If spirituality can mean anything, it means nothing. Of course there are plenty of sources of spiritual non-sense around, but so much today that is passed off as spiritual is coming out of Christian impoverishment. Woe! Authoritarian hypocrisy wielded by those in power steps on the stage and seeks to control people through performance, superficiality and manipulation. Many are having none of it, others are feed up. Can’t say I blame ‘em. Redrawing the boundaries for the meaning of ‘spiritual’ is a crucial task for our understanding of living spirituality. We best begin at home and the sooner the better. If you’re interested in my take on this, read more widely on this blog, which attempts to make a start.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Reflection for the Week
Superficial and agenda driven readings of the Bible plague the church. Too many readers make up their own meanings as they go along, showing little concern for the orientation of the text. Instead of paying close attention to author and context, there is a tendency to drift from one passage to another in hope of a jolt for the day. Such a strategy, so widespread in our times, puts us at the center of meaning, and in so doing, therefore underplays the power of God’s revelation in its offer of a living and sustainable spirituality. Recovering credible biblical interpretation remains a long and difficult road ahead, but should we be unwilling to engage and to be engaged by the text and its meaning, the integrity of the faith we profess will suffer a serious blow and people will rightly turn away.
Thursday, September 22, 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:
ZZC is closed and will re-open on the 6th of October. I’m looking forward to renewing the conversation and dialogue then. For now – Bonjour.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life for Today
Hermeneutics plays a central role in our lives, and it is important to be aware of this. Here are four consequences. First, the general action of interpreting anything is part and parcel of what it means to be a human being in the world. Second, we can think of the interpretive act as part of our hardwired neural functions that assist our quest for optimal understanding. Third, this quest can be viewed as a circuitous passage that takes us through different kinds of worlds; spiritual, natural, contextual, textual, and otherwise. Fourth, along the journey, discordant thoughts are garnered and woven together into a reflective concordant whole. It might be said this way: our overall picture of the world, including our place in it, condenses out of the mist of a life being experienced. Hence, the base-line level of being in the world must incorporate this hermeneutical dimension.
The biblical writers themselves are interpreters of the signification of God’s communication – God’s speech acts – and the ancient authors are not free from the hermeneutical web of life setting connections with the cosmos and the living God, who claimed Israel for his own, revealed himself primarily, though not solely, to noteworthy characters in the plot, and ultimately the Christ, who then would pass on in word and deed the story of redemption to nation and world.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Reflection for the Week
Quitting church is reaching epidemic proportions. Caught in the vice between those who exchange the gospel for a social code and those who market it as a consumer product, streams of people are flowing out of churches. From what I can tell many of them long for God, love, truth, credibility, justice, and redemption but are disappointed with what the church is offering. Bagels and coffee, and promises of health and wealth are limited and breaking down. Thus, today’s pseudo–gospel is having less and less traction and for this we should rejoice. Yet, the fallout is serious, in that the legitimate questions people are asking are not being addressed, nor are these folk being provided with a place to dwell, which has more to do with spirituality, than merely a geographical home. Rich and diverse gospel centered communities are essential to renew and redo the faith in what appears to be the demise of what has been known as church for all too long.
Thursday, September 15, 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:
Someone who is a believer recently commented: "I always felt that I was such a bad person, and if people found out who I really was, they would reject me. I know this is not right, but it’s how I feel. My life therefore has been made up of hiding and pretending – external performance over inward conviction."
What are your thoughts / responses?
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life for Today
A realistic faith is a constant dialogue between the because of and the in spite of. In living a spiritual life, we traverse periods of belief in God that are like the vistas of a changing landscape. Sometimes the viability of the reasons for faith are convincing and firm, while at other times we are clinging to faith with little conviction or resolve. We can experience the joy of sufficient answers or the dread of the awareness that many questions are left unresolved. Passing through the valley of the shadow of death rocks our faith, yet God is with us to comfort and console.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Reflection for the Week
Promising is one thing, but being obligated to keep our promises brings the sincerity of action into light. A theoretical promise without compelling force and lacking application does not do anything. Of course, on the action level of doing our promises, we will run into conflicts and obstacles that challenge our fidelity to the other. Yet, being committed to engage in dialogue with the other raises the stakes of our personal integrity, as well as underscoring that broken promises do violence to justice and the other, to whom we are to be available for. In times like ours, where false and broken promises are front page news, from pulpit and pew to politics and economics, fidelity and commitment to promises for the sake of self and other should be two hallmarks that identify followers of the Crucified and Risen One, as a testimony to the church and the world.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The ZigZag Café
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:
So many people seem to be quitting church. Why do you think this is the case and should something be done to change it?
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Spiritual Rhythms of Life for Today
Be realistic about, but don’t be resigned to sin. That is, in this present life we will fail to obey and relate to God, the other, the self, and the world as we should. But this does not mean that we ought to have a status quo or laidback attitude to sin, as if, ‘oh well, that’s the way it is and we’re all flawed anyway. So be it.’ This outlook flies in the face of redemption, transformation, and destiny. Working against sin in our own lives and in the world is part of our new direction. While we remain sinful in being children of God, the latter should increase and the former decrease, as we go about living spirituality in community with God and each other.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Reflection for the Week
One of the most impressive features of human thought is that we are capable of creating and configuring symbols in an effort to express meaning. Recognizing this relationship between language acquisition and symbolic thought provides the opportunity for a phenomenology with theological clout. God’s speech acts give rise to revelation in language and symbol. This interlacing of conceptual fields effectively expanded the function of symbols so that they were seen to reveal God and being in the world in polyphonic ways. At the same time, being human was envisioned as uniquely connected to language, and language to reflection, and reflection to hermeneutics. Thus, God’s speaking embedded in Scripture by symbol and thought finds its connection through the hermeneutical nature of being in the world.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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Living Spirituality
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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 do you interpret the 6 days in Genesis 1?
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