What if the moment your faith falls apart… isn't the end, but the beginning of flight?
What happens when you take the infinity of God seriously? Comparative theologian Jon Paul Syndor spent his career refusing to stay inside one tradition's walls — a PhD from Boston College studying Christian theology alongside deep immersion in Hinduism and Buddhism, two years in the Peace Corps reading every religious text he could find, and a dissertation bridging the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher with the Hindu theologian Ramanuja. The result is his book, The Great Open Dance, and a theology built on a question most of us are taught never to ask: what if God is too big for any single religion to hold?
In this conversation, Jon Paul makes a crucial distinction that reframes the whole "all paths lead to God" debate: it's not the structure of a religion that leads to the divine — it's agape, God's unconditional, universal love, wherever it shows up. Some religions cultivate it. Some don't. That single criterion changes everything about how we evaluate faith, culture, and each other. Jon Paul walks through panentheism — the belief that God is both within creation and beyond it — and how it transformed his relationship with nature, Scripture, and the sacred itself. We dig into non-dualism, the idea that we were never actually separated from God or from each other, and why "love your enemy" might be the most radical, non-dualistic command in all of Scripture.
This episode also reframes deconstruction itself. Jon Paul argues that tearing down the structures we've placed around God doesn't empty faith out — it endorses the infinity we were always trying to contain. Using the image of a nestling pushed from the nest, he makes the case that the disorientation many of us feel when our theology starts to crumble isn't falling. It's the beginning of flight. We also take a detour into near-death experiences, the mysterious and strikingly consistent reports of encountering overwhelming, unconditional love on the other side — and what they might tell us about the God Jon Paul believes is always bigger than we were told.
Whether you're deconstructing an inherited faith, exploring other religious traditions, or simply trying to figure out what's actually holding your spiritual life together, this conversation offers a way forward: trust God, not the structure. Look for love everywhere. And maybe, just maybe, you were always meant to fly.
Jon Paul's Substack: https://jonpaulsydnor.substack.com
Once grace is tamed, it ceases to be grace. Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.
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Episode partnered with QuoirCast, and written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.
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