This year at Gettysburg College, I am working with several first-year seminars as a Student Success Advocate (a new program this fall). All of the these seminars are very interesting and very engaging: one of them, which is about the history of tea, has started me doing Japanese calligraphy and practicing the Japanese tea ceremony;…… Continue reading Revisiting “Mere Christianity”
Category: Religion
Lenten Thoughts on Judas
So, in case you are ready to read something that is NOT about the Coronavirus, I have a quick recommendation. I don’t usually read graphic novels, but I have a very strong theological interest in Judas (basically, I think Judas is the exemplar of salvation in Jesus Christ—if he isn’t saved, none of us are).…… Continue reading Lenten Thoughts on Judas
Keep Calm and Breathe Peace
On Wednesday’s edition of “The Writer’s Almanac,” Garrison Keillor informed us that on Wednesday, March 11th, 1918, the first cases of what would become the influenza pandemic were reported in the US—107 soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas got sick. As we have been reminded multiple times in the past weeks, that was the worst pandemic…… Continue reading Keep Calm and Breathe Peace
Buddhism & Christianity on Sexual Violence
At the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies meeting last week at the American Academy of Religion Conference, we had two fabulous panels that I am still thinking about days later. In this post, I want to reflect on the first one, which was titled “Buddhist and Christian Resources for Addressing Sexual Violence.” We had six…… Continue reading Buddhism & Christianity on Sexual Violence
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Monday was a holiday–of sorts. When I was young, it was unambiguously Columbus Day: we celebrated the day Columbus “discovered” America and most of us had off from school. Now, in many places–though not everywhere–the day is commemorated as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” but somewhat uneasily, I think, depending on where you live. I asked…… Continue reading Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Reflections from Yom Kippur
Today is the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, a day Jews take stock of their lives, give an accounting of the year, reevaluate priorities and actions, and confront their failings, assured of God’s forgiveness. In the Machzor for Yom Kippur (the service…… Continue reading Reflections from Yom Kippur
A Defiant and Triumphant Faith
The Jewish High Holidays are coming up–Rosh Hashanah starts next week–and so I was particularly moved by this story I read this morning in the New York Times: A Shofar that Defied the Nazis If you haven’t read it, please do–it is so powerful and such a tribute to the strength of human spirit and will.…… Continue reading A Defiant and Triumphant Faith
Alter’s Psalter, and Inclusive Language
I have a bone to pick with Robert Alter. Alter is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, and in 2007, he translated the Psalter. [He also just published a three volume translation of the Hebrew Bible–I have read about it, but I haven’t actually seen a copy of it yet.] He is…… Continue reading Alter’s Psalter, and Inclusive Language
Expansive Empathy for all God’s Children
Yesterday I listened to one of my favorite podcasts—“Hidden Brain.” This episode was about empathy, and it is definitely worth a listen, even though it is a little long. It is especially important in the current context to think critically about empathy, since the data shows that, in general, in the United States, empathy has…… Continue reading Expansive Empathy for all God’s Children
The Danger of Silence
Here we are, again. Once again, we find ourselves in a place we have been all too many times before, and only too recently. Here we are, again, mourning the tragic, senseless loss of life in a mass shooting. This time, at a mosque. Last time at a synagogue, and before that, at a church, and…… Continue reading The Danger of Silence
