ABOUT THE AUTHOR

About The Author

Author Overview

Born in 1941, Frank Jo Maitland Geltner, in Godscience, reflects on the history of God in the world — taking his readers on a journey of humankind’s many ways of expressing and/or understanding God. Readers will come to understand the influence of the brain’s architecture on perception, meaning and the very structure of reality as experienced by his consciousness. 

Frank Geltner is the author of Godscience: The Conscience and Science of God, a book shaped by years of reflection on faith, consciousness, and the deeper questions people carry through life.

Writing Style

He writes in a way that feels thoughtful, open, and grounded. Godscience does not push quick answers. It gives space to wonder, doubt, reflection, and the search for meaning.

About The Author

Author Overview

Born in 1941, Frank Jo Maitland Geltner, in Godscience, reflects on the history of God in the world — taking his readers on a journey of humankind’s many ways of expressing and/or understanding God. Readers will come to understand the influence of the brain’s architecture on perception, meaning and the very structure of reality as experienced by his consciousness. We get to see how he uses the brain given to him at his creation and developed through his unique exposure to spirituality. His spiritual journey began like most through the desires of his parents; a desire nurtured by the culture they were exposed to in the inner city of Chicago. Roman Catholicism and its educational outlets throughout the world gave him his first view of spirituality. Later agnosticism defined his spiritual mindset. Then he was influenced, as many are, by the force of marital ties. This immersed him in the Christian Science Way of Life; a long and meaningful four decades. This was followed by a period of what has come to be known as being ’spiritual but not religious.’ Then came Unitarian-Universalism. And this is where he is now at home in his spirituality.

Geltner received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1980), experienced Trinity College, Oxford for two summer, earned a Master of Arts Degree (1969) from Memphis State University, and a Bachelor’s Degree (1967) from the University of Illinois in Chicago. Frank served as Alumni Director of the University of Illinois, Chicago (1970-1974), as the Associate Director and University Program Consultant for the Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon (1977-1997), as the Executive Director of the San Juan Community Theatre (1997-1999), and is retired from being Executive Director of the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts (1999-2007).
 
Dr. Geltner is a veteran of the Army Security Agency (1959-1962), where he served in Herzogenaurach, Germany, not too far, as he learned in the course of writing this book, from Jena, famous for the 18th-century romantic drama played out so thoroughly in Andrea Wulf’s Magnificent Rebels. He thinks that might have been a good time in which to write this book.
 
Geltner worked as an Arts Administrator, a Retired Professional Registered Parliamentarian, a college professor, an auto mechanic, an electrical helper, a bartender, a money transfer operator, and has served on many boards over the years.
 
He was a member of The Very Little Theatre with its long history of community theatre, founded in 1929, in Eugene, Oregon.
 
One of his most intense volunteer efforts has been to preserve the legacy of the composer, Ernest Bloch. He created the Ernest Bloch website <www.ernestbloch.org> around 2005 and maintained it until members of the Bloch family took over. He commissioned the first edition of Ernest Bloch: Composer in Nature’s University through a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2005, which has been through many revisions. He is now part of an effort to celebrate the Bloch Sesquicentennial in 2030 in the Agate Beach district of Newport, Oregon. He is now “flamekeeper emeritus” of the Ernest Bloch Legacy Project.
 
Geltner was at the base of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington and MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963 and, while a graduate student at Memphis State University, he found himself a few blocks from the Lorraine Motel, on that fateful day in 1968 when we lost Dr. King. While taking a break from higher education, Geltner found odd jobs in New York City using the skills he gained while a member of the Army Security Agency (typing 95 words a minute). It was from this vantage point that he found himself drawn to the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August 1969. The tickets to the three day event were $18.00 — Imagine!

Focus Areas

  • Faith and conscience
  • Consciousness and human nature
  • Meaning, morality, and belief
  • The meeting point of reason and spirituality

Approach

Frank’s writing is guided by curiosity more than certainty. Even when the subject is big, the tone stays personal and clear. That is part of what makes the book feel human.

Why Readers Connect

  • It explores difficult ideas without sounding distant
  • It stays reflective instead of preachy
  • It invites readers to think for themselves

At the heart of Frank Geltner’s work is a simple thing: a real interest in the questions that stay with people. That is the spirit behind Godscience.