The Spirit Searches Everything
Suggested Questions for the Preface and Chapter 1
1. In the Preface Borsch lays out several of life’s “Big Questions.” Which of these questions had you thought about before reading Borsch’s list? What other questions would you add to the list? Which questions, from Borsch’s list or you additions, are most important to you?
2. In the first three sections of the first chapter Borsch discusses our human capacity to be self-aware, speculating on how such a capacity might have been developed and observing that self-awareness can be experienced as a burden. In what ways did you find his speculations helpful or challenging? Has your own experience of self-awareness ever been a burden?
3. Borsch suggests that language and the telling of stories is an integral part of our self-awareness (pages13-14). He also observes that there may be many different ways to tell the story of a particular event, e.g., his walk with his dog. What experiences have you had of the different ways that a story from you life might be told?
4. What is your response to Borsch’s reflections on our different selves (pages 14-16)?
5. In the last three sections of the chapter Borsch charts the development of an awareness of and concern for others, raises the question of how free humans are to choose, and suggests that what he calls “fractional freedom” introduces “a new range of possibilities and opportunities” beyond those suggested by a more deterministic view of human psychology. How has the interplay of the givens of genetic inheritance and upbringing and your own choices shaped who you have become?
Suggested Questions for Chapter 2
- In this chapter Borsch explores several questions raised by scientists, especially cosmologists, in the last century. A particularly intriguing question is whether life, especially intelligent life, might exist elsewhere. Are you among those who believe – or want to believe – that the earth is only one of hundreds or thousands of worlds on which intelligent life has developed? What do you see as the reason for your beliefs about this?
- In the sections Patterns and Accidents and Quantum Queerness and Connections, Borsch explores two of the most challenging concepts in contemporary scientific thought:
“Deep in subatomic levels, where activity, according to our efforts to measure and describe, has characteristics of both particles and waves, there exists not what we might think of as substance, but relationships….” (p. 31)
“…there would seem to be circumstances of uncertainty that can be resolved only when some form of observation takes place.” (p. 31)
Borsch suggests that the existence of other dimensions beyond the limits of our perception may account for the “apparent oddities of quantum reality” (p. 32) and that “All things…linked are, that thou canst not stir a flower / Without troubling a star.” (p. 33) What is your reaction to Borsch’s exploration of these ideas?
- Borsch explores, in the section A Shining Through, the mystery of the creation in which we see the “apparent oddities of quantum reality”. Although the “idea of a universal Mind or logos” (p. 34) is not accepted by all scientists, many find it “a plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory….” (p. 34) What is your response to the question with which Borsch ends this section, “Would God want to be in relationship with us?” (p. 36)
- In the final sections of the chapter, Borsch returns to an issue raised in chapter 1 – our differing perceptions of reality – and suggests that we can only know our world by having a relationship with it, and not by observing it from outside, and that language forms the bridge between our individual perceptions of reality. How do you respond to George Steiner’s assertion that our attempts to communicate are “underwritten by the assumption of God’s presence”? (p. 40)
Suggested Questions for Chapter 3
1. Early in this chapter Borsch describes three approaches to the question of “human apprehension of divine spirit.” (p. 42) Realism “regards the reality of God as actually appearing in human life and at times speaking human and recordable words.” (p. 42) A nonrealist would assert that experiences like Paul’s hearing of a voice on the road to
2. In the section Unsayable and Saying, Borsch writes about the experiences that mystics have had of finding themselves in the presence of God, of being known and knowing God. Have you had similar experiences of awareness of God’s presence and how would you describe them?
3. Borsch devotes much space in this chapter to a discussion of Jesus as one who “became God’s Word” to his disciples. (p. 56) In what ways do you find Borsch’s understanding of Jesus as helpful/close to your own understanding or challenging or unhelpful/far from your own understanding?
4. In the final two sections of the chapter, Borsch presents a particular way of seeing Christianity in relationship to other faith traditions, a way that requires a degree of modesty about our understanding of God. In what ways do you find Borsch’s position attractive and in what ways would disagree with him?
Suggested Questions for Chapter 4
1. In the first section of this chapter, Borsch tells the story of the death of one of the members of the Interfaith Council, a death which raised for him and other members of the council the question of how “there can be a good God and yet all the suffering.” (p.65) What experiences in your life have raised this question?
2. How helpful for you was Borsch’s discussion of how the evolutionary process involves failures and successes, gain and loss? Or the analogy of God as a casino owner with its corollary that “God and the creation have the winning edge”? (p.71)
3. What do you make of Borsch’s suggestions that God is “growing with the universe” and that God “must yet must act within the limits of this time and creation”? (p. 72) Have you shared the experience of the psalmist – “Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake. How long shall the wicked exult?” (p. 73) Have you struggled with God in prayer as George Herbert did? To what end?
4. After describing his own experience with a plane crash, Borsch writes about his experience, from a distance, of the September 11 crashes, and of sharing to some extent the experience of Conrad’s character Kurz, who, staring into the heart of darkness, could only mutter, “The horror, the horror.” What was your experience of September 11 or of the killing at Virginia Tech?
5. In the final sections of the chapter, Borsch suggests that God in the Incarnation has entered into the suffering of the world and invites us to live more compassionately, sharing the sufferings of others. How do you respond to this ambiguous answer to the question of how “there can be a good God and yet all the suffering”?
Suggested Questions for Chapter 5
1. In the first section of the chapter Borsch describes the all too common frustration of one who wants to be “a person that makes place for others,” but often ends up being wrapped up in the small package of himself. (p. 88) How have you experienced that frustration?
2. Borsch goes on to describe several ways that people seek to “forget about any potential for living beyond care for self.” (p. 89) The final “coping habit” that he mentions is the accumulation of wealth. (“In the shadow of the hawk, we feather our nests.”) How aware have you been of how much richer we are than most people? How have you tried to respond to that awareness?
3. Borsch discuses as well our “evident inability to take well into account…those who will come after us…” How have you tried to be a better steward of creation?
4. In the section Captains of Morality, Borsch discusses the problem of religious people who “want to see themselves on the side of rightness,” but often do that “at the expense of others.” (p. 99) How have you been able to overcome the temptation to be the Pharisee to someone else’s tax collector?
5. Borsch quotes Jesus’ teaching in Luke 6 about loving our enemies. How has that teaching challenged you, or do you see it as an interim ethic that only makes sense if the Kingdom of God is coming any day now?
6. In the final sections of the chapter, Borsch suggests that it is only by being loved that we can grow in our capacity to love. How has your own experience of being loved helped you to become more loving?
Suggested Questions for Chapter 6
1. In the first section of the chapter Borsch suggests that our restlessness can be a gift that leads to seek a deeper relationship with God. In your own Christian life have you experienced the kind of restlessness that can be satisfied by resting in God?
2. What ways have you found to step away from the busy-ness of life, to wait for the Lord?
3. How have you dealt with the inevitable distractions that occur during our attempts to pray?
4. Can you recall times when you experienced yourself to be in the presence of the divine Awareness?
5. Have there been times when you seemed to be in a dark night where, in spite of all your efforts to become attuned to God’s presence, you experienced a profound sense of God’s absence?
Suggested Questions for Chapter 7
1. In this chapter Borsch explores questions that are “well beyond the horizon of our understanding.” (page 136) How do you respond to Borsch’s idea that “from our perspective, the world ends at our death”?
2. As you think about death – yours or others’ – do you see it as a release or do you share the feeling of some “that their life at the point of death seems inconclusive to them.”? (page 131)
3. How do you respond to the idea that our personal life stories might be “retained in Awareness and brought together in the tapestry of the great story of all creation.”? (page 132)
4. How do you envision the “new clothing” that we might put on beyond death? (page 135)
5. How do you respond to Borsch’s suggestion that “the creation and our humanity are still unfinished” (page 136) and that the two are interdependent?
6. Do you agree with Borsch that a faith that trusts God “in the shadow of death” will trust “that our awareness continues to be valued in God’s.”? (page 137)
