Tag Archives: image
The Shadow of Original Sin
Original Goodness The Shadow of Original Sin Monday, October 25, 2021 Fr. Richard reflects on the negative consequences of Christianity’s emphasis on “original sin.” The truth of our Original Goodness was sadly complicated when the concept of original sin entered the Christian mind. This idea was put forth by Augustine in the fifth century but… Continue Reading The Shadow of Original Sin
A Hopeful Foundation
Original Goodness A Hopeful Foundation Sunday, October 24, 2021 We are not loved because we are so beautiful and good. We are beautiful and good because we are loved. —Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Joy (video interview, 2014) There is plenty of evidence in the world to conclude that there is something fundamentally flawed with humanity.… Continue Reading A Hopeful Foundation
Participating in Original Goodness
Life as Participation Participating in Original Goodness Monday, September 6, 2021 Everyone and every thing is created in the “image of God.” This is the objective connection or “divine DNA” given by God equally to all creatures at the moment of their conception. The philosopher Owen Barfield (1898–1997) called this phenomenon “original participation.” [1] We… Continue Reading Participating in Original Goodness
Mirroring the Mind of Christ
Unveiling the Universal Christ Mirroring the Mind of Christ Tuesday, August 24, 2021 For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible . . . —Colossians 1:16 The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize the divine image in everyone and every… Continue Reading Mirroring the Mind of Christ
God Is Always Choosing People
Great Themes of Scripture: Hebrew Bible God Is Always Choosing People Friday, July 2, 2021 Much of the Bible is largely character development and transformation of persons and institutions. It usually begins with an experience of “election” or chosenness. There’s no getting started, it seems, without somehow knowing oneself as special and empowered. Then the… Continue Reading God Is Always Choosing People
Moving beyond Conventional Wisdom
Wisdom Moving beyond Conventional Wisdom Thursday, February 25, 2021 Here are the three further “ways of knowing” that can allow us to access greater wisdom: Images: Imaginal knowing is the only way that the unconscious can move into consciousness. It happens through fantasy, through dreams, through symbols, where all is “thrown together” (sym-ballein in Greek).… Continue Reading Moving beyond Conventional Wisdom
God, the Lover of Life
The Transforming Power of Love God, the Lover of Life Friday, November 13, 2020 Love is who you are. When you don’t live according to love, you are outside of being. You’re not being real. When you love, you are acting according to your deepest being, your deepest truth. You are operating according to your… Continue Reading God, the Lover of Life
A Mirror Image
The Rhineland Mystics A Mirror Image Thursday, August 6, 2020 An image is not of itself, nor is it for itself. It rather springs from the thing whose reflection it is and belongs to it with all its being. It owes nothing to a thing other than that whose image it is; nothing else is… Continue Reading A Mirror Image
An Uncreated Spark
The Perennial Tradition An Uncreated Spark Thursday, August 15, 2019 Eknath Easwaran (1910–1999) was an Indian born spiritual teacher and author, as well as a translator and interpreter of early Hindu texts such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. I was personally introduced to him during a visit from Henri Nouwen in the late… Continue Reading An Uncreated Spark