Often, the tendency is to call something “boring” and “slow” when we don’t understand it or lack the energy to make a stab at comprehension. But I think sometimes there are other forces at work as well: cynicism and pride. Cynicism makes us skeptical that there is meaning, truth, beauty and goodness out there worth…
Category
Christianity
The Secret That is Withheld
One of my favorite hybrid philosopher/theologians, John Caputo, has been on my mind lately. Mostly because he has been making the rounds on some of my favorite podcasts and has been the subject on some frequently read blogs. One case in point is this profound interview courtesy of Callid Keefe-Perry and HBC. After I listened…
July 4th, 2011: Happy St. Elizabeth of Portugal Day!!
Born in 1271, Queen Isabel was married to King Diniz (or Dinis). Like her great-aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, for whom she was named, Saint Elizabeth of Portugal dedicated her life to the poor. She established orphanages and provided shelter for the homeless. She also founded a convent in Coimbra. Read more about Saint Elizabeth…
Blest Be the Tie that Binds: A Sad Post
We share our mutual woes, Our mutual burdens bear, And often for each other flows The sympathizing tear. When here our pathways part, We suffer bitter pain; Yet, one in Christ and one in heart, We hope to meet again. This post is in memory of an honorable man who will be missed by many….
Karen Armstrong Believes That Religion and Art are Allies
Religion was never supposed to provide answers to questions that lay within the reach of human reason… Religion’s task, closely allied to that of art, was to help us to live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there were no easy explanations and problems that we could not solve; morality, pain, grief,…
In Defense of Slow
Often, the tendency is to call something “boring” and “slow” when we don’t understand it or lack the energy to make a stab at comprehension. But I think sometimes there are other forces at work as well: cynicism and pride. Cynicism makes us skeptical that there is meaning, truth, beauty and goodness out there worth…
Dostoevsky explains the monastic way
“Very different is the monastic way. Obedience, fasting, and prayer are laughed at, yet they alone constitute the way to real and true freedom: I cut away my superfluous and unnecessary needs, through obedience I humble and chasten my vain and proud will, and thereby, with God’s help, attain freedom of spirit, and with that,…
Roman Peace (Pax Romana) = Peace Through Domination. Anyone Willing to Kill for Citzenship, Land and Wealth??
The early Christians were pacifists.¹ It was only in the second century did Christians become or remain soldiers. John Cadoux’s explanation for the Christian transition into militarism is of a slippery slope in moral ethics due to economic and political pressure. A major sociological shift had occurred after the second century to even allow Christian…
Much Fear and Trembling
What Luther discovered, which we too often hide from, is the theological and existential discovery that God is crucified, that the monster takes God, that death and separation destroy God. And this is not to be celebrated, but despaired. Just like Paul, we are in much fear and trembling. For Luther, like Nietzsche, God is…
Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved
Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious to morals. It dwells upon the tender elements of the world which slowly and in quietness operate by love. –Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 353 Painting by Mark Lawrence