalene College Cambridge), Rowan Williams has demonstrated a massive new surge of intellectual energy. In this new audiobook, he turns his attention to St Augustine. St Augustine not only shaped the development of Western theology, he also made a major contribution to political theory ( The City of God) and, through his Confessions, to the understanding of human psychology.
-
-
thoughtful take.
- By Michael McGuire on 04-17-22
By: Rowan Williams
-
Nihilism
- The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age
- By: Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose
- Narrated by: David A. Conatser
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1962, the young Eugene Rose - the future Hieromonk Seraphim - undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of truth in the modern age. Of the hundreds of pages of materials he compiled for this work, only the present essay, on nihilism, has come down to us in completed form. Here Eugene reveals the core of all modern thought and life - the belief that all truth is relative - and shows how this belief has been translated into action in our era. Today, more than half a century after he wrote it, this essay is more timely than ever.
-
-
Reads very current
- By Judith Glass on 09-05-22
-
Passions of the Soul
- By: The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Lord Williams of Oystermouth Rowan Williams
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Eastern Christian tradition is filled with theological and spiritual riches. In Passions of the Soul, Rowan Williams opens up the great classics of Eastern Christian writing to show how it can help us to understand and cope with the ups and downs of modern life. With compelling and illuminating insight, he shows the cost of living in a culture that is theologically and philosophically undernourished, working with a diminished and trivialized picture of the human self.
-
-
Thoughtful and readable
- By rocky500 on 03-10-25
By: The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Lord Williams of Oystermouth Rowan Williams
Thoughtful, provocative and insightful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant defence of theism
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Transcendent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
David Bentley Hart at his best!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fresh Air in the God Topic
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
ultimately compelling
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Difficult to follow
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Basically made me believe in God
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
CS Lewis on steroids
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Recommend story and performance
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.