just getting started

If you'd like to follow the search for wisdom, sign up. I'll log in several times a week to publish thoughts and ramblings. Some will reflect books I'm reading, sermons on which I'm working, and even ask for help with the above. --GW

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Santa Fe Coffee

I’ve been thinking about this second similarity of religions for a few days and it just so happens that I’m away this week in Santa Fe, NM. The local coffee is superb and I’ve already had more than I need. So, grab whatever it is you have and let’s talk more about religious similarities. Given that the God we speak of transcends existence and being, then such ideas transcend language as well. That means our language is limited to the point we cannot speak directly about God. The best we can do is use words that are bound to our existence, our being (not God’s), and our ability to comprehend. Therefore, we must accept that all speech about God is going to be severely limited. No matter what or how we say it our words will always fall short of the totality of what can be meant when we say God. That leaves us with the alternative: to use metaphor and symbol to convey our limited knowledge of God. And because metaphors and symbols are open to wide interpretation so that no single one ...
Read more

The Complete Idiot's Guide

Hard to put a finger on the exact date but somewhere around the time personal computers were baffling everyone there appeared the most astoundingly simple books, "Computing for Dummies" and "The Complete Idiots Guide to Computing". Clearly I was born too early for these books spawned a concept that would have made my sophomore year so much easier. Today there are a plethora of "Dummies" for every subject including the one I needed most: philosophy. Perhaps a bit more serious are two books recently discovered that have helped me wade through the swamp to a stable ground for understanding the history of thinking: Karen Armstrong, "A Case for God" (she is on the best sellers list more than once) and Robert Wright, "The Evolution of God" (more accurately the evolution of philosophy and religion but titles sell books you know). There are few original thinkers currently among us six billion on this third rock from the sun and I'm no...
Read more

Tracing Out The Crack In Faith's Wall

Grab your cup I’ve made a full pot this morning. We’re going to need it. Some years ago it dawned on me there were some things about the understanding of faith I grew up with that no longer seemed reasonable. I was in disagreement with Anselm, even though I didn’t know it was Anselm’s at the time. Along with the growing crack in the wall of my faith came the question, “When exactly in the story of human history did God’s saving act take place?” If, as Anselm suggests, the death of Jesus was the key to balancing the scales of injustice, tilted because we dishonored God through our self-center disobedience, when exactly was the moment justice restored spiritual equilibrium? Was it at Jesus’ birth, the moment of his death, the dawning of his resurrection, at the point in which we ask forgiveness, or is there another time? In searching for that answer I realized that the most important moment for me in the Jesus story is when he utters from the cross, “Father, forgive them. They do not kno...
Read more