I noticed that Amazon.com has a couple of copies of Living Spirituality: Illuminating the Path left at a huge discount - $2.96 - 80% off. Such a deal! If you're interested, there's no better time to take and read.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Reflection for the Week
Lord, please give us the gift of patience as we live together in our churches and communities. Help us to be kind, gentle, and forgiving in the struggle for unity, and lead us into delight with you and each other. Let us learn to love as you have loved us, as we seek to represent and demonstrate something of who you are to the believing, to those who do not know you, and to those who do, but have gone astray.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The ZigZag Café
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
In his book After you Believe / Virtue Reborn, N.T. Wright states on p.202 in the latter:
“To accept appropriate moral constraints is not to curtail true freedom, but to create the conditions for it to flourish.”
What’s your take on Wright’s perspective?
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life for Today
Feelings are so important, though they are not decisive when it comes to knowledge. In order to assess whether feelings are trustworthy or deceptive, it is crucial that they be in dialogue with the rest of who we are, including reason and sense observation, so that we have a more holistic perspective. We should not stop, however, at an interpersonal dialogue, as we are obliged to interact with the other, the world, and the biblical text, if we are to have our feelings and the whole of our lives refigured, and to begin to know in the light of being known.
The End of the World?
Considering all the talk about the end of the world you may, if you’re interested, want to read my book Living Apocalypse for hopefully a better interpretation of where we are and how to decode what lies ahead.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Reflection for the Week
Stories help us come to terms with sorrows. No time to read and recount leaves us little time to mourn. And mourning is now more necessary than ever for the faithful. There is so much to mourn, be it political, social, ethical, or personal. When memory, imagination, and testimony provide an opportunity of working through the darkness of loss and suffering, it is crucial to recount and read, and to do so in the light of redemption and transformation that will eventually turn our mourning into rejoicing and our sorrows into joys.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The ZigZag Café
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Some people think the problems of humanity could be solved if all religions would just get together and settle their differences. What are your thoughts?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life For Today
Prophet and priest alike preach everything or nothing. The interpretive strategies of reductionism and polarization offer deceptive sacrifices on the altar of resolution, and all too often function as the patron saints of Christian thought in disputes over the interaction between philosophy, theology, science, and language. What remains, post-rejection of unholy offerings, is the arduous, yet joyful task of working out the interdisciplinary tension of non-resolution integrated into creation, cross, and resurrection in a community of redemptive action that will have an impact for good on the other, the self, and the world, as we await the renewal of all things.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Reflections for the Week
One of the major fallacies that many Christians embrace is that they don’t have biases, problems with ideas, or serious shortcomings. If anything undoes the necessity of the cross and resurrection of Christ, it is this kind of perspective. When we are pointing the finger at everyone else and arguing they’re influenced by secularism or materialism and therefore have it all wrong, we forget that critique needs to start at home and that our own views also have to be examined, evaluated, and assessed in order to help us sort out our own blindness, before sorting out that of the rest of the world.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
The ZigZag Café
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
How significant should experience be when it comes to belief or unbelief in God?
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life for Today
Today’s composers compose their music in the shadow of Bach and Beethoven, Mozart and Handel and other musicians. This notion of inheriting ideas, forms of life, and structures of composition ought to be a continual reminder that we’re not the first people on the planet to make music. Similarly, to reflect on justice it is crucial to realize that we develop our views in the shadow of Locke, Hume, Kant and other thinkers who still have a tremendous impact and influence on our perspectives today. Theories of justice, therefore, are like texts under negotiation. They require a serious consideration of the points of view of our predecessors, along with a give and take connected to a desire for a better interpretation of what would be just for the sake of all concerned. No easy task, but nevertheless one that is worthwhile.
Questions of human dignity, human responsibility, and human freedom implore us to work hard for and to be committed to deliberating and debating about what justice is.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Reflection for the Week
May we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit a fresh to renew us in the ever increasing conviction that God is there and that he has acted, is acting, and will act on behalf of love and justice for his own sake, for the world, for Israel, and for us.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Why does the biblical text prohibit making Images?
Following the question on ZigZag yesterday, here are a few thoughts. First, I think this ban is in the text because God already has his image represented in humanity on the earth. We are the corporeal images of the incorporeal God. Humans image God. Second, there is a risk in image making that we will defy both God and humanity by the worship of images. But it seems to me that the problem is not with image making per se. Why? Creativity and imagination are part of being human and imaging God and therefore making images can’t be necessarily wrong. As I see it, this thorny issue concerns the who, the what, and the why of image making. That is, an image can be fitting and appropriate if it’s not out to place a who above God, to install a what in exchange for God, or to set up a why that rejects God. The making of images can be an augmentation of reality, and as long as the image is not misplaced in its value or virtue, there should be an incentive to create and imagine aright and therefore no problem with the validity of images.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The ZigZag Café
We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
In the biblical text, there seems to be a problem with making images. Why do you think that’s the case?
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life for Today
There should be a noticeable and marked difference between disciples of Christ and other people. While indeed there are many similarities connecting followers and non-followers of Jesus, Spirit reception(s) are to differentiate disciples, in that they contribute to living spirituality, which is to be gently expressed through love, justice, patience, and kindness. When we do not love, practice justice, show patience, and manifest kindness to each other and all people, there is a serious failure to present a beautiful picture of the Creator and Redeemer. As ugliness triumphs over beauty and our unity disintegrates, the consequences can’t help but be gravely significant for those who look on and observe the lamentable results.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Reflection for the Week
The spirit of fear, not the Spirit of Christ tends to dominate in many Christian circles today. Fearful of being carried away by the spirit of the age, the faith can grow narrow, lack credibility, and become lifeless. While it is true that believers want to be cautious about adopting the cultural, philosophical, or scientific trends of any given moment, there is an important place to engage new ideas and to be somewhat open to where they may lead. The Spirit of Christ casts out fear and releases us to a new configuration of confidence and humility. This Spirit allows for discussion, questioning, and, investigation. To have received the life giving Spirit who inaugurates community with God, over against a spirit that leads to a separation from him, means that we are free to seek, find, and follow truth where it may be found. Fear not, says the Lord, for I am with you.
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