Religion Dispatches
…s out there besides the scientific method that can tell us a lot about the world we live in. There is the historical method, the philosophical method, the theological method, the linguistic method. All of these methods give us a way of looking at the world. So, just because the science of supernatural experience is inconclusive doesn’t mean that these things don’t exist. There is a great line by Huston Smith that sums it up very nicely: “absence o…
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…orts for Jews, allowing them to escape. One of my favorite pictures in the world is of him with a wine glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. As Pope, he said, “See everything, overlook much, correct a little.” He opened up the world in a way ascetics don’t. At the same time, the Desert Fathers are very compelling to me, though I don’t want my kids to be Desert Fathers. I don’t want to be a Desert Father. I want to go to the movies. I wan…
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…consider if genetic modification will reduce or increase suffering in the world, or dukkha. If the world becomes sick, so will we. It is therefore imperative to avoid creating additional harm in anything we do. Genetic modification is not necessarily harmful, but in order for healthful products to have their intended benefits, it is important that producing them is carried out within healthful social, economic, and ecological frameworks. In an es…
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…eputation as a professionally successful gospel singer to his work on the Crusades. So the international fame he achieved as Graham’s soloist was, in its own way, wider (though not necessarily deeper) than Graham’s. That’s because, while Graham had faithful followers, Shea had product-buying fans. Even before, and certainly after, his death, it has been a commonly cited indicator of his success that Shea sang to over 200 million people through th…
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…o it right. We’re not called to save the whole world, but we are called to live our lives from a place of Holy integrity and love that has an organic authority of its own. It’s that integrity that will let us know when to speak and act, and when to walk away. Jesus says when you’ve tried your best—you’ve made your best arguments against the powers that be, in love, and they still don’t get it, let them know, in no uncertain terms, that you have ze…
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…ave provided is a key for pope-watchers on all sides of the political spectrum to read the style, the attitude, the “how” of Francis’ papacy. As this Jesuit’s sense of self in the world continues to unfold, it will be critical for anyone who wishes to engage the man to be attuned to the processes through which he has come to know himself. Understanding these terms might well provide a source from which persuasive power can be drawn. The specifics…
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…ildren only became firmer in their self-assurance. Set against the general run of their ruminations, Hook’s history can only described as revisionist. Reminiscent of the internet cult-phenomenon Zeitgeist’s treatment of Jesus, it featured the standard ingredients of a turn-your-world-upside-down debunking. Before Santa Claus became Baby Jesus’ materialistic sidekick, we learned, he passed through a sequence of incarnations and permutations that go…
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…critical eye, and an awareness of the great Russian novelist’s reactionary politics, Russian nationalism, and antisemitism. Levin’s frustration with the press is thus entirely valid. The legacy media’s approach to American secularization and secularism, frankly, constitutes journalistic malpractice. To take a recent (admittedly far from the worst) example, many secular Americans were dismayed by Michelle Boorstein’s January 14 Washington Post repo…
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…te fancies, presumably on behalf of his shareholders. Eidelson cites Arlie Russell Hochschild’s helpful concept of emotional labor, which Hochschild defined as the “management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display; emotional labor is sold for a wage.” Working for money has always involved emotional expression. But touting the boss man’s political agenda is a very different thing from touting the boss man’s product,…
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…lection. That has been hard to see given that Trump’s election was a backlash against Obama’s. But remember the energies that coalesced in the past six months. The politics of Black Lives Matter, which came to be after Michael Brown was shot to death in 2014, merged with anti-Trump politics. Literally, white people came together with Black people—in other words, their interests fused—to create the biggest coalition in the history of presidential e…
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