The Spirit is simple in being. His powers are many. They are entirely present everywhere and in everything. He is distributed but does not change. He is shared yet remains whole. Consider the analogy of the sunbeam: each person on whom its kindly light falls rejoices as if the sun existed for him alone, yet it illumines land and sea and is master of the atmosphere. In the same way, the Spirit i
We want to meet this guy where he is. And, in truth, he’s already taken the first step towards greater Christian maturity—that’s the one that got him over the threshold. Meeting him where he is means thanking him for that step and encouraging and engaging him. The next step means presenting a non-coercive vision and expectation of weekly attendance.
As Eliot spent much of his youth in Essex, where the zealous religious attitudes that came to be called “Puritan” were particularly widespread, he may have been influenced by them in his earliest years. His [Jesus] College educational experience would have been very different, directed towards preserving orthodoxy, though while in Cambridge he would have had the opportunity to meet other students and academics with a variety of religious sympathies. These would have included Puritans from Emmanuel College,
It is, however, when we turn to his educational treatises that we are most struck with the sound philosophy and almost modern psychology of his teaching. Alcuin is never the mere crammer, but always the true teacher. “We need,” he makes his pupils say, in the introduction to his Treatise on Grammar, “to be instructed slowly,
Simone Weil reminds us that the first principle of helping another is not action. It is to see and respect the other. She repeatedly notes that the greater the suffering of the other person, the harder it is truly to see and hear that person. We have to work at this kind of discipline so as to be fully present to the other.
He is dressed as if he were expecting us — polished shoes, pressed pants, a navy button-down all buttoned up — and he has a lot to say. He cuts Frank short before he can discuss the last readings he left. “This carpal tunnel is killing me, Franky,” he says huskily, stretching his arms and fingers out in angry defiance. “I tried to lift a two-pound weight the other day and it hurt so bad I wanted to go somewhere and croak. I’ve been disgusted with people in the world and with myself. I’m not going to lie to you Franky, I didn’t read a scripture, a Watchtower or an Awake!.”
1. Human males aren’t the only species that use the it’s not safe out there deception strategy.
TexAnglican explains Duncan’s explanation: Try as the announcement does to make this sound like good news–or at least not a very big deal–apparently a large portion of the ACNA is withdrawing from full membership and falling back to what seems to amount to a “friendly fellow traveler” status.
Congregations do foster sustained face-to-face interaction and for many, this leads to the development of rich, emotionally supportive connections. But that kind of bonding is influenced by how well one fits with the core imperatives of congregational life. For congregations that want to encourage emotional bonding as part of the congregational mission, it is worth understanding that it does not “come naturally,” and that some people are less likely than others to be drawn into the circle of support.
Lisa Webster of Religious Dispatches interviews Ian Buruma about his book, Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents.