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What’s your spiritual story? In this episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, philosopher Jerry L. Martin sits down with Joel Weiner to explore a journey that moves from childhood faith, through rejection, to rediscovery and renewal.

Joel grew up in a Jewish home in Philadelphia, went through Hebrew school, and walked away from synagogue life right after his bar mitzvah. Years later, he found his way back, first through the Reform movement at Keneseth Israel, and later as a leader at Temple Judea, where Torah study and community reignited his spiritual curiosity.

Along the way, Joel encountered Jewish Renewal, Hasidic inspiration, and the deeper wisdom behind Torah stories. Together, he and Jerry discuss what it means to be “chosen,” the role of Midrash, how different faiths can walk many roads to God, and why the New Axial Age invites us to see religion beyond walls and labels.

From ecology and technology as gifts of God, to the sacred task of tikkun olam—repairing the world—Joel shares how spirituality becomes real in everyday life. His story shows how faith can evolve with honesty, reason, and heart.

✨ Listen now to discover how Jewish tradition, spiritual renewal, and universal wisdom come together in a personal search for meaning.

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your thoughts or questions at questions@godandautobiography.com
• 📖 Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

In this episode, Jerry and Abigail return for their fourth conversation in the series Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue, exploring the most profound theme of God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher: the New Axial Age.

The term “Axial Age,” introduced by philosopher Karl Jaspers, describes the pivotal era when some of the world’s greatest spiritual figures appeared within a few centuries of one another: Socrates, the Hebrew prophets, the Buddha, Confucius, and the sages of the Upanishads.

Humanity shifted on its spiritual axis, developing new ways of thinking, deeper moral insights, and new pathways to the divine. Now, Jerry shares that God revealed to him we stand on the threshold of another great transformation, a new spiritual era filled with both peril and promise.

Together, Jerry and Abigail ask what this might mean for religions and traditions born in the first Axial Age. Are they fading, losing their power to hold communities together, as God suggests, while a new spirituality rises in diverse, often fragmented ways?

Abigail speaks of her profound yet complex relationship with Judaism, her spiritual experiences in India, her affection for Gandhi, and her surprising love of country gospel. Jerry recalls his own journey from Southern Baptist and Pentecostal childhood through philosophy into a direct encounter with God.

Their conversation moves between history, theology, and personal testimony, showing how ancient wisdom and modern lives intertwine. They consider the Jewish vocation of chronology and covenant, the Hindu pursuit of Atman and Brahman, and the universal human calling to partner with God in history.

Through all of this, one theme emerges as both anchor and challenge: to be truthful—to reality, to God, and to oneself.

Are we living through a moment of spiritual collapse or the birth of something radically new?

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your story: questions@godandautobiography.com

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

In this episode of From God to Jerry to You, Dr. Jerry L. Martin explores a profound and timely revelation: the arrival of a New Spiritual Axial Age.

God’s message to Jerry wasn’t just about retelling a familiar story; it was about reframing it for an era in which the world’s faith traditions meet, interact, and evolve in ways never before possible.

Jerry shares how God explained that humanity is living in an extraordinary period of spiritual transformation. The old religious frameworks are loosening, yet there is a renewed hunger for the Divine.

This is not about creating one universal religion, but about opening pathways for spiritual growth through dialogue, exchange, and creative adaptation across traditions.

Listeners will hear how the original Axial Age — the time of Socrates, Confucius, the Hebrew prophets, and Hindu sages — reshaped human consciousness, and how today’s spiritual landscape mirrors that transformative energy.

From the personal God of the Old Testament to the Hindu concept of the Atman, Jerry illustrates how these truths, when received in new contexts, can spark fresh revelations and foster spiritual development.

God’s vision invites people of all backgrounds to draw wisdom from multiple sources, not blending them into sameness, but allowing each tradition to inspire new insights and deepen the understanding of Divine reality.

Join us for an episode that bridges faith and philosophy, history and the present day, and invites you to see your spiritual path as part of a larger, living story.

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your thoughts or questions at questions@godandautobiography.com
• 📖 Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

In this moving episode of What’s On Our Mind, Scott and Jerry revisit one of the most difficult questions in spiritual life: why does suffering exist?

Drawing from God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher, they reflect on God’s response to Jerry’s early questions about pain and meaning. God doesn’t minimize suffering—He calls it “the law of growth in the universe.”

Jerry and Scott explore how suffering shapes the soul, how grief expresses love, and how even ordinary moments—taking a photo, mailing a letter—can be spiritually rich. They also challenge the belief that suffering is a punishment or sign of guilt, offering instead a divine perspective that invites growth, presence, and compassion.

Whether you’re struggling or simply wondering, this episode speaks to the human need to find meaning in life’s hardest moments.

Related Episodes:

242. What's Your Spiritual Story? Rosemarie Proctor: A Chaplain’s Journey Through Grief, Healing, and Faith

241. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue- What We Learn Through Love and Suffering

240. From God to Jerry to You- When Suffering Strikes: Finding Meaning, Love, and God in Hard Times

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your thoughts or questions at questions@godandautobiography.com
• 📖 Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

What’s your spiritual story? In this heartfelt episode of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, Dr. Jerry L. Martin sits down with hospital chaplain Rosemarie Proctor to explore a life of evolving faith, profound loss, and deep spiritual wisdom.

Rosemarie’s journey began in a strict Catholic upbringing, where fear-based teachings about heaven and hell shaped her childhood worldview. After decades of spiritual disconnection, it was the sudden loss of her husband and an unexpected prayer from a local minister that opened the door to healing—and brought her back to faith through the Episcopal Church.

At 85 years old, Rosemarie shares her transition from grieving widow to spiritual comforter, offering insight into how she became a hospital chaplain despite never intending to walk that path. In one of the episode’s most moving moments, she recalls the 9/11 chaplain’s prayer—a guiding force in her ministry: "Lord, take me where you want me to go, let me meet who you want me to meet, help me say what you want me to say, and get me out of the way."

Jerry and Rosemarie also discuss:

• How meditation and gardening helped her rediscover the divine
• Her experience with Reiki and insights into Eastern spirituality
• Why God: An Autobiography affirmed her long-held belief that God sets different paths for different people
• The idea of a personal God who is evolving through relationship with humanity

Whether you're religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, or simply curious about the many ways people find meaning, this episode invites you to reflect on the turning points that shape our spiritual lives.

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your thoughts or questions at questions@godandautobiography.com
• 📖 Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

What does it mean to love someone deeply in a world where suffering is inevitable? Jerry and Abigail return for another honest and intimate reflection on a recent health crisis that brought the pair face-to-face with mortality, vulnerability, and the aching intensity of love throughout it all.

After Abigail suffers a near-fatal injury and a cascade of medical complications, Jerry and Abigail recount the physical ordeal and emotional aftermath. The couple invites listeners into the raw and tender space of survival, caregiving, and spiritual insight while wrestling with questions like: Why does suffering exist? How do we stay open when life threatens to shut us down? And where is God when we feel most broken?

Abigail shares how her sense of self narrowed in response to pain, leaving her with the most minimal form of consciousness she had ever known. Jerry reflects on the surprising joy of enacting love through caregiving. Together, they explore the spiritual transformation that can arise from shared adversity and how moments of crisis can reopen the "skylight" to grace, love, and the transcendent.

From Shakespeare to William James, trapeze metaphors to real-life hospital corridors, this conversation weaves together philosophy, storytelling, and spiritual wisdom as the two (deeply in love) philosophers provide this reflection on suffering as a guide to loving through it, learning from it, and finding God at its heart.

Are you walking through hardship or supporting someone who is? Tune in to hope, grounding, and an invitation to stay spiritually open, even when it hurts.

Related Episodes: When Suffering Strikes

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your story: questions@godandautobiography.com
• Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

Why do good people suffer? What does it mean when pain and loss enter our lives without warning? In this profoundly moving episode of From God To Jerry To You, Jerry L. Martin shares a personal story that brings the universal question of suffering into sharp, intimate focus.

When Jerry’s wife, Abigail, experienced a series of life-threatening health crises—a broken hip, emergency surgery, and a near-fatal internal bleed—Jerry found himself grappling with what he has long called the unanswerable question: Why does a loving God allow pain?

These events tested not only his faith but his capacity for love, resilience, and presence in the face of real fear.

Drawing from his dialogues with God and his books God: An Autobiography, and Radically Personal, Jerry reflects on whether suffering has meaning, purpose, or any redeeming qualities. He discusses how caregiving became a spiritual practice and how supporting a loved one can transform pain into an expression of love in action, discovering how moments of crisis can unmask the deepest truths about our relationships and ourselves.

Listeners will hear how faith can be reshaped by hardship, why caregiving can feel both like a burden and a blessing, and how love often shows itself most clearly when everything else falls away. Whether you are spiritual but not religious, exploring your own questions about suffering and purpose, or simply interested in hearing one man’s honest story of struggle and faith, this episode offers insight and encouragement.

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your thoughts or questions at questions@godandautobiography.com
• 📖 Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

Questions? Comments? Text Us!

What Is God’s Story? Ongoing Revelation, Personal Experience, and the Language of Story

In the newest What's On Our Mind, Scott Langdon and Jerry L. Martin explore how God’s story is dynamic and evolving, not a fixed account from the past. They reflect on how revelation continues today and how personal experience shapes our understanding of the divine.

Jerry discusses why God grows through interaction with humanity and how reading ancient texts reveals an ongoing conversation between God and humankind. They consider Swedenborg’s insights about continuous revelation and the role of modern spiritual messengers.

The conversation also explores empathy as a path to understanding God, trusting your own experiences of the sacred, and recognizing how your life becomes a chapter in God’s autobiography.

Discover why spiritual growth is always personal, and why God’s story is still unfolding.

Related Episodes:

238. What’s Your Spiritual Story: Ray Silverman on Swedenborg, Modern Revelation, and Eternal Love

237. Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue - How A Radically Personal God Works In Real Lives

236. From God to Jerry To You- How To Hear God’s Call In Your Own Life

Other Series:

The podcast began with the Dramatic Adaptation of the book and now has several series:

The Life Wisdom Project – Spiritual insights on living a wiser, more meaningful life.

From God to Jerry to You – Divine messages and breakthroughs for seekers.

Two Philosophers Wrestle With God – A dialogue on God, truth, and reason.

Jerry & Abigail: An Intimate Dialogue – Love, faith, and divine presence in partnership.

What’s Your Spiritual Story – Real stories of people changed by encounters with God.

What’s On Our Mind – Reflections from Jerry and Scott on recent episodes.

What’s On Your Mind – Listener questions, divine answers, and open dialogue.

Stay Connected

• Share your thoughts or questions at questions@godandautobiography.com
• 📖 Get the book

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube