As virtually any survey of contemporary American religious life reveals, one of the most popular ways increasing numbers among us categorize our faith commitment is “spiritual but not religious.” What does this mean? And why is it that so many today choose to describe their spiritual lives in this way?
Read the rest of this post.
The defining question that shapes self-understanding in today’s world may be this: Is truth given by a reality external to the self (e.g., God or nature) or is truth merely a self-made construction? The poet Emily Dickenson struggled with this fundamental question when she wrote: “Do I know myself only in connection with, even submission to, something beyond self? Or must I make my own meaning in a murky universe?”
Read the rest of this post.
Marilynne Robinson is author of one of the finest novels I have read in the past ten years, Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. More recently she has written a non-fiction work, Absence of Mind, a book exploring the often contentious and misunderstood relationship between science and religion.
Read the rest of this post.
In this week our nation observes Labor Day, I share a link to an essay by Christian philosopher and prolific author Dallas Willard. Though written several years ago, Willard offers us timely consideration of the nature of profession and the ultimate end of business.
Read the rest of this post.
In his influential book examining ethics and social life, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory(1981), philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre relates a story about the Hawaiian Islands. British explorer and navigator James Cook became the first European to visit these islands in 1778. Cook was at once impressed and mystified by many of the cultural practices he encountered among the native populace whose origins were in Polynesia thousands of miles away in the south Pacific. Members of this seafaring people had discovered and settled the Hawaiian Islands years earlier, bringing with them their social customs, spiritual practices and moral prohibitions.
Read the rest of this post.
A Definition of What Passes for Much Contemporary Spirituality:
"It is an exploration of the soul by the self, conducted in private and intended for personal ends alone. This authentic religion has no bearing upon our life in history, and it dares not make any claims upon our social practices or public values."
Roger Lundin in Believing Again: Doubt and Faith in a Secular Age