Ep. 077 - Matthew Distefano on shedding the theology that traps you and finding the curiosity on the other side

<p>Matthew Distefano came to this conversation through the Quoir Publishing family, with a bag of Star Wars tattoos and a mind that has spent years pressing through the hard questions that a lot of people are afraid to ask out loud. We talked about what happens when the theology you inherited stops adding up, and what it looks like to push all the way through cynicism and anger into something that actually feels like life.</p><p>Matthew grew up with hell, the rapture, and a God who didn&#39;t quite make sense to a kid watching his dad be a deadbeat. Those early questions never went away. They just got more developed. Eventually, through philosophers like Renee Girard and theologians like Richard Rohr, he found a language for what he had always sensed: that we create God in our image, and then imitate that image back into the world. When he stopped doing that, the whole universe opened up. Star Wars stopped needing to be a Christian allegory. Hiking stopped feeling like it was happening under the shadow of eternal consequences. Curiosity became the engine instead of fear.</p><p>We spent a good part of this conversation on something I find myself circling with people all the time: the difference between deconstruction as a destination and deconstruction as a season you move through. It is easy to trade fear for anger and think you have arrived somewhere. Matthew has not done that. He farms, he parents a teenage daughter deep in the Star Wars lore, he co-owns a publishing house, and he holds his spirituality loosely, like something simmering on the back burner rather than something to perform. That is a rare thing. This was a good conversation.</p><p>Subscribe to Tyler&#39;s Substack: <a href="tylerhill.net/monday" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">tylerhill.net/monday</a></p><p>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thuhtyler/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">@thuhTYLER</a></p><p>Website: <a href="tylerhill.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">tylerhill.net</a></p><p><br></p>