Living Spirituality: March 2021

Monday, March 29, 2021

Reflection for the Week - March 29

As new ideas surface and gain traction, particularly with respect to the natural world informer, an inflexible theological paradigm will produce fear, rather than engagement. There are inevitably going to be modifications and revisions that become necessary for living an integrated faith configuration with clout, and we need the capacity to freely explore the reaches of the known and unknown that might open possibilities for contact with the Infinite. Thus, a flexible, more elastic perspective, albeit within degrees, is pertinent to adopt, since it’s truer in allowing for variations of what God, self, other, and world might look like based on compelling fresh data.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Vélo – Alpes Suisse

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Thursday Thoughts - March 25

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.

Monday, March 22, 2021

Reflection for the Week - March 22

Emerging from a long dark winter is like falling into spring light, which brings with it a myriad of fresh possibilities for an illuminating awakening. Newness all around us materializes in a suite of creative surges that heighten our awareness and address our context. Out of life comes death and out of death comes life. Death is fleeting. Life reigns.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Ski de fonds - Alpes Suisse

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Thursday Thoughts - March 18

I’d wager that attempts to refer to the whole biblical text as inerrant or even authoritative risk saying too much. Perhaps we have now reached a point in time when it is more plausible to discuss various parts of the Bible and then place them on a sliding scale of value within, behind, and in front of the text, than it is to make bold overarching statements about its entirety.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Living Spiritual Rhythms - March 17

I'd wager a realistic faith is a constant dialogue between the “because of” and the “in spite of.” In living a spiritual life, we may 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 strength. We can experience the joy of sufficient answers or the dread of the awareness that many questions are left unresolved. Passing through, as we are, invites us into this tension, which is inescapably connected to life in this world.

Monday, March 15, 2021

Reflection for the Week - March 15

To not be resigned to death in the midst of chaos and uncertainty is a challenge and a destiny. Fighting against addiction and abuse - the injustices of tolerance – takes hard work and deep commitment. As life frays from the peaceful center to the edges of despair and back, death frequently looms large on the horizon of existence. It perversely seeks to convince us that this is the final space. Frantic attempts to escape from this lie only enslave us and lead to false release. By contrast, life, worn as it may be, is a hopeful adventure worth embracing.

Friday, March 12, 2021

If you're interested in the interpretation of Genesis 1-3 check this book out.

If you're interested in Genesis 1-3 check this book out. One of our aims is deeply connected to :

Perhaps we can turn to the artistic world, where the meaning and mysteries of life are contemplated, explored, and expressed in an effort to illuminate complexity and uncover valid directions. The great Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi captures something of the spirit of our work when he says, “Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator.”

For Gaudi, it was critically important to read (interpret) both the book of nature and the biblical text to fully appreciate life. In other words, he promoted a spirit of cooperation between God and nature. The best expression of this partnership can be found in his unfinished masterpiece, la Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona. . .

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Eden-Making-Sense-Genesis/dp/1938367197/

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Thursday Thoughts - March 11

Several evangelical authors, notably John Walton, have published useful material on the interpretation of Genesis 1-3. While these authors tend to acknowledge the importance of science, they never do so to the degree that it might question their interpretive notion of the authority of the biblical text. No matter what arises, the text, for them, remains authoritative from beginning to end. There is a pretention in these writings of taking science seriously, but it seems the biblical text and science are in two entirely separate compartments and thus can have no significant impact on each other. This is unfortunate. The authors, I’d wager, have to look at this differently. In my view, there needs to be a dialogue between these informers come what may. That is, authority can’t always be decided on ahead of time and it will depend on what issues are at hand. If this dialogue is allowed to take place it may require modifications of scientific and theological views, which stands to benefit both science and theology. But I guess if dialogue threatens biblical authority these authors will simply not engage with it. When you keep science and the biblical text completely apart from each other, you may achieve a ‘protected’ status for the Bible, but you may also lose credibility when it comes to facing the challenges that dialogue can’t help but create.

Monday, March 8, 2021

Reflection for the Week - March 8

Some Christians are open to engaging with cultural and philosophical ideas, but when it comes to theology, they shut down. If this doesn’t change, things will get worse than they are already. It is now more important than ever to recall that theology is not static and has to be in dialogue with other informers, if it is to maintain credibility in our times.

As new information hits the universities and the streets including, the monumental immensity of the universe and the possibility that there’s more than one; genetic developments that seem to indicate more strongly than ever that humans evolved; neuroscience discoveries concerning how the human brain functions and some of the implications of that for selfhood and religious belief, are all eventually going to have an unavoidable impact, and rightly so, on how we view God. There is far, far, more to learn about who this God character is, not least in the vast related and distinct mega stories of the natural world and the biblical text. Perhaps, even, we’re at the beginning of an enormous paradigm shift.

Friday, March 5, 2021

Friday Musings - March 5

Who am I? What is real? How to decide? Imagine. Facing these basic questions and reflecting on them in light of the power of imagination is of the utmost importance in our cultural settings. Now that discerning between fact and fantasy, truth and lie, and trust and suspicion is harder than ever, knowing more about imagination and the role it plays in your story is crucial. Read this insightful and thought-provoking book to find out more about how your imagination helps you better understand God, the world, and yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Imagination-Who-What-Real/dp/1938367294/

Thursday, March 4, 2021

Thursday Thoughts - March 4

I'd wager if imagination has no relevant significance for the knowledge of God, an engagement with the biblical text, and a perception of the natural world, we are failing to embrace what is true; knowledge, engagement, and perception are imagination dependent. Vive l'imagination!

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Living Spiritual Rhythms - March 3

Theological, philosophical, and scientific configurations are so often supposed to represent absolute precision. They’re tenaciously held on to come hell or high water and effectively immersed in a sterilized vat of facts, where mystery and imagination are forced to undergo the steady drip of a powerful anesthetic that aims to control and point to the true path. But what happens? Curiosity, suspicion, and questioning begin to surface and unqualified exactitude is shattered. All of a sudden there may be seemingly nothing to hold on to in a violent sea of uncertainty. Such an experience, though disconcerting and complicated, is unavoidable, and should be considered a necessary development that will hopefully lead towards embracing and standing for truer views of philosophy, science, and theology, where mystery and imagination are part of life with God, the self, the other, and the world.

Monday, March 1, 2021

Reflection for the Week - March 1

Trust is often assumed to be a virtue, but without suspicion it could indeed be a detriment. Thus, when you’re considering virtues, don’t leave out suspicion.

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