Making Sense of Religion
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Disembedding and Theosis
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath no where to lay his head. Luke 9:58 I've recently seen two films–"Into the Wild" and "Beowulf"–that both in their different ways are stories of human folly and human heroism, but each in
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Human Flourishing
Taylor makes an important distinction between what he calls older religions and the "higher" or post-Axial Religions. This term comes from what Karl Jaspers called the Axial Age, that period in the first millennium BCE when various higher forms of religion appeared seemingly independently in different civilizations, marked by such figures as Confucius, Gautama, Socrates,
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The Weather Gods in a Disenchanted Cosmos (expanded)
I’d like to say that I find [Georgia] Governor Perdue’s emphasis on prayer to address droughts baffling. But I don’t. I understand it completely. Growing up Southern Baptist, I regularly prayed until about midway through college when I turned into a freedom-hating Bolshevik surrender monkey. But even if I understand where he’s coming from, it’s
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Sunday Meditation
From the elder Zossima’s talks and homilies: Young man, do not forget to pray. Each time you pray, if you do so sincerely there will be the flash of a new feeling in it, and anew thought as well, one you did not know before, which will give you fresh courage; and you will understand
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Puzzle Pieces
I’m trying to find a way to articulate the underpinnings for everything that I write here to which any consistency my writing this blog for the last four years is owed. That may or may not be interesting to readers who have otherwise found what I’m doing here worth their time to read. But if
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Legitimacy, Authority, Power
It might be interesting someday to try to understand better why so many Christians came to understand "belief" so narrowly as intellectual assent to certain propositions, and why it was so important to them to draw such clean lines between what was heretical and what was orthodox. Insofar as it has done this, it has
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Why Liberalism Can’t Get It Done III
In the gospels it says that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. This is not the platitudinous condemnation of economic injustice, but rather a shrewd observation about human psychology. The point is that those who have
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Part 4: On Being a Postmodern Catholic
Consider this an epilogue to the three parts in this series that precede it. There are a bunch of random themes and ideas that didn’t fit into the already too-long earlier pieces, and I have been thinking about whether it would be worthwhile to continue on in successive parts to explore them. But the nature
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It Grows Inside
As a postscript to the last post, I recommend reading the excerpt from Sara Miles’ book Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion post in today’s Salon. Too bad it’s behind a subscription wall, but the book might be interesting for those of you intrigued enough to learn more about how the whole thing works. Miles
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Part 3: On Being a Postmodern Catholic
After listening to the Phillip Johnston podcast I referred to in my post about Getting Perspective on Iran, I subscribed to the "Speaking of Faith" free podcast service, and it immediately downloads dozens of their shows from the past, and as Sir Francis and forestwalker point out in their comments, many of them look very