new site

i have transferred this blog to wordpress.com.

please follow this link to the new site: http://uncertaindogma.wordpress.com

i also have a seconndary blog that focuses on issues of justice: http://hopeinaction.wordpress.com

spiritual disciplines and the beautiful

spiritual disciplines. at the core of christian belief is that there is a god that is infinite and incomprehensible. s/he is outside of any of our categories of knowledge. whenever we speak of god, we use metaphorical language. there is no one-to-one correspondence between our language and expressions to that of god. now this god, as christians believe, has chosen to interact with this world that we experience. exactly how this interaction works is a mystery. the celtics used to call the spaces of interaction, thin spaces. so spiritual disciplines are practices that we undertake with our physical bodies to prepare ourselves to become a thin space.

beauty. there seems to be two types of knowledge claims. a mathematical claim that 7 + 4 = 11 is true in all times, cultures and expereince. to use liebniz's terms, it is true in all "possible worlds." the second type is a value judgment. these are things such as good and bad, or beautiful and ugly. what people call beautiful does vary with time, culture and experience. empirically, this world is pluralistic in its value judgments. interestingly, chistian theology has chosen to apply value judgments to the characteristics of god. even further, we say that god is goodness, god is beauty, god is love, god is justice. so in order to make value judgments, it seems that one would have to know god.

how does one come to know god? by experiencing god in your life. which it seems the best way to go about having these experiences through spiritual disciplines.

what about the practice of goodness, justice and beauty? i would conclude that the best expressions would come from god as s/he interacts with our world. in the context of spiritual disciplines, an artist can become a thin space where beauty can overflow.

questions for further reflection:

• what is the role of the artist's intention, or should she even be intentional?
• what about iconography? it is viewed as a spiritual discipline itself, bu is it art?
• should we only observe christian artistic expressions, or can the metaphors of god be found in all expressions, whether they by buddhist, muslim or other?
• is art a communal or private expression?
  

rule IV: peace

i will seek to live a life of peace. to be a voice of love, compassion, reconciliation and forgiveness.
i will take 5 deep breaths whenever i feel like i am losing control.
i will seek to forgive myself and others.


almighty god, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquility your dominion may increase until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love; through jesus christ our lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the holy spirit, one god, now and for ever. amen.

lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy;

lord, grant that i may seek rather
to comfort than to be comforted,
to understand than to be understood,
to love than to be loved.
for it is in giving that we receive,
in forgiving that we are forgiven,
and in dying that we are born to eternal life.

- prayer of st. francis of assisi

rule III: prayer

i will create a rhythm of prayer in my life by praying the divine office.

• morning
• afternoon
• evening
• at close of day

i will not beat myself up when i fail to meet this standard because of my lack of self-discipline and consistency. and i will seek to actually be honest with myself and god.

rule II: abstinence and fasting

i will create regular days of silence and fasting for myself and molly. with the realization that it is about god's doing and my being there, on these days of silence i will:

• abstain from food
• focus on the gospels if any reading is done
• abstain from talking
• abstain from trying to figure it all out
• focus on communion
• focus on others

"keep your love for food in check and you will find it easier to control all inclinations of the flesh.
- thomas a kempis, the imitation of christ

slavery still exists

here is an article about alleged human trafficking in our own backyard (kansas city)

here there is no gentile or jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave or free, but christ is all, and is in all.
- colossians 3.11


在 此 并 不 分 希 利 尼 人 、 犹 太 人 ， 受 割 礼 的 、 未 受 割 礼 的 ， 化 外 人 ， 西 古 提 人 ， 为 奴 的 、 自 主 的 ， 惟 有 基 督 是 包 括 一 切 ， 又 住 在 各 人 之 内 。

i posted some additional stuff about this at hope in action

rule I: daily life

in my daily life i will seek simplicity. outward and inward.

outward simplicity ::

• simplify wardrobe
• get rid of the physical clutter
• honestly asses needs vs. wants
• spend time doing nothing

inward simplicity ::

if god gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? what i'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to god's giving. people who don't know god and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both god and how he works. steep your life in god-reality, god-initiative, god-provisions. don't worry about missing out. you'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
- matt. 6.30-33, the message

summer rule

now that i have extra time with school out for summer, my first thought was to start in on an extensive reading list in theology.

but then i began thinking again. could i use more time studying in theology? yes. is that that most important thing for me, right now? no

i figure what would be better for me at this stage in my life is focus on spiritual formation.

so instead of a reading list, i will draw up a rule of life for the summer.

my wife and kids just left for nebraska for a week, so my plan for while they are gone is to create such a rule that might work for me.

out of school (for now)

well i am finished with this semester of school, at least for now. i think i shall always be in school, and that is ok by me.

looking at this past semester i had the opportunity to struggle with some heavy issues. i struggled with the idea of aesthetic language and how it relates to theology. i struggled with appropriate defenses for god. and i struggled with the problem of evil.

and so i will unveil my answers: ?????

my professor, clancy, says that philosophy is all about finding new questions to ask. once you find an answer, it ceases to be philosophy.

this is my life as one who contemplates unanswerable questions.

hope in action

“christian hope cannot cling rigidly to the past and the given and ally itself with the utopia of the status quo. rather, it is itself summoned and empowered to creative transformation of reality, for it has hope of the whole of reality. finally, the believing hope will itself provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love. it constantly provokes and produces thinking of an anticipatory kind in love to man and the world, in order to give shape to the newly dawning possibilities in the light of the promised future, in order as far as possible to create here the best that is possible, because what is promised is within the bounds of possibility.”

- jurgen moltmann, theology of hope


i barely have time to keep up with this blog, yet i have started a second blog, hope in action, with the purpose of experimenting with what moltmann is talking about.

no by any stretch of the means do i know how to live compassionately and with justice in mind. molly and i are trying to figure these things out and what practical choices we need to make.

so take a look at the blog, and maybe it will get you thinking about the same things. or at least help us in our journey

i am catholic

You scored as Roman Catholic. You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you. Roman Catholic 82% Emergent/Postmodern 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Neo orthodox 68% Reformed Evangelical 61% Classical Liberal 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Modern Liberal 39% Fundamentalist 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

royals win two in a row!

kansas city 4, detroit 3, 10 innings
kansas city 11, minnesota 7

christian school to host gay activists

report from the boston globe


gordon college
soulforce

ahh spring

warm sunshine, green grass, flowers blooming.
what's not to love

we walk by faith

we walk by faith
and not by sight;
no gracious words we hear
from him who spoke
as none ever spoke;
but we believe him near.

we may not touch
his hands and side,
nor follow where he trod;
but in his promise
we rejoice; and cry,
"my lord and god!"

help then, o lord,
our unbelief;
and may our faith abound,
to call on you
when you are near,
and seek where you are found:

that, when our life
of faith is done,
in realms of clearer light
we may behold
you as you are,
with full and endless sight
- henry alford

i am justin martyr

You’re St. Justin Martyr! You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

remembering dietrich bonhoeffer

(4 february 1906 - 9 april 1945)

"action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility."

"one act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons."

"the ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves for its children."

"a prison cell, in which one waits, hopes -- and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of advent."

"a god who lets us prove his existence would be an idol."

"the mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community. silence and speech have the same inner correspondence and difference as do solitude and community. one does not exist without the other. right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech."

"to endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to jesus christ."

"gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy."

"time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering."


more info:
international dietrich bonhoeffer society
wikipedia
us holocaust memorial museum
the internet encyclopedia of philosophy
center of theological inquiry
speaking of faith: ethics and the will of god

does the christian god exist?

here is a debate held in st. joseph, mo between j.p. moreland and my professor clancy martin.

the thing that i kept thinking about was that it seems as though moreland and clancy were in a different conversation. i think traditional evangelical apologetics needs to rethink what and how they do things. and even rethink who their audience is.

moreland and clancy debate

reo speedwagon, van gogh, and john the baptizer

so there i was enjoying my coffee at the starbucks on the plaza after enjoying the royals victory over the red sox. so all of a sudden i looked up and kevin cronan of reo speedwagon is adding milk and sugar to his coffee. i thought to myself, this a trip because i just saw him on tv while the speedwagon was at the royal's game.

so i started singing "keep on loving you," and he came over and sat down to chat with one of his fans.

actually no, i only recognized him because he was just on tv, and no one else there seemed to recognize him. i couldn't even think of any reo speedwagon tunes at the time and i really was not a fan. but it got me thinking, why did i get a funny feeling when i saw a rock star getting coffee. why would it have been considered cool if i would have gone up and said something to him, or to have tried to get an autograph?

why do we have such a fascination with celebrities? they really are no different than us regular guys who don't get on stage in front of thousands of people. my philosophy professor, clancy martin, always tells us when we are struggling through the works of philosophers, to remind ourselves that these geniuses are no different than the rest of us, they just happened to work harder and take more risks.

now today i went on a field trip to the nelson-atkins art museum. i haven't been on a field trip in over a decade. and my wife didn't even pack me a sack lunch with a can of pop wrapped in foil.

and it was weird, i had a spiritual experience in front of a van gogh painting. i think i should have expected it, considering all of the reading i have done in aesthetics now. but it still caught me off guard. staring at the curved of the paint, looking at it from the side to see the texture, and imagining van gogh's paintbrush move across the canvas. i couldn't tell you if learned any lessons from the painting, but i all i can say is that my soul was stirred.

after the class left, i stuck around to do more exploring since this was my first time at nelson-atkins. they have a fascinating collection of early medieval works that reveal a lot about the spiritual practices of the day. the item that intrigued me the most was john the baptizer's finger. well it was a display of a reliquary that at least used to hold a bone from john the baptizer's finger. if this is still the same bone, i don't know. but how cool if it was.

so here i am again at the issue of celebrity. is it cool that it's john's finger just simply for the fact that he is quite famous? how would i react if the john the baptizer walked into a starbucks? maybe this is a completely irrelevant question to compare kevin cronan with him? or it could be irrelevant because maybe he wouldn't like coffee.

do not be afraid

genesis 15.1 :: after these things the word of the LORD came to abram in a vision, "do not be afraid, abram, i am your shield; your reward shall be very great."

genesis 21.17-18 :: and god heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of god called to hagar from heaven, and said to her, "what troubles you, hagar? do not be afraid; for god has heard the voice of the boy where he is. come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for i will make a great nation of him."

genesis 26.23-24 :: from there [isaac] went up to beer-sheba. and that very night the LORD appeared to him and said, "i am the god of your father abraham; do not be afraid, for i am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant abraham's sake."

genesis 46.1-4 :: when israel set out on his journey with all that he had and came to beer-sheba, he offered sacrifices to the god of his father isaac. god spoke to israel in visions of the night, and said, "jacob, jacob." and he said, "here i am." then he said, "i am god, the god of your father; do not be afraid to go down to egypt, for i will make of you a great nation there. i myself will go down with you to egypt, and i will also bring you up again; and joseph's own hand shall close your eyes."

exodus 14.13-14 :: but moses said to the people, "do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the LORD will accomplish for you today; for the egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. the LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still."

deuteronomy 2.21 :: see, the LORD your god has given the land to you; go up, take possession, as the LORD, the god of your ancestors, has promised you; do not fear or be dismayed.

isaiah 43.4-5 :: because you are precious in my sight,
and honored, and i love you,
i give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
do not fear, for i am with you;
i will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west i will gather you

luke 1.12-14 :: when zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. but the angel said to him, "do not be afraid, zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. your wife elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him john. you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth."

luke 1.30 :: the angel said to her, "do not be afraid, mary, for you have found favor with god. and now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him jesus."

matthew 1.19-21 :: her husband joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. but just when had had resolved to do this, an angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "joseph, son of david, do not be afraid to take mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the holy spirit. she will bear a son, and you are to name him jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

luke 2.9-10 :: then an angel of the lord shone around [the shepherds], and they were terrified. but the angel said to them, "do not be afraid; for see--i am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people."

matthew 10.29-31 :: are not two sparrows sold for a penny? yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. and even the hairs of your head are all counted. so do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

luke 12.22-34 :: [jesus] said to his disciples, "therefore i tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. for life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. consider the ravens . . . . consider the lilies . . . . do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. sell your possessions, and give alms. make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

john 12.12-15 :: the next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that jesus was coming to jerusalem. so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,
"hosanna!
blessed is the one who comes in the name of the lord --
the king of israel!"
jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:
"do not be afraid, daughter of zion.
look, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!"

john 14.27 :: peace i leave with you; my peace i give to you. i do not give to you as the world gives. do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

matthew 28.1-10 :: after the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, mary magdalene and the other mary went to see the tomb. and suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the lord, descending from heaven, cam and rolled back the stone and sat on it. his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. for fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. but the angel said to the women, "do not be afraid; i know that you are looking for jesus who was crucified. he is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. . . . so they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. suddenly jesus met them and said, "greetings!" and they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. the jesus said to them, "do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to galilee; there they will see me."

acts 18.9 :: one night the lord said to paul in a vision, "do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent."

revelation 1.17-18 :: when i saw him, i fell at his feet as though dead. but he placed his right hand on me saying, "do not be afraid; i am the first and the last, and the living one. i was dead, and see, i am alive forever and ever; and i have the keys of death and of hades."

only wish my name was as cool

You scored as Jürgen Moltmann. The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about. John Calvin 73% Jürgen Moltmann 73% Anselm 67% Friedrich Schleiermacher 60% Martin Luther 53% Karl Barth 53% Jonathan Edwards 47% Augustine 40% Paul Tillich 33% Charles Finney 27% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

i'll stay with the fathers and sisters

lucian tapiedi (1921 - 1942)

anglican teacher/evangelist in papua new guinea
after japanese invasion during wwII, fled into the jungle with fellow priests and missionaries for protection
axed to death by hivijapa, a native orokaiva
hivijapa later converted to christianity, and took on the name lucian
built a church in embi and dedicated to the memory of lucian tapiedi


more info:
westminster abbey 20th century martyrs
church of england: 60th anniversary of the end of wwII

pakistani evangelist

esther john (1929 - 2 February 1960)

born qamar zia to a muslim family in india
converted to christianity as a teenager
hospital worker
missionary/evangelist in pakistan
brutally murdered in her bed


more info:
westminster abbey 20th century martyrs

a royal nun

grand duchess elizabeth of russia (1864 - 18 July 1918)

royal blood
member of russian nobility during the revolution
husband assasinated
sold all of her luxurious possessions and became a nun
opened the Mary and Martha home to help orphans and the poor
fostered prayer and charity among women
murdered by the bolshevicks

canonized by Russian Orthodox Church in 2001 as new-martyr elizabeth


more info:
westminster abbey 20th century martyrs
orthodox christian information center
orthodox england
orthodox america

the archbishop who stood up to a tyrant

janani luwum (1922 - 17 february 1977)

archbishop in uganda
publicly opposed the dictator idi amin
arrested
murdered (reported as car crash by government)



more info:
westminster abbey 20th century martyrs
dictionary of african christian biography
readings of the episcopal church

i shall be baptized with my own blood

manche masemola (1913-1928)

a pedi of south africa
baptismal canidate
murdered by her parents

martyr of the anglican church of southern africa


more info:
westminster abbey 20th century martyrs
dictionary of african christian biography

real heros

maximilian kolbe (1894 - 13 august 1941)

franciscan priest
prisoner in auschwitz
gave other prisoners his food
heard confessions and celebrated mass secretly in prison
gave his life as a sacrifice for a fellow prisoner

beatified as confessor in 1970
canonized as martyr in 1981


more info:
westminster abbey 20th century martyrs
saint of auschwitz
jewish virtual library

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

alex gordon is my hero

subjective universality

to take a step back from my last post (the language of theology), i want to look at aesthetic judgments in general, not just from sibley's perspective.

david hume and immanuel kant were really the first ones to analyze aesthetic judgments, which they called judgments of taste.

judgments of taste come from an inner subjective aesthetic experience. this is in one sense an empirical observation. the same object may be called ugly by one person and beautiful by another, or they are just left simply confused (think jackson pollock). there seems to be as many different aesthetic opinions as there are peoples, or at least cultures.

but when a person ascribes the quality of beauty to an object there is the intention of universal application. we want others to call beautiful what we have called beautiful. there is also the example that david hume gave:

whoever would assert an equality of genius and elegence between ogilby and milton, or bunyan or addison, would be thought to defend no less an extravagance, than if he had maintained a mole-hill to be as high as teneriffe, or a pond as extensive as the ocean. though there may be found persons, who give the preference to the former authors, no one pays attention to such a taste; and we pronounce without scruple the sentiment of these pretended critics to be absurd and ridiculous (hume, of the standard of taste)

the point being that who has ever heard of addison or ogilby? there seems to be a universality to the statement "milton and bunyan are aesthetically pleasing."

so how does one reconcile this subjective universality? how does one make a justified judgment of taste?


is there a subjective universality to theology?

universality is easy to admit of. yes we live in the meta-narrative of YHWH's creation, redemption, and restoration. the statement "jesus is lord" does not change to "buddha is lord" when we find ourselves in a different context.

subjectivity in theology? maybe a little tougher to swallow. we want there to be an objective truth to our theological claims. we want there to be a definite rightness or wrongness to what we believe and say about god. but i think if we are honest, our theological convictions have a lot to do with our own experiences in the world and in church (some healthy and some painful). our convictions may have more to do with what denomination we grew up in than any actual adherence to the truth.

i don't know, these are just thoughts to play with.


articles for further reading:
aesthetic judgment by nick zangwill
hume's aesthetics by ted gracyk
kant's aesthetics and teleology by hannah ginsborg

the language of theology

frank sibley in his paper "aesthetic concepts," makes the claim that aesthetic terms are fundamentally different than non-aesthetic terms. this means that any aesthetic term cannot be further explained by a non-aesthetic term. in other words there are no necessary and sufficient conditions to define an aesthetic term such as 'graceful,' 'delicate,' 'gaudy,' or even 'beautiful.' aesthetic judgments are in a sense metaphors with no truth-functionality, meaning that a particular aesthetic judgment can not be true or false. but sibley does not want to commit to complete subjectivity here, he wants to say that there cann be 'good' or 'bad' judgments. a fine line.

aesthetic judgments are much like ethical judgments. they are grouped in what are 'value' judgments. so here is my question: are theological judgments value judgments?

if the language of theology could be analyzed like the language of aesthetics, many things would change.
we may no longer feel the need to use scientific techniques to prove the validity of scripture or our religion. we may not feel the need to distinguish ourselves from other christians because they interpret a passage of scripture differently than us.

maybe we could actually find beauty in the diversity of christian thought.

here begins my rambling.

isaac, the photographer

man of faith

last year one of my professors saw me walk into class, and he exclaimed, "now there is a man of faith." he said this because of the shirt i was wearing. and no, it was not a christian t-shirt.

wearing a royals jersey in october sets you apart, even in kansas city.

why do i still believe in the royals?

- my earliest memory is watching bret saberhagen pitch in game seven of the 1985 world series.

- my sons wanted to read the 2006 royals program guide before bedtime tonight.

- being from nebraska, how can i not believe in alex gordan?

- the odds are, at least one decent pitcher will come through the ranks. maybe this year.

- maybe this year.

and so i ask, who cares if the fantasy top 100 players include a total of 0 royals?

who cares if we have to face the red sox on opening day?

who cares if you could field just about an entire all-star team of former royals now playing elsewhere?

who cares if i like powder blue?


i believe.

isaac, the photographer

my son likes to grab the camera and take about 40-some pictures.
this is my four year old's art.

happy birthday to me

so here i am at 27.

am i supposed to be having one of those quarter-life crises? it didn't even dawn on me to consider it today, but now as i think about, a crisis enters my life.

it has been just over 9 years since christ said "i love you, dave," in the middle of snow covered fields. nebraska tends to make you feel small when you drive out away from the city (not very hard to do considering there is very little city to be in). there is a vastness to the plains that makes everything look big except for you. the moon is special. that night was special. there was blue all around.

skip forward to the summer and i am at a midnight hardcore show at cornerstone in bushnell, ill. god says, "serve my church." oh crap!

i have become the principle horn player for the university of nebraska-omaha's chamber orchestra. god says, "go to new orleans; learn how to serve my church." my mom says, oh crap!

new orleans has amazing clouds. they are huge. new orleans has amazing people. rich mullins said that the best way he knew how to identify with jesus was to identify with the poor. midnights in the french quarter i listened to people. i watched a homeless man give my friend a tie, just because he wanted to do something nice for him. i watched as this same homeless man was stopped by campus security while he was walking to our bible study we held in the dorms.

on the ground staring at the night sky, god says, "not music, i've got something else for you."

what?

youth ministry?
teaching?
social justice?
pastor?
academia?
theology?
philosophy?
writing?

how many wrong decisions have i made? how many right?

to try to live in abba's embrace is what is needed.
grace.

happy birthday isaac

you only turn 4 once. today is the culmination of a week of cake, ice cream, family, and curious george.


Let mercy lead
Let love be the strength in your legs
And in every footprint that you leave
There'll be a drop of grace

- rich mullins

revelations of divine love fragment (ch. 5)

at the same time, our lord showed me a spiritual vision of his familiar love. i saw that for us he is everything that we find good and comforting. he is our clothing, wrapping us for love, embracing and enclosing us for tender love, so that he can never leave us, being himself everything that is good for us, as i understand it.

in this vision he also showed a little thing, the size of a hazel-nut in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as a ball. i looked at it with my mind's eye and thought, 'what can this be?' and the answer came to me, 'it is all that is made' i wondered how it could last, for it was so small i thought it might suddenly have disappeared. and the answer in my mind was, 'it lasts and will last for ever because god loves it; and everything exists in the same way by the love of god.' in this little thing i saw three properties: the first is that god made it, the second is that god loves it, the third is that god cares for it. but what the maker, the carer and the lover really is to me, i cannot tell; for until i become one substance with him, i can never have complete rest or true happiness; that is to say, until i am so bound to him that there is no created thing between my god and me.

we need to know the littleness of all created beings and to set at nothing everything that is made in order to love and posses god who is unmade. this is the reason why we do not feel complete ease in our hearts and souls: we look here for satisfaction in things which are so trivial, where there is no rest to be found, and do not know our god who is almighty, all wise, all good; he is rest itself. god wishes to be known, and is pleased that we should rest in him; for all that is below him does nothing to satisfy us; and this is why, until all that is made seems as nothing, no soul can be at rest. when a soul sets all at nothing for love, to have him who is everything, then he is able to receive spiritual rest.

our lord god also showed that it gives him very great pleasure when a simple soul comes to him in a bare, plain and familiar way. for, as i understand this showing, it is the natural yearning of the soul touched by the holy ghost to say, 'god, of your goodness, give me yourself, you are enough for me, and anything less that i could ask for would not do you full honour. and if i ask anything that is less, i shall always lack something, but in you alone i have everything.' and such words are very dear to the soul and come very close to the will of god and his goodness; for his goodness includes all his creatures and all his blessed works, and surpasses everything endlessly, for he is what has no end. and he has made us only for himself and restored us by his blesed passion and cares for us with his blessed love. and all this is out of his goodness.


julian of norwich. revelations of divine love. trans. by elizabeth spearing. penguin books, 1998.

being jackson pollock

here is a great space to paint like jackson pollock.
have fun creating and being.

instructions: move your cursor around on the page, click to change colors.

hiv/aids test

test your knowledge of the hiv/aids pandemic here.

plato, pt. 2

"education in music is most sovereign, because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way to the inmost soul and take strongest hold upon it, bringing with them and imparting grace, if one is rightly trained, and otherwise the contrary?"

what implications does this have for theological and spiritual formation? just because descartes says the only way to certain knowledge is through the rational mind does mean that we in the church have to base our training and formation on such a "heady" pursuit.

might our training be more holistic if music and the arts were used in our formation? what might our sunday schools look like?

commenting on plato's aesthetics

in these next couple of meditations i wanted to comment on plato's republic. the first is on a claim that is rather quite disturbing to my conemporary mind, and the second is a psychological claim that i think has further implications for theology.

"is it, then, only the poets that we must supervise and compel to embody in their poems the semblance of the good character or else not write poetry among us."

why is it that we are so afraid of poets? why do they often make us uncomfortable? In another dialogue (the ion), plato/socrates reaches the conclusion that poets are divinely inspired by the muses. poets are vessels for the gods to impart truth and knowledge. but it is not only the poets that are inspired, the intepreter and the audience are also inspired by the muses. so why in plato's ideal society, would he want to, in contemporary terms, censor the vessels of divine "revelation," the bearers of truth, or the prophets.

societies and religious groups like to silence prophets while they are walking about on this earth. often prophets do not come from the established elite. they don't say or do things that would be considered the norm. but we are comfortable with the norm. we like to think that our accepted teachings and morals are the truth. when a poet/prophet challenges us to look beyond ourselves for the truth, we fidget and squirm and do everything possible to shut them up.

it is only after we have banished, hurt or killed the poet/prophet that we realize we were wrong.

and so i offer this challenge to christendom. stop being so arrogant and let the poet/prophets into our presence. let them reveal truth that gets beyond our social constructs that we deem holy and righteous.