Speaking of human need to figure out which group is “in” and which group is “out” – even to the extent of being willing to kill the “out” group members in a vain attempt to maintain social cohesion… See this article linked below that describes the arc of biblical revelation in terms of God’s constant call that we must learn to love one another just as God loves us. Simon Barrow writes: “In identifying his […]
Christopher has written up his thoughts on a piece by Nathan Humphrey wherein Nathan suggests a different binary set of lenses to use when viewing the parties in the Anglican Communion: Federalists and Covenanters. After pointing out that these two categories may in fact be different than those suggested before (liberal/conservative or reasserter/reappraiser), the whole enterprise of trying to put people in camps within Anglicanism automatically leads to throwing the Anglican baby out with the […]
From “Basilica” by R.A. Scotti; “A mere fifty years after its unity fractured, the Catholic Church was reborn, more confident than ever, but increasingly closed. The resurgent Church became cautious, not humble. Orthodoxy became paramount. What was lost was not munificence but magnanimity – that largeness of spirit that made anything possible, that allowed every voice and cockamamie idea to be aired. The church that had invented the term devil’s advocate to raise intellectual challenges […]
Diana Butler Bass has another great essay up – this time she tries to explain why the old categories of “liberal” and “conservative” are failing as we try to describe what is starting to take root in theological and ecclesiastical conversations. She describes herself as a post-modern, post-partisan, neo-pragmatic progressive and then writes of the rise of post-liberalism: “‘Post-liberalism,’ a post-modern theology, has transformed into a new sort of post-modern progressive Christianity. It moves beyond […]
There’s a wonderful essay posted by Bishop Whalon on his reflections regarding the proposed Anglican Covenant. It’s motivated in part by wanting to have something for the Anglican Consultative Council which is meeting this month, but it’s driven (it seems to me) by his recent close reading of a book by Prof. Norman Doe on the Covenant process. Bishop Whalon’s essay really deserves to be read in full. Here’s just a taste: “The large majority […]
Wonderful post by Ben Myers entitled “Alfred Hitchcock, the Church, and the silence of Jesus” of which this is just a part: “In his remarkable book, Christ on Trial, Rowan Williams suggests that what we mean when we speak of God’s transcendence ought thus to be refracted through what he calls the ‘obstinate uselessness’ of Jesus’ silence before his accusers. ‘If we are really to have our language about the transcendence – the sheer, unimaginable […]
I’ve written here before of the danger of trying to find ways to blame others for the tensions that exist in society and personal relationships. Some of the most noxious examples of the last century were the ways that anti-semitism was used in Eastern and Western Europe to rally people during the times of economic depression by blaming the hard-times on the capitalist “jews”. In this past ten years here in the United States most […]
I’ve tried to avoid talking about the internal politics of the Anglican Communion for the last year or so. My doing so wasn’t helping resolve things at all, and it wasn’t good for the people that I serve in ministry. When I have commented on such things, it’s been over on Episcopal Café, a site that is more focused on all things Episcopal/Anglican and where we do careful reporting on what’s going on. But the […]
This is just cool. Apparently there’s a recent study that finds that human mind (biologically speaking) functions by existing in a meta-stable equilibrium state that is just bordering between total chaos and organization. The equilibrium state is a critical phenomenon! (I know it as a regime of phase transition very very close to the boundary between one phase and another, which was the area of my doctoral research.) According to a report: “Self-organized criticality (where […]
I woke up this morning and the bedroom was 70 degrees. So I climbed out of bed, wearing my warm sleep pants, turtleneck and thick socks and added a fleece vest, slippers and a warm robe. It’s good to be well fortified against the cold. The odd thing is that I’m not exaggerating. Having lived here in Phoenix for three winters now, 70 degrees really does feel uncomfortably cold. Going outside in 50 degree weather […]
