Let Go... Then Hang on TightLet Go... Then Hang on Tight
Father Bill W.
Two recovering priests talk through “the God problem” in 12-step recovery, using radical theology to rethink old images of God and higher power. They discuss God as the ground of being, practical spiritual practices and how a changing God concept can support long-term sobriety.
50:31•6 Apr 2026
Let Go of the Old God and Hold Tight to a New Higher Power
Episode Overview
- Questioning a rigid, judging God image can open space for a higher power that feels safer and more helpful in recovery.
- Seeing God as the ground of being or a field of unconditional reality offers another way to relate spiritually without literal images.
- Letting go of immature ideas of God is part of going “all the way” in 12-step surrender rather than stopping at partial compliance.
- Prayer, meditation, lectio divina and Two Way Prayer are suggested as ways to move from thinking about God to actually experiencing God.
- The 12 steps and our image of God are never finished; both are meant to keep deepening throughout a lifetime in recovery.
“We’re swimming in God, right? You cannot be where God is not.”
What insights can experts and survivors share about addiction? This conversation brings together two recovering Episcopal priests, Father Bill W. from Austin and Father James R. from Central Florida, to wrestle with what they call “the God problem” in 12-step recovery. Instead of offering tidy religious answers, they kick around radical theology inspired by Jack Caputo’s book *What to Believe: 12 Brief Lessons in Radical Theology*.
You’ll hear them question the old “gothic script God” – the stern judge who’s “keeping the list to know when you’re naughty and when you’re nice” – and talk about why that image can feel unsafe for someone trying to hand their will and life over in recovery.
They look at the idea of God as “the ground of being” rather than a supreme being, using images like fields, oceans and forests to show how the “great reality” might be something we’re already swimming in. As Father Bill puts it, “We’re swimming in God, right? You cannot be where God is not.” For anyone who’s allergic to religion yet desperate for a higher power that actually helps, this chat offers some fresh angles.
They compare “bridge builders”, who search for God somewhere out there, with “ground diggers” who search within, and link this to AA’s call to let go of “immature, childish ideas of God” to make space for a deeper experience. Prayer, meditation, Two Way Prayer and lectio divina all show up as practical ways to move from concepts to lived experience.
And there’s plenty of gentle humour along the way, including circus clowns, Comic Sans gods and meeting-makers stuck in LA traffic. If your old God idea stopped working but you still feel yourself saying “Oh my God” in a crisis, this episode might be the conversation that helps you ask, what else could God be for you now?
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