Barriers to belief in God may plague us throughout our
lives. Forgone solutions and conclusions will only increase our difficulties,
instead of resolving them. After all, our access to the possible world of Eden
is beyond reach and we are hampered by a real world inability to get outside of
ourselves in order to have an ultimate vantage point that will put all the
pieces in place. Since this is true, we are likely to experience times of
struggle and questioning, which occur on different levels, but choosing an
alternative of automatic pilot spirituality or a rationalistic apologetic where
everything makes sense is a foil. There is no such thing. Thus, as we ramble
through our days, sometimes villains or sometimes disciples, we don’t want to
give in to the pressures of unbelief, as powerful as they may appear to be, for
the roadblocks on the path can turn into signposts that point in the direction
that belief in God is warranted and sensible in the midst of this wild,
wonderful, and complex world.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Living Spiritual Rhythms - February 28
Monday, February 26, 2018
Reflection for the Week - February 26
Dialogue animates and breathes life into ideas,
which tend to stagnate into oblivion when reduced to monologue. If we take a
dialogical trajectory in our thinking, we will begin to develop formulations
that yield a greater credibility. This is so because we are working with a
broader sphere of possibilities that combine to offer a surplus of meaning. And
reality is like that – breathtaking and overflowing with meaning – which is not
entirely captureable, nor however, is it anything we make it out to be.
Friday, February 23, 2018
Friday Musings - February 23
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 fed 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.
An Important Work!
https://www.amazon.com/Christ-Evolution-Ilia-Delio/dp/1570757771/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519399335&sr=1-13&keywords=ilia+delio+books
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Thursday Thoughts - February 22
Ethics as expressed in the economy of exchange can
never be an end in and of itself. Love, grace, and mercy go beyond an ethical
right and wrong, without effacing it. Thus, following in the footsteps of
Christ will be relationally challenging and risky. We may not receive as much
as we give, since the journey on this path is traced in and marked out by the
economy of gift, which opens up new ways of being, seeing, and living.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Living Spiritual Rhythms - February 21
We
live and die in the midst of brokenness and beauty. They both engage us deeply
with an insightful truth: life is like this. Our world and our lives, as it
were, are cut in two.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Reflection for the Week - February 19
Rethinking how little we really know should bring us to the recognition that we ought to be cautious about what we defend, and open about what we still need to explore.
Adam & Eve? Talking Serpents & Magic Trees?
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Thursday Thoughts - February 15
Misrecognizing that there will always be a relation
and distinction between self and other leads to inappropriate ways of
connecting that both demand too much, and expect too little. Self and other
deserve to be ‘mutually recognized’ as having worth and value, which is to
result in developing a finely tuned dialogical interaction between them. But
when self or other is the sole referent for life or no referent at all – each becomes
artificially constituted in a double misrecognition – neither should be
perceived in such roles. Since it is always tempting to ignore the complex
tension of relation and distinction it will be ‘hard work’ to avoid false
characterizations of who we are and thus to reject the liabilities of forcing
self to be other or other to be self. Yet,
work it out we must, though as we do so let it be in a careful and
compassionate manner, delicately balanced on the tight rope of trust and
suspicion.
