- anabaptism biblical studies blogging blogroll book reviews books brethren in christ Cartoon devotionals discipleship Distractions ecology emergent emerging church environment film health and spirituality history inner metro green interpretation leadership marketing music notes philosophy politics Postchristianity postmodernism productivity religion Science sermons social networking society software spiritual discipline stations of the cross Story technology theology theology in film Tutorial Unitarian Universalism video world religion
Humanities
March 4, 2010
A Faith Stage Checklist
Tufts University Chaplain Scotty McLennan, in a book titled Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost Its Meaning, offers his readers a sort of faith stage checklist. My own evolving religious experience tells me that while lists of this sort are neither exhaustive, nor universal, they are fairly accurate, and at the very least they are good guides that challenge us to practice deeper self-awareness, if nothing else. Practicing more self-awareness is always a good thing. Read more…
February 27, 2010
Jackass Starves Between Two Haystacks
You’ve heard of Occam’s Razor, right? It’s a philosophical concept that when used judiciously is supposed to facilitate rational decision making in situations wherein two or more choices or theories or whatever present themselves as competing alternatives. Basically, Occam’s Razor advances the idea that the less complicated explanation or action is the best one. There is no need, according to this principle, to seek a more complicated answer if a simpler one indeed exists. Sounds pretty solid, right? Well, it’s supposed to be simple, but some seem incessant on making a lot of things more complicated than they need be. Why? Who really knows?!? Read more…
January 11, 2010
Kokopelli
The earliest images of the ancient fertility deity known to this day as Kokopelli appeared as early as AD 750 and AD 850. The Hopi Indians – a Native American people who originally roamed freely in the southwestern region of the country now called America and now live on a small reservation in in northeastern Arizona – attached the name “Kokopelli” to their own renditions of the image/symbol of the mystical flute player. The image of flute player himself, however, can be found earlier in ancient Anasazi glyphs. The image/symbol we know as Kokopelli is thousands of years old. Read more…
December 9, 2009
The Truth of Myth
The Truth of Myth
Myth, as defined by Frank S. Frick in “A Journey through the Hebrew Scriptures,” reads as follows:
“…myth makes reference to a story that narrates profound truth in story form, the kind of truth that escapes scientific or historical documentation. In this sense, then, myth provides one of the most penetrating ways of talking about the meaning of life, about the relationships between human beings, and about the relationships between God and persons. Myth is a specialized kind of metaphor, a story about the past that embodies and expresses truths about a people’s traditional culture” (Frank S. Frick, A Journey through the Hebrew Scriptures, A completely rev. and expanded 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003. Page 108.)
Frank S. Frick’s definition is one of the best I have ever encountered. It’s too bad that a proper understanding of myth is not emphasized in contemporary spirituality. A proper understanding of myth would go a long way towards the establishment of a “middle ground” in the present debate regarding science and spirituality. Read more…
November 30, 2009
Do the Evolution
Jesus May Be the Answer, But What Is The Question?
If you want to trace Jesus of Nazareth’s slow transformation from a universally relevant social, political, and religious activist/reformer to a historically and culturally relative and somewhat irrelevant Sunday “god,” look in the New Testament itself. Read more…
November 9, 2009
The Sacred Literature of Sanatana Dharma
Hindu
A myriad of spiritual paths crisscross over the terra firma of the Indian subcontinent. A few of these paths could be called unified systems; Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, for example, are properly unified systems. The majority of these paths, however, can be called neither unified, nor systematic. The paths are simply too diverse to be legitimately categorized under one proper and unifying name. In spite of this fact, the Indian subcontinent’s colorful spiritual variety is usually lumped together under the name Hinduism. To make matters even more interesting, the name “Hinduism” wasn’t coined by indigenous people; it was originally derived from a term that was applied by foreigners and it was enforced in the nineteenth century by British colonial power. In spite of all of this, the everyday reality of the Indian subcontinent is built upon religious and spiritual diversity. Read more…
November 8, 2009
The Sacred Stories of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
The Sacred Stories of Indigenous People
If God camps with the oppressed, downtrodden, and spiritually humble, then God’s tent must be perpetually pitched with the world’s indigenous peoples. Many of the ancient and sacred ways of indigenous people endure to this day, but only because many indigenous people choose to continue to live off of the earth in non-industrial, simple, scaled-down cultures. There are more, however, who have decided to leave the non-industrial, simple lifestyles to their ancient ancestors. These people have been assimilated into developing culture(s) where they still spiritually adhere to aspects of their tribe’s traditional lifestyles, but only from within a very big shadow cast by industrialized and large-scale societies. Additionally, ancient indigenous people have endured and survived genocide, colonialism, mechanistic materialism, coerced conversions by missionaries from global religions, and the systematic destruction of their natural environments by those driven only by capitalistic economics and consumption. Given all of the above, it is amazing that indigenous people have survived at all. Surely, Divinity has smiled and continues to smile upon these tribes of simple, earth-based, and sacred people. They are, after all, close to God’s heart.
Indigenous people also have blessed the world with wonderful spiritual stories. Stories are an important part of all of our meaning making processes; we all create stories, universally speaking. Ignoring stories that have been written by our brothers and sisters the globe over is not a spiritual strength; it is spiritual weakness (pride). So, if you are not familiar with other people’s spiritual stories, here are a few sacred stories from a few of the planet’s indigenous tribes for your spiritual enlightenment. Read more…
November 2, 2009
Six Good Reasons to Question Church Tradition
The Copernican Revolution
The Christian Church has passed along a lot great things via tradition, but has it passed along enough greatness to be given a complete and unexamined pass on everything it cites as tradition? I would hope not. I believe in a Christian maturity that celebrates the best of the tradition while the worst of the tradition is simultaneously recognized and acknowledged for what it really is – utterly fallible. Read more…
October 31, 2009
The Buddha’s Parable of the Raft
The Buddha's Parable of the Raft
The Buddha’s Parable of the Raft challenges one to consider the spiritual journey. Specifically, it asks us to be mindful of our present and what we need to journey through this very moment. The parable is a simple one. Read more…