In a conversational interview on Dennis Prager’s show, bestselling author and radio host Eric Metaxas promotes his newly released memoir Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life. Metaxas explains that the book recounts his personal spiritual conversion at age 25—a “miracle” he describes as God literally breaking through his life—and traces his family’s immigrant background (Greek father, German mother who survived World War II). He reflects on his Yale experience, the ensuing sense of meaninglessness, and his quest for purpose. The dialogue shifts to a theological round‑table style question: “Why did God make man?” Metaxas answers that God, defined as the biblical God of love, created humanity to share love, while Prager adds that God made us to enjoy life. They critique the “glorify God” answer as textbook. The interview also includes light‑hearted anecdotes about a dinner with former Vice President Mike Pence, Metaxas’s earlier acclaimed biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Prager’s admiration for Metaxas’s previous works on abolitionism. Throughout, the tone is conversational, humorous, and earnest, revealing Metaxas’s personal narrative, theological stance, and the promotional framing of his memoir.
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It's just, it's a problem actually, which we have engaged in on a number of occasions. Eric Metaxas, for those of you who don't know, is truly a best-selling author, host of a great radio show called— and I have a little problem with this, he named it after himself— The Eric Metaxas Radio Show. It's on the same radio network. Eric Metaxas has written a classic, and that's rare, the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer, the Christian pastor who dissented from Nazism. He was a German, of course, and was executed by the Nazis. The book is a classic. It is a modern classic. And he has now written— it's coming out. When is it coming out, Eric?
Oh, I get to talk now?
Yeah, that was good. That was good. Even, see, even that I like. That's great.
Uh, it came out, it came out a couple days ago. What, you— I was supposed to be on your show for an hour and I got kicked to the curb. I don't know, Mitch McConnell stabbed somebody or something. I don't know what happened that was bigger news than me coming out with this book.
But yeah, there is actually insignificance. Your book ranks number one.
Actually, no, Cruz. Cruz tried to kill the young woman, the congresswoman. Yeah, I think that bumped it. You know, Ted Cruz needs to settle down. I mean, trying to murder people, I mean, what is he thinking? That's not going to be good in the long term, really, for his career. Mike, you know, I was just thinking that when you said that we joke around and it's a problem, it is a problem because we I can't stop joking even when we both are trying. So I'm going to try hard, but it's just—
I want you to know, folks, that Eric Metaxas, my wife and I, and another couple, that was it, just 5 of us, were guests in Vice President Pence's home. His lovely wife and his daughter was at the table. And I began the evening and— Those of you who have any sense of the now former vice president know that he is not a knee-slapper. He's a very serious man. But the evening began and I very straight-facedly looked at the vice president of the United States and said, it's an honor to be here, Mr. Vice President, but I just can't figure out why you invited Eric Metaxas.
Unbelievable. Yeah, he didn't— he couldn't see us coming, and that's, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Well, listen, uh, I— the book that I'm coming out with— you're, you're so kind, uh, in, in your words about my Bonhoeffer book. I've written all these different books. I've never written a book about the story of my life, but I've wanted to for years because, um, people often ask me how I had my, my God miracle around my 25th birthday. And it's a real story. It's a miracle. God came into life, blew my mind utterly miraculously. I can't make it up. I can't take credit that I reasoned my way to God. He punched a hole in the sheetrock and said, hey, I'm out here if you need me. And it changed, changed my life. I mean, literally, I've never been, you know, the same since. But in order to tell the story of what happened then, I kind of have to tell what happened before that. So that happened on my 25th birthday. So I started writing my story. And it's a crazy story, Dennis. I mean, I am, you know, the son of European immigrants. My dad's from Greece, my mom's from Germany. They met in an English class here in New York City, and their first date was to the Teddy Roosevelt Museum on 20th Street. You know, it's a crazy, beautiful American story, but there's a lot of humor in it. There's a lot of really crazy, crazy stories on the way to the despair after graduating Yale. And by the way, that's Yale's job is to take your parents' money and then to give you hopelessness and meaninglessness and, you know, the good prospects for a job. So yeah, so it's a crazy book. It's called Fish Out of Water: Search for the Meaning of Life. And it's not a joke, it's not really a joke, it's true. It's the story of my search for the meaning of life including the question, is there meaning in life, or is life meaningless? Meaningless. Because being in a place like Yale, you kind of get the impression— nobody comes out and says it because they don't have the guts— but that life has no meaning, there is no God, and, you know, we'll just try to have a good time in the meantime.
Eric Metaxas's book is Fish Out of Water. It's just coming out this week. A Search for the Meaning of Life: A Memoir. It is up at DennisPrager.com. So, to be truly and deeply serious, here's an interesting— it's, it's so big, the question, and I'm not expecting you to have even a great answer, but I am curious what you would say to the question, why did God make man?
Well, that's easy, because God is love. We're talking about the God of the Bible. We're not talking about some New Age fake divinity. But the God of the Bible is love. And he created us in his image so that he could share his love with us. So creating us was an act of love. And the goal was to have someone like him to to, to have a love relationship with. I mean, it's like, why do we have kids? Part of that is because, uh, we know we will love them, and if we're lucky, they will love us. And there's nothing more beautiful than that. And that's, that's, uh, part of the answer of why God created us.
It's a lovely— it is. I mean that not, not patronizingly. It is a lovely answer, and I buy it. I was on a panel many years ago in Washington, D.C. I was, as you know, the Jew, which you always make hilarious reference to in front of Christian audiences, and I get a big kick out of that. And I was with a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, and they just— it was at a YPO, Young Presidents Organization meeting in Washington, D.C. And they said, we're just going to throw questions at you. They didn't tell us in advance, which is good. I don't like questions in advance. I'm like that.
I'm with you, and neither do I.
I knew you wouldn't. I knew it. We're kindred spirits. So the first question was, why did God create man? And the priest and the minister were truly eloquent. I don't say that often. They were eloquent, and their answers was different from you, and then I'll tell you my answer. Their answers were to glorify God.
Well, that's the cheating answer. Of course, God did everything to glorify himself, but that's kind of like skipping— That's like showing you the answer but not showing you the work, you know? Like, that's the textbook answer. But okay, go ahead. Yeah.
No, no, no, that's fine. And then when it was my turn, I said, you know, after these beautiful theologically erudite statements of the pastor and the priest, I'm almost afraid to give you my answer. It will sound so prosaic. But I believe God made us to enjoy life.
Now, oh, you— he made us so that we could enjoy—
so that we could enjoy life, which corresponds in many ways. Uh, no, I, I don't want to put any words or thoughts into you or your—
no, no, that's exactly— that goes exactly along with what I said.
Well, right. I mean, if he, if he did create us out of love, do I not want my children to enjoy life? I loved your analogy.
That's right. And, and if you want them to enjoy life, you're going to give them strict rules so they don't screw that up.
That's right. That's exactly right. It's, it's, uh, so, uh, Eric Metaxas and I have a great deal in common. I did not know this background, and this is a book, uh, probably my next book, because I, I read your book on, uh, on the abolition of slavery, uh, and, uh, what is it, Wilberforce? I mean, I just enjoy your writing. A great deal. So the— your parents, your father came from Greece.
Yeah.
And your mother from Germany. Was your mother in Germany during the war?
Of course, yeah. Yeah, it's all in the book. I actually write their stories at the beginning of the book, and then during telling my story, I kind of weave more of their stories back into it. So you get their stories too, because that's who I am. I mean, my parents, if you're raised by a mother and a father who grew up during the war in these separate locations, but they both experienced the war, both lost their fathers when they were 10 years old. And so the war and that whole experience was my experience growing up because their stories and everything about who they are comes out of that, you know.
And so I was, I was raised, you know, forgive me, I've got to take a break and you know well about breaks. So when we come back, a very— I'm just curious, this is the only reason I I'm asking, but it's an interesting question. Did you ever grapple with your mom being in Germany as a German during the war?
