It was another great day today–lots of interesting presentations, and my panel was today as well:  here I am with my co-presenters.But mostly what I want to share is my visit to the monastery of 10,000 Buddhas.  When I was here with my beloved mentor from Wartburg, Duane Priebe, I vividly remember visiting this place,…… Continue reading The Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas

I just want to say a bit more about the seminary in Hong Kong, and share a few more pictures.  As I said, it was founded in 1913, which means that it celebrated 100 years in 2013.  They put together a lovely commemorative book, which included congratulatory letters from churches around the world (including the…… Continue reading The Lutheran Seminary in Hong Kong

I am here in Hong Kong for several days at a Lutheran World Federation consultation on “Religious Life and Public Space in Asia.”  (I was asked to present a paper–I’ll be talking about the American context & interreligious dialogue.) So, day 1 was today, and it was really interesting.  Basically most presenters are talking about…… Continue reading Greetings from Hong Kong!

Typically when I write my blogs, I don’t necessarily like to add my voice to the hottest topic of the week.  Mostly that’s because someone else probably already has said what I would say better than I would have said it; and it’s also because I like to reflect on more “out-of-the-way” topics, things that…… Continue reading We all need to be talking about Gun Control

I was away in Berkeley last week at two wonderful conferences–the Association of Teaching Theologians of the Lutheran Church; and the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies.  Both of the conferences were stimulating and interesting, and Berkeley is, well Berkeley:  if you are an outdoorsy vegetarian like I am, it is an absolutely delight to…… Continue reading Letting the Little Things Go

If I asked you today, “What are your thoughts on death?,” I imagine your answer might well be colored by your recent personal experiences.  It’s hardly a neutral question, and certainly any thoughts and feelings we might have about death on any given day relate in no small part to the current state of our…… Continue reading When Death Comes: Oliver Sacks, Mary Oliver, and Walt Whitman

I just finished reviewing Margaret Miles’s new book Beyond the Centaur:  Imagining the Intelligent Body. The main argument of the book is that for the vast majority of Western history, the human being has been viewed as a composite of various parts, “two (or more) assembled, stuck together, hierarchically arranged components, usually body and mind…… Continue reading Moving Beyond the Centaur "Inside Out"

I’ve been working on a presentation I’m giving this August at a conference in California–it’s on subjectivity and women in Shin Buddhism.  The research has been really interesting, in no small part because there are parallels between the way women have been viewed in Buddhism & the way they have been viewed in Christianity.  Need…… Continue reading Claiming our own Gaze & Getting out of the Cage

I just posted this on the Dialog Facebook page, really in response to a wonderful conversation I had with my friend Lauren this morning.  For those of you who don’t look at that page….I want to respond briefly [insofar as a theologian can ever respond to something briefly!] to Rob Saler’s post about the epidemic…… Continue reading God IS "troubling the waters"–what are we going to do about it?