146: Tom Rundel: God is Not an Idea

Nov 26, 2025

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In this episode, Tom Rundel explores the meaning of Christ the King Sunday, the conclusion of the liturgical year, and uses Psalm 46 to challenge the common Western tendency to treat God as a mere idea rather than an embodied reality. Rundel unpacks the Psalmist’s imagery—refuge, river, stillness—to point listeners toward a faith that is lived, practiced, and experienced in the body, not simply thought in the mind. He contrasts the biblical embodied pathway of spiritual trust with the modern habit of “spiritual bypassing,” urging listeners to regulate their nervous systems not with ideas but with grounding practices, presence, and embodied trust. In a world that feels like it is shaking, this episode reframes stillness as a revolutionary act of faith.

Key Takeaway Moments
Liturgical time shapes us: The liturgical calendar exists to form us, not to reflect our preferences or current news cycles. Christ the King Sunday was created to resist nationalism:
Pope Pius XI introduced it in 1925 in response to rising secularism, nationalism, and authoritarianism after World War I.
Psalm 46 is embodied, not abstract: God as refuge is comparable to a life-saving oasis in an actual desert—not an inspirational concept but a physical experience.
Ideas alone cannot calm the nervous system: Overthinking spiritual truths cannot regulate fear, anxiety, or overwhelm; we need embodied practices.
God is encountered in the physical world: Walks in nature, shared meals, prayer, meditation, therapy, community, and rhythms of grounding connect us with divine presence.
Be still = “Stop it”: The Hebrew phrase carries the tone of a sharp interruption—God breaking into human anxiety, war, and inner conflict. Your identity is not your performance: We must detach our self-worth from opinions, productivity, and inner narratives.
Divine life flows through reality like a river: God is woven into creation’s fabric, inviting us into steady presence rather than frantic striving.
Stillness is not passivity but resistance: Trust is an active response that disrupts fear, violence, and domination—within society and within ourselves.

Chapter Breakdown
1. The Liturgical Year and Christ the King Sunday Tom explains how the liturgical calendar shapes Christian reflection and why Christ the King Sunday was added in 1925 as a response to nationalism and authoritarianism.
2. Introducing Psalm 46 He situates the Psalm as an ancient song meant to be sung, full of poetic imagery that speaks to a trembling world.
3. God as Refuge — More Than an Idea Tom describes the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula and the oasis at En Gedi to illustrate that God as “refuge” was originally a lived survival experience, not an abstract thought.
4. Ideas vs. Embodied Faith He critiques Western Christianity’s tendency to reduce faith to thoughts, arguing that nervous systems cannot be soothed by ideas alone.
5. Experiencing God Through the Body Tom highlights spiritual grounding practices—walks, rest, prayer, therapy, worship—as places where divine presence is actually encountered.
6. The River of God Using imagery from ancient Egypt and Jerusalem, he shows how rivers symbolized life, stability, and divine presence in the midst of chaos.
7. “Be Still” as a Divine Intervention Tom reframes “be still and know” as God forcefully stopping human violence and inner chaos—less gentle contemplation, more “stop it.”
8. The Inner War He identifies the internal battles of self-worth, anxiety, and fear, urging listeners to stop fueling the war through performance and self-criticism.
9. God Woven Into Reality He quotes Ilya Delio and others to describe divine life as flowing through the cosmos; faith becomes an embodied way of being.
10. Reflection & Practice Tom offers reflection questions and a spiritual practice for the week, ending with a poem titled Still Here by Paul A. Jones.

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