The nexus of divinity and humanity lies not in one man but in the inner core of all creation . . . The only-through-Jesus stance violates the Nazarene’s message, but the image of Jesus Christ helps our human minds to recognize the divine-human connection.
God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky
Language about the Trinity confuses people because meanings of words change. “Hypostatic union” is indeed defined as two natures, divine and human, in one person—Florian was correct about that. And “Trinity” refers to three persons in one God.
The center of confusion is the word “person.” We moderns envision persons as individuals, but that’s not what the theologians who formulated the doctrine of the Trinity had in mind.
When the word "person" first entered the doctrinal debate, it meant a mask or role—what an actor on the Greek stage put on—and it did not mean a distinct personality or a separate "I" as it does today. Persona may be closer to the original meaning than “person.” Theologians use the words “aspects” or “modes” or “personalities” to stand for “persons” of the Trinity, but what most Christians have in mind is closer to “gods” than “aspects” or “modes.”
When we think of “three Persons in one God” we have in mind more individuality and less unity than the council formulators intended. They, for instance, declared that every divine action in the material world is done by all three Persons together. This would put the Father on the cross, as Trinitarian theologians have stated.
The three gods of popular imagination clash with theologizing on the Trinity. Augustine created an analogy using the psychology of human persons, saying each personal self performs three actions—memory, knowing, and loving. Richard of St. Victor saw the First Person as Lover, which needs a Second Person, the Beloved, as the object of its love. Their mutual love spills over and is shared by a Third Person. Another theologian saw the three as the I, Thou, and We of love. This idea has also been expressed as self, other, and community.
These appealing explanations lend energy to the symbol and reflect the dynamic, interrelating universe. They are closer to the Trinity described by the original formulators of the doctrine than to the trinity imagined by most Christians today.
As these examples show, the Trinity in its orthodox understanding refers, not to three male individuals, but to concepts and relationships. All Trinitarian theologies stress the folly of reading the symbol literally as three distinct human-like persons, but this is what the exclusively male language perpetuates. It stunts the Trinity's potential for meaning.
A writer in my Catholic Dictionary of Theology asserts that the influence of Greek theology on Christian theology "is undeniable." Many writers today acknowledge that the doctrine reflects a particular time and place, as Kathleen did in her comment here. Dualism in the fourth century imagined a vast gulf separating divinity from humanity so that the god-man Jesus became a GREAT BIG DEAL. Traditional Christians like to ask rhetorically, “How could a mere man be divine?” applying the mystery to one single man.
But a new wind blows today and it comes from the insights of mystics, helped by Buddhist and Hindu spirituality. Today we stress the divinity within all human beings and in all of creation. In that light we see that the hypostatic union refers to us all. The great mystic and Dominican preacher Meister Eckhart preceded us by 700 years when he said boldly, “God and I we are one” and “The just person is the Son himself.”
Here is food for meditation.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Christian idolatry
I believe Christianity has made an idol of Jesus Christ. When most Christians pray, they do not distinguish between Jesus and the highest value of the universe, what we call God. Idolatry substitutes an image of God for God, and this describes the worship and belief of most Christians. Serious theology does not teach that God is the same as Jesus or that God is just a great, great, great man, but can anybody tell the difference when most Christians are praying?
We can relate to God in a personal way—I do it regularly—but we must know that God is not a mere humanlike individual. I like what New Testament scholar S. Sandra Schneiders says, “God is our father and God is not our father; God is our mother and God is not our mother. If we forget the “is not,” then we create an idol—that is, we make God into the image of a creature.” This idolatry is what Christianity allows in its prayers.
It's not what Jesus of Nazareth wanted.
We can relate to God in a personal way—I do it regularly—but we must know that God is not a mere humanlike individual. I like what New Testament scholar S. Sandra Schneiders says, “God is our father and God is not our father; God is our mother and God is not our mother. If we forget the “is not,” then we create an idol—that is, we make God into the image of a creature.” This idolatry is what Christianity allows in its prayers.
It's not what Jesus of Nazareth wanted.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The other side 4
Ron from Princeton had this response to my paranormal posts:
****I'm always curious about those stories, and what is not being told. There is usually a logical reason why things happen, and your story about the woman who died, and then a light that wasn't even hooked to wires worked, the washing machine broke down, I generally discount these completely.
I have never been in a house where a light fixture was in place but "didn't have any wires running to it". Very unlikely. Who was the electrician who checked it out? Let's get him on the phone. The washing machine goes out, and the error message suggests "mother is no longer here" by saying "The motherboard is out"? First of all, I doubt seriously if the manufacturer actually put in an error message that said "the motherboard is out", more likely, a "system failure", or some other code indicating a problem.
Stories tend to get better with each re-telling, as the facts are adjusted to fit the wishes of the person telling the story. There is usually a logical reason for almost anything that happens, and "coincidence" plays a big part in many of these." *******
This expresses the skeptical view well, a view I shared years ago but no more. The eminent psychologist and philosopher William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience answers this logic in his comment on “the convincingness of these feelings of reality. . . . They are, as a rule, much more convincing than results established by mere logic . . . if you do have them . . . you cannot help regarding them as genuine perceptions of truth, as revelations of a kind of reality which no adverse argument, however unanswerable by you in words, can expel from your belief.”
He states that intuitions from such experiences “come from a deeper level” than our rationalism. “Something in you absolutely knows (his emphasis) that that result must be truer than any logic-chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that may contradict it.”
I'll just continue telling stories as they come to me, and now I'll tell a story about myself.
About 25 years ago I was agonizing about a decision that would direct my life’s course and beseeching God for help in the decision. As I paced by my hutch, a plate that was propped up sat down and sent a cup into my hands. The drop from above startled me into accepting the answer that my insides had been telling me but my head had argued against. I then knew what I had to do, although the message was not explicit and I couldn’t have presented a logical case for this decision that set an unconventional life course. My future was uncertain but the Something I usually call God was there with me.
The cups and plates had been arranged in exactly the same way for several years before that and have been ever since then, without moving. Like Cindy who just KNEW it was her mom, like Carol who knew her dad rang the bells, I KNEW the other side had spoken to me.
Now a series of encounters with the other side in disconnected notes I’ve taken here and there. If you’re familiar with this sort of happenings, you recognize them as authentic. Skeptics will disbelieve no matter what. I was one when I was determined to be “scientific.”
** A dying man finds himself going up stairs and coming to a door. He opens it and sees a pleasant gathering of persons he knew before they died, but he can’t join them. Assured about what follows death, he passes over shortly thereafter.
** Three weeks after Marie died, Katherine was sleeping when she woke to a touch on her body. Marie was sitting on her bed. “How did you get here?” Marie didn’t say anything and looked the same as always.
** Mona was sleeping and woke up to her deceased dad’s voice, “Mona.” It was “so real,” she told me, “just like him.” She looked around and saw nothing, but had no fear. This has happened “a couple times,” she said.
Once when she was doing dishes and crying about losing her precious grand-daughter, she had a fleeting glimpse of something white going by—like sheer, sheer flimsy material. The same appeared while she was walking in her living room. “Don did you see Mindy?” “No,” he said.
Other contacts have happened in bed, where she first thought maybe there was a mouse.
Mindy’s cousin visits “all the time,” Mona was told. This cousin from the other side of Mindy’s family was two years older than Mindy but both were the only girls in the family and they grew up together, very close to each other.
Since her death, Mindy’s cousin visits with her “all the time,” Mona was told. This cousin was two years older than Mindy but they grew up together, very close to each other, and both were the only girl in the family.
Mona, like me, has enlarged her ideas as a result of these experiences. She’s sorry she didn’t believe her mom when she told Mona she was on the ceiling as her doctor said, “We’re losing her.” She came back to this life for a while, then died, and Mona lives with the regret of not having believed her.
Spirit visitations tend to be dreamlike but are “more real” than dreams. They often come at bedtime or sleep-time, and they come unexpectedly—we have no control over such things. But some people seem likelier than others to receive them. In my experience, they are persons with spiritual sensitivity, but they range from fundamentalist believers to open-minded religious to agnostics who dislike religion.
****I'm always curious about those stories, and what is not being told. There is usually a logical reason why things happen, and your story about the woman who died, and then a light that wasn't even hooked to wires worked, the washing machine broke down, I generally discount these completely.
I have never been in a house where a light fixture was in place but "didn't have any wires running to it". Very unlikely. Who was the electrician who checked it out? Let's get him on the phone. The washing machine goes out, and the error message suggests "mother is no longer here" by saying "The motherboard is out"? First of all, I doubt seriously if the manufacturer actually put in an error message that said "the motherboard is out", more likely, a "system failure", or some other code indicating a problem.
Stories tend to get better with each re-telling, as the facts are adjusted to fit the wishes of the person telling the story. There is usually a logical reason for almost anything that happens, and "coincidence" plays a big part in many of these." *******
This expresses the skeptical view well, a view I shared years ago but no more. The eminent psychologist and philosopher William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience answers this logic in his comment on “the convincingness of these feelings of reality. . . . They are, as a rule, much more convincing than results established by mere logic . . . if you do have them . . . you cannot help regarding them as genuine perceptions of truth, as revelations of a kind of reality which no adverse argument, however unanswerable by you in words, can expel from your belief.”
He states that intuitions from such experiences “come from a deeper level” than our rationalism. “Something in you absolutely knows (his emphasis) that that result must be truer than any logic-chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that may contradict it.”
I'll just continue telling stories as they come to me, and now I'll tell a story about myself.
About 25 years ago I was agonizing about a decision that would direct my life’s course and beseeching God for help in the decision. As I paced by my hutch, a plate that was propped up sat down and sent a cup into my hands. The drop from above startled me into accepting the answer that my insides had been telling me but my head had argued against. I then knew what I had to do, although the message was not explicit and I couldn’t have presented a logical case for this decision that set an unconventional life course. My future was uncertain but the Something I usually call God was there with me.
The cups and plates had been arranged in exactly the same way for several years before that and have been ever since then, without moving. Like Cindy who just KNEW it was her mom, like Carol who knew her dad rang the bells, I KNEW the other side had spoken to me.
Now a series of encounters with the other side in disconnected notes I’ve taken here and there. If you’re familiar with this sort of happenings, you recognize them as authentic. Skeptics will disbelieve no matter what. I was one when I was determined to be “scientific.”
** A dying man finds himself going up stairs and coming to a door. He opens it and sees a pleasant gathering of persons he knew before they died, but he can’t join them. Assured about what follows death, he passes over shortly thereafter.
** Three weeks after Marie died, Katherine was sleeping when she woke to a touch on her body. Marie was sitting on her bed. “How did you get here?” Marie didn’t say anything and looked the same as always.
** Mona was sleeping and woke up to her deceased dad’s voice, “Mona.” It was “so real,” she told me, “just like him.” She looked around and saw nothing, but had no fear. This has happened “a couple times,” she said.
Once when she was doing dishes and crying about losing her precious grand-daughter, she had a fleeting glimpse of something white going by—like sheer, sheer flimsy material. The same appeared while she was walking in her living room. “Don did you see Mindy?” “No,” he said.
Other contacts have happened in bed, where she first thought maybe there was a mouse.
Mindy’s cousin visits “all the time,” Mona was told. This cousin from the other side of Mindy’s family was two years older than Mindy but both were the only girls in the family and they grew up together, very close to each other.
Since her death, Mindy’s cousin visits with her “all the time,” Mona was told. This cousin was two years older than Mindy but they grew up together, very close to each other, and both were the only girl in the family.
Mona, like me, has enlarged her ideas as a result of these experiences. She’s sorry she didn’t believe her mom when she told Mona she was on the ceiling as her doctor said, “We’re losing her.” She came back to this life for a while, then died, and Mona lives with the regret of not having believed her.
Spirit visitations tend to be dreamlike but are “more real” than dreams. They often come at bedtime or sleep-time, and they come unexpectedly—we have no control over such things. But some people seem likelier than others to receive them. In my experience, they are persons with spiritual sensitivity, but they range from fundamentalist believers to open-minded religious to agnostics who dislike religion.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Trinity & social implications
I cherish the memory of sitting in his class at the School of Theology when the renowned Godfrey Diekmann OSB confessed to us that he wondered whether there were more persons in God than three. And it was a confession—he asked us not to spread his surmises, wary of possible negative reaction.
A religious sister with whom I shared this asked what I imagine prompted him to say that. Before answering, I want to say that I wouldn't be surprised if not another student in the class remembers the moment that was so memorable to me. I was struck because I was chaffing at the seminarians’ incessant father/son/he/he/him/his talk, exactly as if the ultimate mysterious power of the universe were 3 guys in the sky.
Back to Diekmann—I wish I had asked him to elaborate. I can only guess that he was realizing the inappropriateness, the inadequacy, of taking Father/Son/Spirit literally, realizing that the Trinity stands for more than these three names, that it’s not 3 specific entities. This realization is common among theologians, and Godfrey was meditating on it mystically.
My questioner also wanted to know what I meant by saying that other language for Trinity could be “I, you, and others.” It's a way of realizing that, while I relate to you or to anyone else, there are many others. Another image used is that of three matches making one flame. The Trinity is simply an image, a symbol to describe the reality of the universe—all the different units united in one. The All includes the many, diversity united in one whole and the parts relating to each other, never completely separate.
Now we arrive at social implications of the Trinity. All are in the whole enterprise together—what happens in one part of the globe affects every other. Unstable countries roil international waters—Somalia lacks a government and breeds piracy. The U.S. mortgage crisis destabilizes the global economy. The Amazon rain forest cleanses the world’s air, and polluting industries of any one country pollute the whole world. The poor deprived of medical care infect everybody else.
But why 3 and not 4 or more? The universe seems to have 3-foldedness in its structure. For examples and further reflection, click on previous “Trinity” posts in my index and the comments to Sin-talk.
A religious sister with whom I shared this asked what I imagine prompted him to say that. Before answering, I want to say that I wouldn't be surprised if not another student in the class remembers the moment that was so memorable to me. I was struck because I was chaffing at the seminarians’ incessant father/son/he/he/him/his talk, exactly as if the ultimate mysterious power of the universe were 3 guys in the sky.
Back to Diekmann—I wish I had asked him to elaborate. I can only guess that he was realizing the inappropriateness, the inadequacy, of taking Father/Son/Spirit literally, realizing that the Trinity stands for more than these three names, that it’s not 3 specific entities. This realization is common among theologians, and Godfrey was meditating on it mystically.
My questioner also wanted to know what I meant by saying that other language for Trinity could be “I, you, and others.” It's a way of realizing that, while I relate to you or to anyone else, there are many others. Another image used is that of three matches making one flame. The Trinity is simply an image, a symbol to describe the reality of the universe—all the different units united in one. The All includes the many, diversity united in one whole and the parts relating to each other, never completely separate.
Now we arrive at social implications of the Trinity. All are in the whole enterprise together—what happens in one part of the globe affects every other. Unstable countries roil international waters—Somalia lacks a government and breeds piracy. The U.S. mortgage crisis destabilizes the global economy. The Amazon rain forest cleanses the world’s air, and polluting industries of any one country pollute the whole world. The poor deprived of medical care infect everybody else.
But why 3 and not 4 or more? The universe seems to have 3-foldedness in its structure. For examples and further reflection, click on previous “Trinity” posts in my index and the comments to Sin-talk.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Elected bishops?
Fr. Richard McBrien:
“ . . . it is a relatively new development that the pope appoints all the bishops in the Roman Catholic church.
For most of the history of the church, especially during the First Christian Millennium, the selection of bishops rested with the clergy and laity of each diocese, in keeping with Pope Leo the Great's dictum, ‘He who is to preside over all must be elected by all.’
“Today's common practice in which bishops move up a career ladder from a smaller diocese to a larger diocese, and from bishop to archbishop, was explicitly prohibited by the Council of Nicaea in 325 and again by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. A reform movement in the 11th century tried unsuccessfully to restore the ancient practice where the clergy and laity as well as the neighboring bishops played a key part in the selection process.”
This is “consent of the governed,” a principle of democracy.
In today’s Church, suppression is tightening instead of loosening. When the Vatican announced it would study women religious congregations in the U.S., many saw it as unnecessary and potentially divisive. Members of the on-site teams who engage in the study “must be willing to make a public profession of faith and take an oath of fidelity to the Apostolic See.”
This smells more like dictatorship.
Vatican II stepped in the direction of democracy by calling for collegiality or governance from a wide base instead of top-down. The pope was to be a bishop among bishops, not their boss. For a model in the spirit of Vatican II, a shift from top-down to consensus-style governance, we can look to American religious sisters.
Perhaps sisters can adapt the counsel given in a novel about nineteenth century China. In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See depicts the compliant response and participation of women in the system cruelly oppressing them. Their only value lay in giving birth to sons. Yet, the narrator’s mother-in-law, in the one phrase of the entire novel that attributes any autonomy to a woman, describes a wife’s duty as “Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.” This is good counsel for women religious anticipating a Vatican visit.
“ . . . it is a relatively new development that the pope appoints all the bishops in the Roman Catholic church.
For most of the history of the church, especially during the First Christian Millennium, the selection of bishops rested with the clergy and laity of each diocese, in keeping with Pope Leo the Great's dictum, ‘He who is to preside over all must be elected by all.’
“Today's common practice in which bishops move up a career ladder from a smaller diocese to a larger diocese, and from bishop to archbishop, was explicitly prohibited by the Council of Nicaea in 325 and again by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. A reform movement in the 11th century tried unsuccessfully to restore the ancient practice where the clergy and laity as well as the neighboring bishops played a key part in the selection process.”
This is “consent of the governed,” a principle of democracy.
In today’s Church, suppression is tightening instead of loosening. When the Vatican announced it would study women religious congregations in the U.S., many saw it as unnecessary and potentially divisive. Members of the on-site teams who engage in the study “must be willing to make a public profession of faith and take an oath of fidelity to the Apostolic See.”
This smells more like dictatorship.
Vatican II stepped in the direction of democracy by calling for collegiality or governance from a wide base instead of top-down. The pope was to be a bishop among bishops, not their boss. For a model in the spirit of Vatican II, a shift from top-down to consensus-style governance, we can look to American religious sisters.
Perhaps sisters can adapt the counsel given in a novel about nineteenth century China. In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See depicts the compliant response and participation of women in the system cruelly oppressing them. Their only value lay in giving birth to sons. Yet, the narrator’s mother-in-law, in the one phrase of the entire novel that attributes any autonomy to a woman, describes a wife’s duty as “Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.” This is good counsel for women religious anticipating a Vatican visit.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The other side 3
Here is another story about the other side, this one told by Cindy.
*****As Mom was dying of breast cancer I was fortunate to spend the final 10 days at her side. At one point we spoke about a story I’d heard of a young woman who had lost her father to cancer. He told her that after he passed he would somehow let her know he was fine. After the funeral she went back to her home, a very old house she was renovating. A light suddenly came on for a few minutes in her hallway. She was amazed because this light had never worked before. A few days later she had an electrician come in to check it out. There were no wires connecting the light and the electrician said it could not possibly have turned on. She then realized it must have been her father letting her know all is well.
I told Mom that story and asked her to somehow let me know she was OK after she passed. She said she would. A few days later Mom died. I was sitting at her computer in the laundry room when the Cremation Society wheeled her body out the door. One of my sisters immediately stripped Mom's bed and put the sheets in her 6-month old front loading wash machine—just about 5 feet from me. She turned on the washer and it started beeping and a light flashed with an error code. I found the washer user guide and read the error code that was flashing. It said, "Mother Board is out." This is the honest to God truth! I knew it was Mom talking to me. The rest of my family thought I was nuts. But I KNOW it was her. That couldn't have been a coincidence. We had been using that washing machine for the past week and had no problems with it at all.
There was another time—perhaps a week or two later. As I sat at my kitchen table crying and missing her and talking to her, an angel that I had suctioned to the window popped off at me. I had to laugh. It was Mom again. She’s still letting me know she's OK. I'm sure she is. It's just that I miss her so much—I still cry when I remember this.
I’m sorry to say I have no more such experiences with Mom since she's passed, though I talk to her every day, but my niece, who was particularly close to her grandma, had one she related to me.
Right before Mom died, this niece found out she was pregnant with her first child, my sister's first grandchild. On the day before her grandma lay dying, in the deep sleep that comes before death, this niece went into her bedroom and whispered into her ear, "I'm pregnant, Grandma,” making her grandma the first to know she was going to have a baby. A few months into her pregnancy, while she was in the doctor's waiting room, she thought about Grandma and how she wished her new baby would be able to meet his great-grandma. Feeling sad and missing Grandma, she picked up the nearest magazine to keep the tears away and it opened to an advertisement for the fragrance "Beautiful" by Estee Lauder. At that point my niece knew Grandma was with her and would see her new great-grandchild. "Beautiful" was Grandma's only and always fragrance. When you saw Grandma, you smelled "Beautiful." *****
Cindy’s comment that her family thought she was nuts typically accompanies stories like these. And I confess that at times I’m afraid my crediting them here will discredit me as a writer. There’s a taboo against accepting these fairly frequent phenomena that science has not yet explained. Someday I believe it will, if it can get over its prejudice and look at ALL the data available, whether or not it fits preconceptions. This would require continuing to probe beyond the obvious cases of fraud and the quick conclusion that it COULD have been coincidence and so it must have been. Admittedly, odd happenings like this are difficult to examine; maybe they’re impossible to measure. But let’s keep looking at them.
Just as I challenge believers to rethink their dogmas, I also challenge non-believers to rethink their certainty that everything spiritual is bunk. My paranormal posts do both.
*****As Mom was dying of breast cancer I was fortunate to spend the final 10 days at her side. At one point we spoke about a story I’d heard of a young woman who had lost her father to cancer. He told her that after he passed he would somehow let her know he was fine. After the funeral she went back to her home, a very old house she was renovating. A light suddenly came on for a few minutes in her hallway. She was amazed because this light had never worked before. A few days later she had an electrician come in to check it out. There were no wires connecting the light and the electrician said it could not possibly have turned on. She then realized it must have been her father letting her know all is well.
I told Mom that story and asked her to somehow let me know she was OK after she passed. She said she would. A few days later Mom died. I was sitting at her computer in the laundry room when the Cremation Society wheeled her body out the door. One of my sisters immediately stripped Mom's bed and put the sheets in her 6-month old front loading wash machine—just about 5 feet from me. She turned on the washer and it started beeping and a light flashed with an error code. I found the washer user guide and read the error code that was flashing. It said, "Mother Board is out." This is the honest to God truth! I knew it was Mom talking to me. The rest of my family thought I was nuts. But I KNOW it was her. That couldn't have been a coincidence. We had been using that washing machine for the past week and had no problems with it at all.
There was another time—perhaps a week or two later. As I sat at my kitchen table crying and missing her and talking to her, an angel that I had suctioned to the window popped off at me. I had to laugh. It was Mom again. She’s still letting me know she's OK. I'm sure she is. It's just that I miss her so much—I still cry when I remember this.
I’m sorry to say I have no more such experiences with Mom since she's passed, though I talk to her every day, but my niece, who was particularly close to her grandma, had one she related to me.
Right before Mom died, this niece found out she was pregnant with her first child, my sister's first grandchild. On the day before her grandma lay dying, in the deep sleep that comes before death, this niece went into her bedroom and whispered into her ear, "I'm pregnant, Grandma,” making her grandma the first to know she was going to have a baby. A few months into her pregnancy, while she was in the doctor's waiting room, she thought about Grandma and how she wished her new baby would be able to meet his great-grandma. Feeling sad and missing Grandma, she picked up the nearest magazine to keep the tears away and it opened to an advertisement for the fragrance "Beautiful" by Estee Lauder. At that point my niece knew Grandma was with her and would see her new great-grandchild. "Beautiful" was Grandma's only and always fragrance. When you saw Grandma, you smelled "Beautiful." *****
Cindy’s comment that her family thought she was nuts typically accompanies stories like these. And I confess that at times I’m afraid my crediting them here will discredit me as a writer. There’s a taboo against accepting these fairly frequent phenomena that science has not yet explained. Someday I believe it will, if it can get over its prejudice and look at ALL the data available, whether or not it fits preconceptions. This would require continuing to probe beyond the obvious cases of fraud and the quick conclusion that it COULD have been coincidence and so it must have been. Admittedly, odd happenings like this are difficult to examine; maybe they’re impossible to measure. But let’s keep looking at them.
Just as I challenge believers to rethink their dogmas, I also challenge non-believers to rethink their certainty that everything spiritual is bunk. My paranormal posts do both.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Thomas Berry & American Dream
I can’t think of anyone I admire more than Thomas Berry, Catholic priest and radically innovative theologian who didn’t call himself a theologian but a “cosmologist” and “geologian.” He helped me to calmly reconcile my Catholic training with the realization that the Christian story is a myth similar to pagan myths. For Berry this was a given that opened to wider vistas, indeed the whole cosmos, as he combined evolution with theology with ecology with geology. The breadth and depth of his scholarship and influence can’t be overstated, “one of the great figures of our time . . . [who] captured so powerfully the urgency of our current environmental and social crisis.” Read more about Berry's death and work
An American Radio Works documentary on MPR, "A Better Life: Creating the American Dream," stated that no other nation in history ever created wealth as America did, within reach of millions. The promise of America said that it matters not where you start, you can have the American Dream. In the past 20 years the dream became a frenzied drive toward acquiring a surfeit of material goods that included giddy investment and fraud.
The Dream is not dead. Despite great economic inequality, Americans still believe that change for the better is possible. But the sour economy plus growing recognition that our way of life robs future generations of a lovely and fertile planet induce healthy questions. Does our value depend on how much we own? Does the American Dream mean getting rich?
Let’s see if the American can-do attitude will take us to a larger vision, one that includes Thomas Berry’s concern—care for the whole planet and all life on the planet.
An American Radio Works documentary on MPR, "A Better Life: Creating the American Dream," stated that no other nation in history ever created wealth as America did, within reach of millions. The promise of America said that it matters not where you start, you can have the American Dream. In the past 20 years the dream became a frenzied drive toward acquiring a surfeit of material goods that included giddy investment and fraud.
The Dream is not dead. Despite great economic inequality, Americans still believe that change for the better is possible. But the sour economy plus growing recognition that our way of life robs future generations of a lovely and fertile planet induce healthy questions. Does our value depend on how much we own? Does the American Dream mean getting rich?
Let’s see if the American can-do attitude will take us to a larger vision, one that includes Thomas Berry’s concern—care for the whole planet and all life on the planet.
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