Converging Paths

Converging Paths is a podcast for people who care about faith and refuse to live it narrowly.Through sustained conversations among a Christian minister, Jewish rabbis, Buddhist teachers, and others, the podcast explores how different spiritual traditions wrestle with the same human questions — meaning, suffering, joy, justice, love, and the transformation of the self.Hosted from a Christian perspective shaped by Christian Pluralism, Converging Paths is rooted in the way of Jesus while honoring the sacred wisdom of other faiths. It is not about blending religions or erasing difference, but about listening across boundaries, learning with humility, and discovering how interfaith dialogue can deepen — rather than dilute — a faithful life.Each season offers thoughtful, honest conversation at the intersection of spirituality, culture, and the inner work needed to live wisely and compassionately in a fractured world.

Converging Paths is a religion podcast hosted by Eric Elnes, with 8 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Eric Elnes hosts Converging Paths, a religion show with 8 episodes published.

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  Episode #3

  The Prayer We Thought We Knew - Ep 3: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread — But What If Your Pantry Is Full?

  Oct 4, 202632 minS6

  It gets complicated fast. The mysterious Greek word translated “daily,” epiousios , appears almost nowhere else in surviving Greek, leaving open surprisingly different ways of hearing Jesus’ prayer. But the deeper question may be hiding in a word most of us pray straight past: us . Rev. Dr. Eric Elnes is joined by Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer and Zen Buddhist teacher Esther Freinkel-Tishman for a conversation that moves from manna in the wilderness to oryoki , the Zen practice of taking only what you need. Along the way, “daily bread” becomes a question about dependence, gratitude, enoughness, and justice: Can I really say I have enough when someone else does not? Part of The Prayer We Thought We Knew , a six-part Converging Paths series exploring the Lord’s Prayer through Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist perspectives.

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  Episode #2

  The Prayer We Thought We Knew, Ep. 2 - Is Heaven Already Here?

  Sep 27, 202637 minS6

  What are we actually asking when we pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? In Episode 2 of The Prayer We Thought We Knew , Rev. Eric Elnes is joined by Rabbi Brian Mayer and Zen Buddhist teacher Esther Freinkel-Tishman to explore a deceptively familiar line of the Lord’s Prayer. Their conversation begins with a surprisingly difficult question: What do we even mean by heaven ? Is it somewhere else, something still to come—or a reality already present but not yet fully realized? From Jesus’ Beatitudes to the Buddhist relationship between samsara and nirvana, the conversation wrestles with a dangerous tension: teachings about surrender and finding heaven amid suffering can awaken us to sacred reality, but they can also become excuses for passivity and acceptance of injustice. So what does “Thy will be done” actually ask of us? The discussion moves through Thomas Merton, spiritual uncertainty, surrender, Roman imperial power, Jesus’ alternative kingdom, and the possibility that prayer itself gradually turns us toward participation in the reality for which we pray. Perhaps heaven is not simply where we hope to go someday. Perhaps the prayer is asking what it would mean for heaven to become more visible here—and what part we might play in bringing it to life.

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  Episode #1

  The Prayer We Thought We Knew, Ep. 1: “Our Father”—Not My Father

  Sep 20, 202637 minS6

  Two billion people know the Lord’s Prayer by heart. Almost nobody stops to ask what Jesus hoped would happen inside us when we say, “Our Father.” In the first episode of The Prayer We Thought We Knew , Rev. Eric Elnes explores the prayer one line at a time with Rabbi Brian Mayer, who says the word “Father” bums him out, and Zen Buddhist teacher Esther Freinkel-Tishman, who finds the whole phrase alien—yet describes her own devotion to prajna, the dark Mother and perfection of wisdom. Together they ask whether we can call God “Father” without reinforcing patriarchy, what changes when we pray our Father rather than my Father, how the Holy can be both intimately near and utterly beyond us, and what it means to hallow a name for the One who cannot finally be named. Along the way, they encounter a cross made from a salmon box, the silence at the bottom of a swimming pool, pages of rabbinic commentary on a single letter, the possibility that God can say two things at once, and an ancient understanding of heaven as “between the waters.” They don’t arrive at agreement. That turns out to be the interesting part. The Lord’s Prayer may be the best-known prayer in the world. It may also be the prayer we have barely begun to understand. Guests: Rabbi Brian Mayer and Esther Freinkel-Tishman, Zen Buddhist teacher Host: Rev. Eric Elnes, Ph.D. Converging Paths is produced by the Eden Tree Foundation, a 501(c)(3) fostering spiritual growth and interfaith understanding through present and emerging technology. Support the series: [DONATE LINK]

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  Episode #7

  Pride vs. Humility: The Spiritual Trap of Being Certain

  Apr 5, 202629 minS5

  Pride is usually imagined as swagger, ego, and self-importance. But in this episode, the conversation goes deeper: pride may be the invisible cage of certainty — the belief that we already know, already see, already understand. In this season finale of Converging Paths , Eric, Brian, and Esther explore the subtle difference between healthy selfhood and spiritual inflation, the danger of humility language for those who have been taught to disappear, and the challenge of becoming “bustable” — able to admit when we are wrong. A rich and surprising final conversation on pride, humility, curiosity, apology, and wonder.

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  Episode #6

  Lust vs. Love: Desire, Control, and the Longing to Be Seen

  Mar 30, 202630 minS5

  What is the difference between lust and love? In this episode of Converging Paths , Rev. Eric Elnes, Rabbi Brian Mayer, and Esther Freinkel-Tishman explore lust not simply as sexual desire, but as grasping, control, and objectification — and love as mutuality, spaciousness, and the freedom to let another person be fully real. Drawing on Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist wisdom, the conversation moves from Bathsheba and the Song of Songs to crushes, covenant, perfectionism, leadership, and the deep human longing to be seen. Thoughtful, funny, and surprisingly practical, this episode uncovers why lust may be far more than temptation — and why love asks something radically different of us.

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