Eduardo Porter observes in the New York Times the difficulties of bringing forward ancient teachings to modern realities, when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, regent of the
In my teens, I thought some about heaven and decided that I wanted no part of it. So much of what I found fun consisted of activities that someone had proscribed, activities not likely allowed in heaven. Our cultural stereotype of angelic beings strumming harps in a place evocative of an impressionist painting left me, a non-musician, unimpressed.
Easter Sunday represents the foundational claim of Christian faith, the highest day of the Christian year as celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. But many Christians are unsure what the claim that Jesus had been raised to new life after being crucified actually means—while non-Christians often find the whole idea of resurrection bemusing and even ridiculous.
Polish theologian, cosmologist, and philosopher Michael Heller, who lived through both Nazi and communist rule and has long sought to reconcile science and religion, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize. The £820,000 prize (more than $1.6 million) is awarded “for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities.”
Abraham’s story has never been ours more than it is now. Naming the compulsion to take innocent life in the belief that sacrifice is noble goes beyond the incidents of any single crime, and takes us into the foundations of human culture and of how people understand the divine. The impulse to praise martyrdom, and therefore to encourage susceptible adolescents to become martyrs, is embedded in our cultural DNA.
Michael Gerson, who worships at Falls Church, offers some very thoughtful observations in his Washington Post column on the conflict over evolution. But Gerson also warns us not to accept the view that evolution and other science supports a belief that God does not exist.
Ken Fabricius is famous on the web for his “Ten Propositions” series on various theological topics. They are always illuminating and often quite entertaining. Ken’s most recent list of propositions on the “New Atheism” is no exception.
We are brought up to believe that if we’re good boys and girls, we’ll get everything on our Christmas list. Most of us recognize, by the time we reach adulthood, that life doesn’t add up that way. “Wonderful” people, we discover, experience suffering, disappointment, and loss. There are “wonderful” people all over the world who go to bed hungry and have no roof at all over their heads.
Tobias Haller is in the midst of a writing an intellectually rigorous, yet stylistically accesible defense of same-sex relationships. It’s must reading for anyone who argues on behalf of the full sacramental inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the Church. Parts one through six are available here.
As Christians in this day and age, we want to focus on a God who is loving and benevolent. We want a feel-good experience of church. And I agree that is important – but not in isolation and not in a way that fails to acknowledge the very real fact that evil exists and that we are frequently co-opted by it.