"Being Christian isn't primarily about having a correct theology by getting our beliefs right. It is about a deepening relationship with God as known especially in Jesus.

"To return to mystical experiences: these episodes of sheer wonder, radical amazement, radiant luminosity, often evoke the exclamation, 'Oh my God!' So it has been for me. And for me that exclamation expresses truth. It is the central conviction that has shaped my Christian journey ever since. God is real, 'the more' in whom we live and move and have our being.

"It has also shaped my understanding of religions in general and major religious figures, including the central figures of the biblical tradition: Moses, the prophets, Jesus, Paul, and more. They were all people for whom God, the sacred, the more, was an experiential reality. That is where their way of seeing — their wisdom, their passion, and their courage — came from. They didn't simply believe strongly in God; they knew God. The central convictions and foundations of this book are that God is real and that the Bible and Christianity are the Christian story of our relationship with God, 'the more,' 'what is.' "