Depth psychology, religion, spirituality, and more
THE ARC OF SPIRITUALITY IS BENDING TOWARD INCLUSIVITY. Some 3,200 years ago, Ramesses II, pharaoh of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt, presented himself to his people and the world as the son of the high god Ra, and as a god himself. In the highest of ancient civilizations, spirituality was a strictly royal phenomenon. …
Continue reading "Breathing a Wind That Blows Where It Will"
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, THE “SPIRITUAL GOSPEL,” CASTS A DARK SHADOW — especially in English. The Fourth Gospel is known and loved for the light it shines on spiritual reality and the mystic path. How, then, could it also have justified racist prejudice and deadly persecution for millennia? The answer, in large part, lies in …
Continue reading "The News in the Gospel Hasn’t Always Been Good"
WHY ARE MURDER MYSTERY SHOWS ON TV SO CAPTIVATING? Why am I hooked on The Closer, Major Crimes, Midsomer Murders, Death in Paradise, and the like? It’s because they tell archetypal stories that re-affirm the truth of one of humanity’s two most powerful meta-myths. The “Myth of Redemptive Violence” is probably the dominant myth of …
WHILE I AM NOT A MYSTIC, I HAVE SPENT MOST OF MY ADULT LIFE STUDYING (directly and indirectly) both religious experience in general and mysticism in particular. Right now, I’m re-reading, for at least the fourth time, The Cloud of Unknowing, a classic 14th century English manual of Christian contemplative prayer. This will be the …
IN THE VIOLENT PUSH AND SHOVE OF OPPOSING BODIES in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, one sign read, “JESUS SAVES.” The sign seemed profoundly out of place, in spite of its comforting promise. Among other things, the sign suggested the political cause the sign carrier was fighting for was blessed by Jesus. This statement, …
“IN THE BEGINNING” IS NOT HOW THE BIBLE ACTUALLY OPENS in the Hebrew text that stands behind our oh so familiar English translation. The Hebrew reads “in a beginning” or “in beginning.” I noticed the discrepancy while learning biblical Hebrew, and when I asked the instructor about it, he dismissed it as nothing but a …
EVEN THOUGH CHRISTMAS PAGEANTS BRING THEM TOGETHER, the wise men and the shepherds appear in separate nativity stories, one in the Gospel of Matthew, the other in the Gospel of Luke. The two stories are significantly different, but they deliver the same truth, the same subversive message: The kingdom of God has arrived to overthrow …
Continue reading "The Magi Didn’t See Shepherds at a Manger"
CONTRARY TO WHAT MIGHT SEEM OBVIOUS, DOUBT ISN’T THE ENEMY OF FAITH. Certainty is. In fact, doubt and faith, properly understood, are complementary drivers in a dialectic of growth. Certainty, on the other hand, stalls growth and often weakens faith. The primary problem behind our common misunderstanding of doubt and faith is our tendency to …
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