No Unelectable Softies!
This little bit of animated speculation by Mark Fiore pretty much says it all…
A New Look for Spirituality
My first book, Spirituality, is being reprinted this year, with a new introduction, a new subtitle, and a new look. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover, featuring a photograph by my wife.
The Mystical Psalms
Last night I was reading through the New American Standard version of the Psalms, and discovered these verses, all of which suggest a spirituality of contemplation and silent resting/waiting for God:
Tremble, and do not sin;
Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
— Psalm 4:4
Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
— Psalm 37:7
My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
— Psalm 62:5
There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God,
And to You the vow will be performed.
— Psalm 65:1
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
— Psalm 131:2
An Tairseach
Here’s a cool new link that Google Alerts alerted me to:
An Tairseach – Dominican Farm and Ecology Centre
The Dominican Sisters established the Dominican Farm and Ecology Centre in 1998 on their 70-acres of land in Wicklow. It is an organic/biodynamic farm and Centre for Ecology and Spirituality
An Tairseach, is the Irish word for threshold and it suggests a new beginning, an alternative and more sustainable way of working with the land as well as a renewed relationship with the whole community of life, human and non-human.
Even their domain name is cool: www.ecocentrewicklow.ie.
An Tairseach is located only about 10 miles or so from Glendalough and maybe 40 miles or so from Kildare. In other words, if you’re interested in ancient Celtic Christian history, it’s only a short hop from those venerable sites to this place where it appears that the Celtic Christian tradition is alive and well today.
Embedded Mysticism
Thanks to Peter for alerting me to a fascinating review of a new book called Mystics by William Harmless. Harmless examines a variety of both Christian and non-Christian mystics and interpreters of mysticism, and draws the conclusion that mysticism is so fundamentally embedded in its cultural and religious/theological context that the modern/romanticist notion that suggests “all mysticism is the same” is called into question. I have long felt that it is a mistake to see mysticism as reducible to a single, unified experience: there are many “mysticisms” even within Christianity, let alone within all faiths. I think the romantic insistence that all mysticism is the same really emerges from a laudable, if misguided, effort to assert unity across all cultures. It’s a way of stumping for religious tolerance. Now, I believe in religious tolerance because I think it is a good thing, regardless of whether our divergent mysticisms share anything in common. And while I think there can certainly be commonalities amongs the great mystical and wisdom traditions, the profound diversity in mystical experience — and particularly in mystical theologies — is not something to be shunned or feared, but rather something to be embraced, even celebrated. It is only when we honestly acknowledge our differences that we are liberated to find and rejoice in our authentic unity. That goes for mysticism as much as anything else.
A Few Interesting Links
These links were brought to my attention by the good spiders at Google Alerts…
The Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism from Marquette University
Veni Creator Spiritus: A Monograph on the Theology of the Holy Spirit Until the Time of Tertullian and Origen by Michel Rene Barnes
The Trinity: A Muslim Perspective by Abdal-Hakim Murad, a lecture delivered at Oxford in 1996
A Blogger and a friend of his dialogue on the above article.
Special thanks to J.R.M. and Steven Wedgeworth, both of whose blogs appear to be most fascinating, for links to the über-cool stuff.
Who Stole the Common Good?
This essay by Julian Edney is a few years old, but I just found it today. And it’s well worth reading, especially if you share my concern that we live in an increasingly uncivil society.
Who Stole the Common Good? The Shadow of Ayn Rand
Here’s a juicy excerpt:
So, do you want to find out if your friends, coworkers or spouse understand the common good? Some do, some don’t. Try a simple game you can play called the Nuts Game — with things you find around the house.
Three people sit around a kitchen bowl. You, the fourth person, with a timer, start off placing ten small items in the bowl — quarters, dollar bills, or nuts. Tell the three players the goal is that each of them get as many items as possible. Tell them one other thing before they start: every ten seconds (you have your watch ready) you will look in the bowl and double the number of items remaining there by replenishing from an outside source (a separate pile of quarters on the side).
I used to run this game with college students. You would think the players would have figured out that if they had all waited, not taking anything out of the bowl for a while, the contents of the bowl would soon have grown very big, automatically doubling every ten seconds. Eventually they could each have divided up a pot that had grown large. But in fact, sixty percent of these groups never made it to the first 10-second replenishment cycle. Group members grabbed all they could as soon as they could, leaving nothing in the bowl to be doubled (destroying the common good), and each player wound up with none or a few items. I saw the bowl knocked to the floor in the greedy melee. And even if allowed to try again, not all groups cooperatively worked out a patient, conserve-as-you-go playing style, necessary for eventual big scores. They didn’t trust each other.
Mysticism (etc.) on LibriVox
I have just learned of a wonderful website called LibriVox where volunteers are recording free MP3 audiobooks of texts in the public domain. Someone is currently recording Julian of Norwich (it’s a guy, alas; I hope a woman will record it at some point in the future) and two of Evelyn Underhill’s books are available in MP3 format as well: Mysticism and The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-Day. I haven’t searched any further to see what other treasures are currently available (the Underhill texts will keep me busy for a while), but I suspect many gems can be found herein – and LibriVox is looking for volunteers to keep recording more public domain texts. What a wonderful way to disseminate mystical wisdom – and what a great, free alternative to buying books!
Father’s/Birth Day
Today is my dad’s 85th birthday. When a man is born in the middle of June, he gets to celebrate father’s day and his birthday simultaneously every so often. For dad, this year was one of those years.
Fran and Rhiannon and I drove out to Athens to spend the day with Dad; we took him out to eat to his favorite Chinese restaurant and drove around Athens, throwing gas-is-expensive caution to the wind and enjoying a good old fashioned Sunday drive. Then we went back to his home for his favorite dessert: apple pie and vanilla ice cream (I had vegan whipped topping instead of the ice cream). Fran took this picture of me and Dad.
Then we asked one of the nursing assistants at the home to take this picture of the four of us.
Guest Blogger: Which “John” wrote the fourth Gospel?
A friend of mine (who has asked to remain anonymous) has written a piece speculating on the identity of the author of the Gospel of John, and has asked me to post it here in the hopes that some of my readers might have some thoughts in response to it. If you would like to respond to this, please leave a comment here.
Which “John” wrote the fourth Gospel?
Which “John” wrote the fourth Gospel?
- John, the son of Zebedee, of Galilee?
- John, the author of the Book of Revelation?
- A third “John”, mentioned with Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, in chapters 3 and 4?
Most scholars eliminate the first two, and none even considers the third option. However, I would like to suggest that he is the true author of the 4th Gospel! The tradition rightly remembered his name was John, but failed to identify him sufficiently in either the Gospels or Acts.
This “John” seems to be the one indicated in the 3 narratives of the preparation for the Last Supper. All three synoptics tell how Jesus clearly designated that He wanted the Paschal meal prepared in the house of this unnamed owner of the establishment. Mark gives the most details: Jesus tells two disciples to go into the city; they will meet a man carrying a jar of water; follow him into the house and inform the Householder that the Master wishes to eat the Passover in his guest room. While John does not mention this incident, he introduced the owner as “The Beloved Disciple” who, as the host of the evening, is seated at Jesus’ right and thus able to lean on the chest of Jesus and ask who is the betrayer! Yes, I think the host of that memorable event was John, a rich lawyer, who was like Nicodemus, a “closet believer” in Jesus, but the events of this night and the next few days, makes him come out in the open.
Indeed, that very night he leads Peter into the courtyard of the High Priest, as he was known by Caiphas. Thus he must have been a member of the Sanhedrin as he describes what happened at their last meeting, in chap. 12 of the gospel.
The internal evidence within the Gospel of John is even more convincing, I think.
From the very first chapter, we get forensic language, as “John” has John the Baptist use legal language to describe his relation to Jesus: to testify, to witness, to give testimony. But especially in Chapters 3, 5, 7, 8, we get much of the controversy narratives in which the legal language is the primary image: a court scene, in which “witness” is given for Jesus by His works, the Father, the signs and wonders and even Jesus himself. Vocabulary like witness, testimony, judgment, justice, to judge, etc, all point to the author is this Gospel being a lawyer – as none of this consistent legal language is employed in the Synoptics.
Even in the Last Discourse, we get more legal images! In fact, the Holy Spirit is presented as the “THE LAWYER”, for that is the first and foremost meaning of ADVOCATE in Greek (which is still used as the word for lawyer in French and Spanish!) Nowhere else in the New Testament is the Spirit referred to as Advocate.
But it is the mention of “Peter and John” in the 3rd and 4th chapters of Acts that actually made me make the connection that John was the host of the Last Supper. In fact, Luke says “John” was sent with Peter to tell the Master, Householder, about preparing for the Paschal Meal. Obviously Luke here confuses the Host with the messenger! Everyone assumes and presumes that the “John” in Acts 3 and 4 is the Son of Zebedee. But I disagree, I think that he is the host of the Last Supper, and after the events of that week-end, he becomes one with the Twelve, and actually puts his house at their disposal while they are in Jerusalem. He naturally allows Peter the leadership role, but since he rich and well known in Jewish circles, his “conversion” is well-known to all in Jerusalem.
“Peter and John” are again mentioned in Chapter 8 of the Acts, when they are sent down to Samaria to complete the evangelization of Philip the Deacon. At their imposition of hands on the new converts, they receive a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Because Peter is always mentioned first in these passages, he is surely the leader of the Jerusalem Christian community, but John the Lawyer, whose house is the principal “Church” for the Apostolic community has a prominent place in the affairs there.
Do these observations amount to a serious consideration of “John, the beloved Disciple, the lawyer) as the true author of this Gospel? And even though we could admit that a disciple of this John actually edited all of this material, perhaps from the teachings of John during his entire life-time, after the Resurrection?
The author welcomes your response or questions (which can be posted here as comments).
Emerging Church Reading List
If you’d like a few pointers on books to read about the emerging church/emergent/emerging conversation (this theologial trend has multiple buzzwords, all of which have a slightly different meaning but in general refer to how Christianity is encountering Postmodernity), visit this blogpost on the Emerging Church: Top 5 Books for American Reporters. Actually more than five books are listed, and links are provided to several other interesting book lists. I agree with Becky Garrison (who forwarded me the link) that one glaring omission is Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy. But otherwise, appears to be a great list (I say “appears to be” because there’s a lot on here I haven’t read: just what I needed, more books to read!).
C. S. Lewis on Mysticism
I haven’t (yet) read C.S. Lewis’ final book, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. But after reading this blog post on Lewis’ perspective on mysticism, that book (or at least a part of it) has soared to near the top of my to-read list.
A New Look for Paganism
One of my books — The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism — has a new cover. It’s very pretty (and I can say that, since I had nothing to do with designing it!)
Quote for the Day
God never grants mystical wisdom without love.
— St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul
Bet you didn’t see this one on the GRE…
Please fill in the blank:
Contemplative is to mystic as __________________ is to shaman.
Any takers?
These days…
For some time now I have tried to post something to this blog every day. If on any particular day I felt no inspiration to hold forth (rant) on this or that topic of personal interest, I’d at least throw up a thoughtful quotation or a link to something of interest elsewhere on the web.
Now I’m going to change this rhythm somewhat. No, I’m not going to go “on sabbatical” like I did in the first quarter of 2007, when I realized that I was thinking about my blog more as a marketing tool than as an outlet for my own creativity. Thankfully, even though I’m always infected by the marketing bug (it’s viral, you see — you never totally get rid of it), that hasn’t been a problem so much of late.
What’s making me think I won’t be posting quite as often is simply competing interests for my time. Of immediate concern: Fran and I are planning a yard sale, probably at the end of June or maybe early July; and I need to spend more time on the Julian of Norwich book group over at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Moving forward, the big looming competitor to this blog, of course, is The Big Book of Christian Mysticism; I expect the next six months to be the most intensive, writing-wise. The good news, here, is that I hope to be posting bits and pieces of what I’m writing to the blog, for reader feedback as well as just for my own ability to see how the words look in print.
Also, in early November my shamanic-therapist-minister friend Phil Foster and I are hosting an interfaith contemplative weekend called Waters of the Soul, here in Atlanta (details will be posted to this blog soon). I hope some of the readers of this blog will prayerfully consider attending; it is our hope to gather people of different faith traditions for a weekend of communal silence and shared reflection.
So I’m not going to be posting once or twice a day. Maybe once or twice a week; maybe more, maybe less. So when a few days have gone by and you don’t hear from me, please don’t think I’ve gotten bored with the blog or that there’s anything wrong — on the contrary, all is well.
Jesus sure knows how to work a Crowder
Mike Morrell has posted a series on his blog featuring the bad boy of the charismatic world, John Crowder, who’s stumping for drinking deep of God’s serotonin, and opening your heart to truly find ecstatic joy and delirious fun in your encounter with your creator. Mike is a good foil for John, asking some hard questions, some fun questions, and generally teasing out a fascinating view of contemporary Christian experience that you’re not likely to find at your neighborhood Episcopal Church.
Here are the links:
Mystical Order of the White Rose
An interview of me appears in the current issue of the Mystical Order of the White Rose Newsletter. This is the first interview I’ve done in almost two years, and I think Cynthia Kiteley Lee had done a fine job capturing some of the ideas that are buzzing around in my head these days. You can read it here.
At the bottom of the interview is a link to a PDF file containing thirty excerpts from The Aspiring Mystic, arranged as a daily devotion. Download the PDF here.
Thomas Dubay on Contemplative Prayer
I don’t see entirely eye to eye with Fr. Thomas Dubay (among other things, he is opposed to centering prayer as too “oriental” a practice), but nevertheless he is probably my favorite conservative Catholic teacher on contemplative practice. So I’m delighted to learn that he has a podcast on the topic. Click here to listen and/or download the podcast. I haven’t had a chance to listen to this particular series, although I’ve enjoyed a CD series on contemplative prayer he did a while back. Check out the various episodes, with titles like “Wonder and Enrichment,” “Meditational Contemplation” and “Teresa (of Avila) and Contemplation.” Should be worth a listen.
Live the Life You Love
I saw a bumpersticker once that said, simply enough, “Live the Life you Love.” This reminds me of the quotation attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” One of my working definitions of mysticism is “the art of living in heaven here and now.” Bolstered by Biblical passages like Luke 17:21 and Romans 8:35-39, I believe that Christian mysticism is all about going to heaven before we die.
