MARY MAGDALENE IS THE FIRST WITNESS TO THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS, according to the Gospel of John (20:1, 11-18), but she isn’t the “redeemed whore” of traditional Christian devotion. The Johannine portrait show us, instead, a towering woman of prophetic and spiritual power. The tradition that makes the Magdalene a prostitute grew out of a …
Triangulating
JUST AS COMPARING BIBLE TRANSLATIONS HELPS US UNDERSTAND both specific passages and the Bible as a whole, so comparing religious traditions helps us understand both specific traditions and religious phenomena more broadly. Comparative study brings witnesses with differing points of view into play, in the hope they’ll clarify one another. Last week, while re-reading The …
Mist on a Breeze #4
Circumambulating Reaching the midpoint, looking across to the idiosyncratic starting point of this new epicycle … What’s the point? To share, to give back, to give out what I’ve taken in; an intellectual potlatch of sorts. If Sophia’s bread is on the table, how many will accept the invitation? Or …
Into the Cloud, Whereabouts Unknown
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 …
Finding the Way to a More Abundant Life
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, …
Different Roads, One Path
AS THE WAR AGAINST FASCIST IMPERIALISM REACHED ITS CLIMAX around the world in 1944-45, Aldous Huxley was in southern California publishing The Perennial Philosophy. The book, still in print and now a popular classic in the comparative study of religion, spells out what Huxley called the “highest common factor” in the world’s religions. While differences …
Change a Word, Change the Cosmos
“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 …
Embracing Doubt on the Spiritual Path
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 …
A Moon Shadow Dancing
TWICE, JESUS TELLS THE CROWD, “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE” (Jn. 6:35, 48) — and the image glows with the radiance of moonlight, giving us a surprising glimpse of the feminine face of Christ. The twin proclamations reveal the essence of the “Bread of Life Discourse” (Jn. 6:25-59). The evangelist has Jesus deliver this …
Mist on a Breeze #3
Lady Wisdom describes her role in creation: YHWH created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth, When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no …
Soul Spirit Wisdom 