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Tag Archives: Western Church

Good News from Old Images

Art: Old and New Good News from Old Images Sunday, November 10, 2019 I am telling you something that has been a secret. We are not all going to die, but we shall all be changed. —1 Corinthians 15:51 This year’s Daily Meditations explore the theme “Old and New: An Evolving Faith.” Rather than seeing… Continue Reading Good News from Old Images

Western Christianity: Weekly Summary

Western Christianity Summary: Sunday, September 16-Friday, September 21, 2018 To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need so as to live truthfully and honestly and lovingly. It is a deeply revolutionary matter. —Archbishop Rowan Williams (Sunday) Meditation [was] not a newfangled innovation, let alone the grafting onto Christianity of an Eastern practice, but… Continue Reading Western Christianity: Weekly Summary

Crisis Contemplation

Western Christianity Crisis Contemplation Friday, September 21, 2018 As I mentioned earlier this week, Western Christianity neglected the systematic instruction of contemplative practice for hundreds of years. Yet many people naturally grow into nondual consciousness through great suffering or great love. Barbara Holmes suggests that “crisis contemplation” arose out of necessity during the “Middle Passage”… Continue Reading Crisis Contemplation

Healing Addiction

Western Christianity Healing Addiction Thursday, September 20, 2018 I’ve shared some of Western Christianity’s weaknesses—for example, how we have over-emphasized separateness, sin, and external religious exercises. But Western Christianity has unique gifts and strengths to offer. The dynamism of Western civilization has led to what I might call the “secularization” of the Gospel message into… Continue Reading Healing Addiction

The Soul’s Objective Union with God

Western Christianity The Soul’s Objective Union with God Wednesday, September 19, 2018 The Genesis story of the Judeo-Christian tradition is really quite extraordinary. It says that we were created in the very “image and likeness” of God, proceeding from free and overflowing love (Genesis 1:26). This flow is rediscovered and re-experienced by various imperfect people… Continue Reading The Soul’s Objective Union with God

The Self-in-God

Western Christianity The Self-in-God Tuesday, September 18, 2018 In his booklet That We May Be One, Thomas Keating writes about two models of spirituality and how they influence our growth in God’s likeness: Since the Reformation, the Christian Tradition has been somewhat focused on doctrinal differences rather than on the spiritual journey itself and the… Continue Reading The Self-in-God

Renewal of Contemplative Christianity

Western Christianity Renewal of Contemplative Christianity Monday, September 17, 2018 In the 1950s and 1960s, Thomas Merton brought renewed interest to the contemplative tradition in the West. He became a Trappist monk and “left the world” for the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where he learned the lessons of contemplation and action. Merton was spiritual… Continue Reading Renewal of Contemplative Christianity

The Christian Contemplative Tradition

Western Christianity The Christian Contemplative Tradition Sunday, September 16, 2018 Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy have a long tradition of teaching contemplation or nondual consciousness. But its systematic teaching was primarily held in the Eastern “Greek” church; the Western “Latin” church was more extroverted and aligned with empires. Serious contemplative teaching—very upfront in the desert fathers… Continue Reading The Christian Contemplative Tradition

Alternative Consciousness

Action and Contemplation: Week 1 Alternative Consciousness Monday, May 9, 2016 I often use this line, a paraphrase of Albert Einstein: “No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it.” Unfortunately, we have been trying to solve almost all our problems with the very same mind that caused them, which is the… Continue Reading Alternative Consciousness

Divinization: A Lost Pearl

Participation: Week 2 Divinization: A Lost Pearl Thursday, April 14, 2016 The Greek word theosis, often used by the Eastern Fathers of the church, is probably best translated as “divinization.” [1] Although usually taught in the more mystical and Trinitarian Eastern Church, it was largely lost in the more practical, carrot-on-the-stick emphasis of the Western… Continue Reading Divinization: A Lost Pearl

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