What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul

In Short

This book offers a modern, rational defense of Christian faith written to address the genuine doubts of early twentieth-century believers. Drawing on personal experience, scientific developments, and philosophical reflection, Richard La Rue Swain argues that God is not a distant, localized physical entity, but a loving, intelligent, personal Will animating the entire cosmos. Through clear logic and accessible illustrations, Swain reframes human identity, the afterlife, and the spiritual authority of Scripture. The work endures because it bridges the perceived divide between modern scientific understanding and deeply felt spiritual experience with enduring warmth, clarity, and intellectual integrity.

The Story

The narrative begins with a candid examination of how rigid, unexamined religious traditions and literalistic thinking often push honest thinkers into agnosticism or atheism. Swain illustrates this struggle using his own youthful experiences on the American frontier, where emotional revivalism, intense spiritual anxiety, and crude concepts of deity clashed with his growing intellectual awareness. He charts his early journey from a farm boy attending schoolhouse prayer meetings to a licensed adolescent preacher who secretly wrestled with profound doubts about the very existence of God.

Moving from personal narrative to broader philosophical inquiry, the argument demonstrates how modern science, rather than destroying faith, actually liberates it. Swain dismantles the naive, localized picture of a deity sitting on a physical throne in heaven. Instead, he defines God as an infinite, loving, intelligent Will that sustains every aspect of physical reality. Matter and natural laws are not separate from God; they are the active expression of His ongoing creative thought. Consequently, human beings are not isolated mechanical accidents, but personal "god-children" who awaken to self-consciousness within the divine environment.

Expanding this framework, Swain reassesses the traditional doctrines of heaven, hell, and human destiny. He rejects the idea that God pre-fabricates places of eternal bliss or punishment in advance. Instead, human beings, living and moving within God's infinite energies, actively co-create heaven or hell through their choices, relationships, and moral alignment with the divine Will. Real assurance regarding immortality, he argues, cannot be gained through abstract debate or passive belief, but emerges naturally when one actively experiments with religious truth in daily life.

Finally, the book addresses the authority and interpretation of the Bible. Swain confronts the distress caused by modern historical criticism, explaining that the Scriptures were never intended to be an errorless textbook of science or history. Rather, they are the record of humanity's evolving spiritual awakening, culminating in the life and teachings of Jesus. By viewing biblical stories, prophetic imagery, and apocalyptic writings as poetic, symbolic expressions of deep moral truths, believers can let go of literalistic distortions without losing the essential spiritual authority of the text.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins The author recounts his early frontier upbringing, describing schoolhouse revivals lit by candles stuck into window sashes and late-night theological debates around his family's fireplace. He candidly shares his sudden conversion, his subsequent stage fright when asked to testify, and his agonizing doubts as a seventeen-year-old newly licensed preacher.

Reframing the divine Swain systematically dismantles crude, materialistic notions of God, rejecting both pantheistic confusion and cold mechanical views of the universe. He establishes that God is properly understood as a personal, loving, and intelligent Will whose ongoing activity forms the underlying structure of all natural laws.

Humanity in the cosmos The discussion explores how human personality develops slowly through physical embodiment within God's enfolding energies. Man is recognized as a spiritual child of God, capable of choosing to align with divine purposes or sinking into moral degradation.

The dynamic afterlife The argument shifts to immortality, asserting that heaven and hell are not pre-built external locations, but moral environments shaped by human choices in cooperation with or resistance to God's power. True confidence in eternal life grows out of active spiritual practice rather than intellectual assent alone.

Reclaiming the Scriptures Swain addresses modern anxieties over biblical accuracy, distinguishing between the imperfect human vessels of poetic or historical expression and the timeless spiritual truths contained within them. He urges readers to embrace a mature, symbolic reading of Scripture to discover its true power.

The People

• Richard La Rue Swain: The author and narrator, who seeks to reconcile his deep spiritual longings with intellectual honesty. He struggles against stage fright, crude theology, and early doubts, ultimately finding clarity by redefining God through the lens of modern thought and personal experience.
• The Author's Father: A self-taught frontier theologian who delights in friendly late-night debates with visiting ministers, pack-peddlers, and travelers. His enthusiastic intellectual curiosity creates the formative backdrop for his son's early religious questioning.
• The Skeptical Lawyer: An acquaintance who rejects a personal God because he equates "person" with physical limitation, concluding absurdly that God might as well be "pig-iron." His objection prompts Swain to clarify the scholarly definition of personality as self-conscious will.
• The Confused Relative: A earnest visitor who tries to teach her young son that God is immanent in nature, only to be stumped when the boy asks if God is in strawberry shortcake. Her dilemma illustrates the common confusion surrounding divine presence.
• The College Student: A young woman who loses her childhood faith after a college course leads her to view the Bible as merely half-true history, serving as an example of those who lose Scripture's spiritual value by misinterpreting its intent.

In Its Own Voice

"Personality, to him, means a Will that knows itself, and then knows Other Wills."

The author clarifies that scholars do not conceive of God as a physical form, but as a conscious, relational force.

"There is no heaven on either side the grave, except that which is made by the cooeperation of God and His children."

This passage emphasizes that human moral choices actively build spiritual realities rather than inheriting ready-made environments.

"The Scriptures contain the 'specifications' and 'blue-prints' from God, it seemed important to include a description of how we must approach them if we are not to misread their spiritual content."

Here, Swain explains that the Bible serves as a practical, functional guide for living rather than an infallible scientific text.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book addresses the intellectual and emotional crisis caused by shifting cultural paradigms at the turn of the twentieth century. It directly confronts the anxiety that modern scientific progress and historical criticism must inevitably destroy Christian faith. Swain argues that true religion does not depend on outdated cosmological assumptions, rigid literalism, or magical thinking. Instead, he presents faith as a rational, experimental commitment to a personal, loving God who works through natural law and human agency. The text insists that spiritual truth must be tested in daily moral living and practical service rather than left as abstract theory, demonstrating that an honest mind and an earnest soul can comfortably dwell together.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers interested in historical theology, the intersection of faith and modern thought, and the evolution of American Protestantism. Swain writes with an approachable, conversational style that balances personal anecdotes with direct, logical reasoning. Readers will appreciate his plainspoken, empathetic tone and his refusal to rely on high-flown jargon or dogmatic threats.

While modern readers may notice occasional period-specific references—such as nineteenth-century frontier life, early twentieth-century scientific terminology, or references to forgotten popular movements like "New Thought"—these elements add authentic historical color rather than hindrance. The book's central questions remain strikingly relevant today: how to hold onto spiritual meaning in an age of rapid scientific advancement, how to make sense of suffering and the afterlife without relying on cartoonish imagery, and how to read ancient religious texts with both intellectual honesty and deep reverence. What stays with the reader is Swain's gentle conviction that genuine doubt is not the enemy of faith, but the necessary doorway to a mature, enduring understanding of God.