Contemplating Wisdom

Allegory is defined as "a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another." The purpose of allegory is to provide a parallel example that is understandable to a subject that is not as easily understood. Synonyms for allegory are parable, moral, symbolism, and story. Some of the more famous allegories are John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Plato's Allegory of the Cave , and the writings of C.S. Lewis, especially The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe . Gulliver's Travels is a classic allegory about British political life during a particular time in history. The Christian book Revelation is an allegory written in a form called "apocalyptic" meaning end of time. Revelation has stirred a number of Christian pop culture books called the Left Behind series. An unusual book that recently made the best seller's list is The Shack; a story that chall...

The past is massive. So much so that we tend to shrink it to manageable sized sound bites. For example we often think of human development as happening in a straight line. That is, different cultures divided by thousands of miles and separated by light years of diverging thoughts all arriving at the ultimate conclusions at about the same time. Closer analysis reveals that in the big picture there are similarities related to human development but that doesn't mean they were anywhere near being alike. In our western world (think of that as Asia Minor, Europe, and much later the Americas) religious and scientific development has its key roots in Greek/Roman and Jewish cultures. Theses cultures come clashing together when the church, harmless as a dove but wise as a serpent (Jesus' words not mine) slithered into the Roman Empire. About the time the earliest Greeks were beginning to “philosophize” on the origins of the universe the Israelite were exiles in far away Babylon. Th...

Pour another cup and let's see what there is to think about this morning. The beginning of 'reason' can be traced to some of these early philosophers mentioned below. Centuries later we see reason being refined by enlightenment, science, physics, and quantum physics so that the path of faith and reason have diverged. But is that how it all started. For the earliest thinkers, reason was a path to faith. Whether you approach it from the study of Greek philosophers who sought to find the divine connection through reason or the Jewish thinking of men like Philo, who paralleled the understanding of “logos” with the Rabbinic Wisdom literature, the concepts of faith and reason are inseparable. Post-modern thinking tends to make us choose reason over against faith. To those at the extreme end of being rational minded, faith has little or no importance, it is useless. Only reason is essential to understand what is necessary in life. And for those at the other end, faith requires...

Historian, thinker, teacher, and theologian Albert Outler wrote that a definition of God is "that in which we put our ultimate trust for life." In the course of living as humans in this great universe at different points we come both to acknowledge and/or deny that there is something beyond our ability to grasp. Denial is a so-very-human reaction as it is our refusal to accept that we are not the captains of our own destiny. Denial is a relatively modern concept when considering that ancients who were considered " atheist " were given that designation not because they believed in "no god" but rather because they rejected the god that was traditionally designated by the thinking of their society. The early philosophers mentioned above are vitally important to the development of our now post-modern thinking for these basic premises: 1) knowledge of god can be achieved 2) but only in part, and 3) what we know or experience or see of god is achieved through ...

Terrific disasters and successes are often described as "the perfect storm" meaning that a number of events must come together at the same time in order to produce such history altering occasions. In weather events perfect, and not so perfect, storms have been referred to as "an act of God". When we can't explain the horrible tragedy or even the uncanny good that happens to someone, religious folk often say something about "God's will" or a new spiritualist expression, "it's a God thing". When life takes an unpredictable turn or clearly changes abruptly from what is normally expected our first reaction is to blame or congratulate God for the event. This goes back to some very primitive feelings that life is not predictable and certainly not in our realm to control. Therefore, it must be that which is greater and beyond us that is in control. And though we don't always understand the why, it is totally in the interest of self-ass...

Coffee is good for getting you up to speed so grab a cup. Our modern world and its technology has a way of deceiving us with the belief that knowledge has always moved throughout the world at current speeds. Not so today and much less so in ancient times. Interesting that some of the most progressives thinkers were limited to certain locals and in fact their writings languished for want of a broader means of communication. The printing press would change that but even then that great invention does not compare to the instant access we have to thought, reason, and logic. In the same time frame of Jesus was living in Palestine there was a tremendously important thinker writing in the Greek community of the city of Alexandria, built by and named for the Greek Emperor Alexander the Great. Philo was a Jewish philosopher and theologian living in the Hellenistic world. Because the Jewish community was large, diverse and scattered, Philo was a bridge for philosophical thought knowing the ...

Ahhh! Is there thinking before coffee? If you haven't had your second cup you likely finished my title with, "..therefore I am." That rational thought would not come for some centuries. As civilization moved forward the discipline of thinking was a new discovery. Western society, philosophy, theology, science, and religion and most of what we are was finding its foundation in the exercise of rational thought. Though there are other great thinkers for sure, the Greeks are where we Westerners usually begin. Socrates challenged those who heard him to enter into "dialogue" with one's self and others for the purpose of being rational. Socrates established that the universe was rational, could be explored by reason and that one could reach a spiritual peace through such intellectional pursuit. Plato took up where Socrates began by surmizing reason to be that which comes to us from outside ourselves. Thought is that which captures us or draws us towards itself. ...