Ep. 17: From Fundamentalism to Nuance: Rediscovering Ancient Spiritual Practices w/ Travis Wade Zinn
Show Notes
Episode Summary
From his fundamentalist, homeschooled (Bill Gothard style) upbringing to finding himself addicted to alcohol and homeless in France, Travis Wade Zinn has been through a lot. His faith has understandably gone through many changes—including being nonexistent for a while—yet he believes he’s found a deeper connection to God via ancient Christian practices that the modern American Church has lost. Listen to his story of struggle, loss, transformation, and finding God in unlikely ways.
Bio
Travis Wade Zinn holds a dual honors degree in history and religion from Indiana University Bloomington and a professional diploma in crime and intelligence analysis from Sacramento State. He specializes in Christian mysticism and has studied at several Zen monasteries throughout the world. He is also the author of Path of Trinity: Journey into Christian Mysticism.
Follow Travis on Facebook (@twzinn), Instagram, and Twitter (@traviswadezinn).
Quotables
“If our Christianity doesn’t become mystical and embrace the mystical truth, I don’t see how it’s going to survive in the 21st century.” (tweet this)
“The soul is that individuated, purified part of us that, until we break through in spirit, we remain basically bound and trapped (i.e. original sin).” (tweet this)
“Not everyone is moving ahead at the same speed, and that creates all kinds of chaos.” (tweet this)
“Chaos creates hope for transformation and renewal.” (tweet this)
“We’re going to see real transformation of Christianity, but it’s only going to happen if we move to different paradigms and frameworks of understanding the world.” (tweet this)
“Many transformational practices have been labeled ‘new age,’ but they’re not, they’re ancient. We’ve just suppressed them with institutional religion.” (tweet this)
Timestamps and References
[01:29]—Travis’s faith background
[01:42]—Bill Gothard and the Advanced Training Institute (more info here); the Quiverfull movement (more info here)
[02:30]—For our analysis of how patriarchy has impacted the Church in the United States, check out episode 5.
[04:20]—How Travis’ parents’ change to an independent baptist church and an extreme literal reading of the Bible impacted his Christian faith
[08:22]—How Travis found his way out of alcoholism and into Zen Buddhism
[11:00]—How Zen Buddhism led the way back into Christianity—minus the fundamentalism
[16:22]—How moving from orthodoxy to orthopraxy, from dogma to open-mindedness, from institutional religion to ancient religious practices changed Travis’s faith
[19:00]—What “mystical” means
[21:32]—Some of the tools that can lead to deep spiritual transformation
[23:43]—How Travis his regards his fundamentalist upbringing and faith now that he has come back to Christianity
[28:54]—Some of the reasons why Travis has been labeled a “heretic”
[31:02]—Christian hermeticism
[34:04]—What gives Travis hope about the future of faith
[35:10]—Robert Kennedy’s Morning Star Zendo,
[35:14]—Kevin Hunt’s Day Star Zendo
[37:05]—Rapid Fire questions
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Credits
This episode was produced by The Sophia Society. Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge.
