Easter Sunday

April 20, 2017

Year 2, Day 110 | No Comments

Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

Easter is a Christian holyday/holiday. No other religion has a parallel to it. Christianity is not filled up without Easter – the Resurrection. Christmas became the answer to pagan rituals of the solstice, occurring in the northern hemisphere. The Sun was returning. The colder habited climes celebrated the event of coming warmer weather, fruits of the field, the animation of light in longer daytime, and the indications of ongoing life. Mankind would not flourish if all days were like December 21 in northern Europe, where solstice was a major celebration. The church may have countered pagan practices, like solstice parties, with accounts of birth stories of Jesus. Even marking Jesus’ birth sometimes held disrepute in the church. A person in… Read more

Orienting Life

April 17, 2017

Year 2, Day 107 | No Comments

The common pattern for improvement, for self or society follows an incremental route – little by little we learn, add, absorb, apply, live, love, and function. Only a few persons have the inner drive, perceptions, skills, brain waves, energy, that vault them forward in large chunks. Only a few can absorb in short spans, gobs of whatever is needed to advance the intellect, discoveries, contexts of life, nature and growth. They are so few in number, and sometimes so remote from daily life and society that they must function on the margins of social and personal parameters. They often seem so beyond the norm degree that they will not make the impact they might hope to make, an impact that… Read more

Unnamed Miracles

April 13, 2017

Year 2, Day 103 | No Comments

Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

For those who believe that God can interrupt nature at his own bidding, it is important to weigh the uncertainties and distortions in the general population related to beliefs in miracles. If there are miracles they are interruptions of the patterns of nature. Understanding miracles, or even the existence in true miracles, declines with the greater acceptance that life and phenomena are guided by the disciplines of science that do not court miracles. For persons who do not believe in a personal God, or those who accept the parameters of science as the only source of truth for all things related to mankind, the concept of miracles is not only unbelievable in nature’s reality, but may be an enemy of… Read more

Miracles and Nature

March 23, 2017

Year 2, Day 82 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

I was in Hawaii with my wife when one of the periodic vomiting of earth’s innards occurred there. The earth erupted. It was noted in the newspapers as a volcanic eruption and there was nothing that could keep me from seeing it. I drove to the site, but was stopped two miles or so short of the rim where authorities, scientists, and tourists were permitted to observe and study the event. My wife did not feel up to the hike to the site, but insisted that I go. I did, and the experience was breathtaking. The deep red lava spewed upward like a fountain, and flowed like a river toward the lower levels of the site. There was some noise… Read more

World Citizens

March 15, 2017

Year 2, Day 74 | No Comments

Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

All living persons, good or bad, are world citizens in the mind of God. They have a place in the world where they may savor life, and reflect on the miracle of self-consciousness and meaning. Some citizens are Christians, some are Muslims, and some are of other faiths, faiths that are precious to them, including civic religion which is a human context without god involvement. Each of these admits some elements of exclusivity. For the faithful at every level there is nothing that matches his or her faith. That exclusivity is not cause for conflict, attack, revenge, arrogance, but is identified as difference in a vital matter in which only one is more effective (in truth and rightness) than the… Read more

Spiritual Projection

February 14, 2017

Year 2, Day 45 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

Well educated humanists/secularists often take the idea of life after death as a wishful concept. It gained considerable agreement and strength after Freud. He tended to take preoccupation excess that could not be accounted for in the logics of physical science and attach it to the machinations of the mind. Religion became a neurosis, and was to be treated as such. So it became the belief, made somewhat official, that we are fooled by our minds in wishful thinking about life after death. The point darkens further when hell is the topic. Would we identify hell as wishful thinking? The magnificent (heaven) is balanced off by the unthinkable (hell). How could the imagination, willing for the comforting concept (heaven), come… Read more

Joy in Faith

February 7, 2017

Year 2, Day 38 | No Comments

Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

Joy is an important biblical concept, and ought to gain more attention than it does. It is more meaningful than its pleasant, modest reputation affords. We refer to joy at Christmas even putting the three letters in ribbons, usually red, on Christmas trees, or along the wall. We may catch it when a child exults over a toy. Joy becomes a toy at Christmas, for small children, and vicariously with them for adults. Joy is sung at Christmas, and often put away with yule trimmings. Bills will follow. Joy is a touch of heaven to us. We might wonder about joy. If I go down the street with solemn, even troubled, mien, the passers-by accept that solemnity as the normal… Read more

Faith Partners

February 4, 2017

Year 2, Day 35 | No Comments

We return to one of the major issues of theology – faith. For some eras in history faith was about the only factor that kept society on an even keel. Life was so hard in so many ways that only some faith in some sustaining spiritual future objective held or mesmerized the larger human mass. Often without leadership and direction that faith would take odd turns for the ordinary folks in the countryside, gaining oddities (like snake handling, witch hunts, even voodoo) in culture as the neglected peoples often looked toward some frontier to escape the problems of life. Those problems included warfare, decimating illnesses, poverty – even failed relationships (persons living in tension contexts). One historian in reflecting on… Read more

Contextual Living

January 25, 2017

Year 2, Day 25 | No Comments

From a poll taken of lettered historians in 2010 it was a surprising discovery that the number one current interest for historians related to religion and history. This was a significant shift from former priorities, and interests of first concern for cultural differences in world societies. It also raised religion from low status in evidence of causes. One historian cast it: The place of religion in history must not be left only to the devout. Christian historians apparently agreed and welcomed engagement. This new emphasis generated from the confrontation of Islamic forces with the west after the turn to the 21st Century. Many Islamic believers tend to identify non-Islamic nations as either Christian to which many attach aggressive pagan reputation,… Read more

Marriage and Family

January 10, 2017

Year 2, Day 10 | No Comments

Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

We return today with the theme of marriage and the family. It is a favorite of mine. Several of my book titles are related to marriage, to preparation for marriage, to life nurture, and to conclusion of one’s life in the context of family. This affirmation is drawn from belief that Scripture is written in the idiom of the family – that God is represented to the reader significantly in the terms of the family, and seen in the model of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mother). Every person is a member of a family even if that family is dead or dysfunctional. The image of God in the human race is partly seen in the family. There is oneness… Read more

Category Archive: Faith