Living Spirituality: October 2021

Monday, October 25, 2021

Reflection for the Week - October 25

Like a vanishing footprint in a desert sandstorm, the mastery of memories escapes our tenacious grasp. We’re always reaching for more than is available. Remembering is something like groping for distant horizons, not attaining crystal clear perceptions. I'd wager memory is made up of impressions, stamps, and traces and can be pictured as a sort of porous container that retains something like shadows and/or reflections.

Monday, October 18, 2021

Reflection for the Week - October 18

We don’t regularly see deep, but more often shallow reality. It’s probably a good thing deep reality escapes our gaze (cells, molecules, atoms, etc.), since this would weigh us down and make it much more difficult to navigate our way around within ourselves, towards others, and in the world. So, is reality hidden from us? – I’d wager it depends on which reality we’re talking about. What is reality?

Monday, October 11, 2021

Reflection for the Week - October 11

On the topic of Divine Action many claim that science has become the determinative informer for if, when, and how DA occurs. They argue this is inappropriate and that the theological informer must be primary. Yet, I would wager that indeed some have attempted to go that direction, but find the theological void so significant that they have re-turned to science for help in understanding the world. So, it’s not as if theology has not previously been the chief consideration; it has, but it has been found lacking, hence the almost default preference has become the scientific informer. Yet, this does not leave theology adrift when it comes to DA, it just means that it has to be refigured from its ancient context if it is to make any sense in today’s world.

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Living Spiritual Rhythms - October 6

Imagination is a fascinating topic of interest and debate today. The deeply significant issues of the real and the unreal have never been as evident as in our own cultural context. Discerning between fact and fantasy, objectivity and subjectivity in our post-modern setting, means we have to deal with a new blurring of categories, which may threaten older precision crafted paradigms and previously settled ways of thinking. So be it. Engaging the challenges of ancient, modern, and post-modern thought, for better or worse, calls for a reassessment of the role of imagination in our understanding of God, ourselves, and the world. That which has been previously assumed to be real or unreal may not be the case.

Living Imagination

What’s your take on imagination? Do you see it as opening up creative possibilities or fraught with dangerous fantasies? If you’re interested in how various poets, philosophers, and theologians over many centuries have pictured this mysterious, yet essential part of being human and what my assessment is, check out this book, now 60% off, Living Imagination. Who am I and What is Real?

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Monday, October 4, 2021

Reflection for the Week - October 4

Evolution seems to pose significant problems for traditional interpretations of early Genesis (literal six days creation, A&E, fall, etc.). Instead of trying to fit God in, it’s probably a good move to take God out of evolution. What to believe about God will then have to be considered without including God in nature. Such a move and its effects on developing belief will be challenging and place some ancient pictures of God and the world in jeopardy. The biblical writers, for example, know very little about nature and thus describe God and creation from their own quite limited context, whereas in our contemporary setting we know bits and pieces more. I’d wager we need a new plot to the story; one that negotiates a complicated alliance between science and theology where both have a voice, sometimes louder, sometimes softer, depending on the subject matter at hand.