What in God's Name?What in God's Name?
Father Bill W.
Father Bill W. and Father James R. talk through John Caputo’s radical theology, reframing God as a call that needs a response rather than a distant fixer. Their discussion connects this idea directly to AA, showing how metaphor, action and community can make spirituality workable for people in recovery who struggle with traditional beliefs.
45:55•4 May 2026
What in God’s Name? Radical Theology Meets 12‑Step Recovery
Episode Overview
- God is framed as a call or event that needs a human response, rather than a distant being who fixes everything for us.
- Spiritual stories and miracles are presented as powerful metaphors meant to move the heart, not tests of literal belief.
- Recovery is described as answering an inner call again and again, taking concrete action instead of waiting passively for rescue.
- Deep 12‑Step work involves ongoing ego‑emptying so there is “room for God”, leading towards being happy, joyous and free.
- The “existence” of God is linked to how people live out love, service and hope together, especially in the recovery community.
“God knocks, but he’s not going to try the doorknob.”
Curious about how others manage their sobriety when their idea of God has been shattered, stretched, or just doesn’t fit anymore? This conversation with Father Bill W. and fellow Episcopal priest Father James R. sits right in that tension. Drawing on John Caputo’s book *What to Believe: 12 Brief Lessons in Radical Theology*, they chat through concepts like God as a **call** rather than a cosmic puppeteer.
As Caputo puts it, “The name of God is the name of a call that calls for the coming of the impossible… to which we should be the response, making it actual.” For anyone in 12‑Step recovery who struggles with the word *God*, that line alone may feel like a lifeline.
You’ll hear them link Caputo’s ideas directly to AA: the “event” of God is what happens when someone finally responds to the inner nudge that says, *I better get sober*, and then actually takes action.
They swap stories and jokes (including the classic bloke-on-the-roof-in-a-flood story) to make a serious point: “God knocks, but he’s not going to try the doorknob.” The pair question literalist religion, talk about the danger of making faith unbelievable, and bring in mystics like Teresa of Avila and Viktor Frankl to show how poetry, metaphor and imagination can speak to that “impossible” hope many people feel in early recovery.
They link this directly to step work, powerlessness, and the long, slow emptying of ego so “there’s room for God”. At heart, this conversation is for people in recovery who want a spirituality that’s deep, honest and workable, but who choke on old images of a man-in-the-sky. As Caputo says, “The weakness of God is that God does not exist. God insists.” What might change in your programme if you treated God as a call that needs *your* response?
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