Category: Theology
Blessed are…
As a privileged person, I appreciate the challenge to give up power and participate in the blessed life promised by the Beatitudes. Gohn gives me hope, that yes, I too have a place in the Reign of God... Read More
Role of the Rabbi in Climate Change
The role of the spiritual leader in the age of climate change: Re-imagining how to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. This is the title of the seven d... Read More
Contemplation, Introspection, Removal, Denial, Monk-Rock, et al.
I feel compelled to write about contemplation. I am so compelled because the room that I now occupy reminds me too much of a monk’s cell to not write about contemplation. I’m at Andover Ne... Read More
Atheists, Christians, and Fact Fundamentalism
In 1910 Harvard Professor Charles Elliot advocated for a new form of Christianity, a Christianity that would have only one commandment, “love of God expressed in service to others.” At the time, m... Read More
Respecting the Faithful, Respecting Faith – Part 1: Strength in the Face of Despair
In January 1956, Martin Luther King was in despair. His decisions as a civil rights leader in Montgomery, Alabama were being questioned, even by former supporters. He had been receiving anonymous deat... Read More
An Atheist and William Connolly
William E. Connolly’s Why I Am Not a Secularist (1999) has been hailed a landmark contribution to the study of secularism and modern society. In it Connolly argues for a “refashioning” of secu... Read More
Tea with Hezbollah
Last Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Shi'i military and political movement Hezbollah, which many would classify as terrorist, toppled the Lebanese government just six months after the d... Read More
How the VA Resurrected My Uncle
My Uncle Willie, the fourth and youngest boy of my grandma’s litter, has always struck me as a touch “off.” Compared to his brothers—my clever and scholarly father, my robust and street smart ... Read More