The end of faith? Bring it
And he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Anonymous, Jesus and the Rich Man, 11th century. Image source: Index of Armenian Art By all appearances, the end is near. That’s what the scientists are telling us, anyway. It seems that a group of specialists in the (really cool) field of nonlinear dynamics have [...]
That piece of halibut was good enough for J—–h!
Everybody must get stoned. From Monty Python’s Life of Brian What a fine old clip from the Python boys. We considered delivering ourselves of another lecture on negative theology at this point, about how the Hebrews really had a good thing going with their restriction on the divine name, and how Meister Eckhart found a [...]
Hovercraft Jesus and the problem of love
There are rules here at psnt.net. One of them is: There shall be no posts even remotely related to Justin Bieber or his mom. Another one is: Never post images that flash, make noise, or move. But when we saw this sweet animated gif, our resistance proved futile. Image source: lol god As many of [...]
Why evolution should be taught in church
Aryan Jesus loves himself a little velociraptor. Image source: Monty Propps at b3ta.com This article first appeared at Religion Dispatches These are busy times for those who fight the teaching of creationism in public schools. It’s like playing a giant game of Whack-a-Mole: In January alone, anti-evolution forces first raised their heads in North Carolina. [...]
Why Eckhart matters
A woodcut of Meister Eckhart, provenance unknown. This image is featured on the cover of Bruce Milem’s book, The Unspoken Word: Negative Theology in Meister Eckhart’s German Sermons I’ve been reading a lot of Meister Eckhart lately. He was a Dominican friar, which means he was not a monk but a preacher (if you ever [...]
The path of disbelief
Thomas Struth, Rothko Chapel, Houston, 2007. Look here for a nice retrospective of Struth’s works; here for an overview of Mark Rothko‘s career; and here for information about the Rothko Chapel In the end, all of us are looking for God. Jesuit priest James Martin has a wonderful little piece in yesterday’s Huffington Post. It [...]
Negating the inverted inversion: why most atheists reject far too little
Lothar Wolleh, René Magritte. The artist in front of his 1966 work Le Pelerin (The Pilgrim), 1967. Source: Wikipedia. This low-resolution image complies with Wikipedia’s non-free media use rationale This article first appeared at Religion Dispatches LAST YEAR I DELIVERED a presentation at a nearby college about science and faith. I spoke of my attraction [...]
More on atheism and negative theology
Eric of Taizé, Transfiguration, stained glass. Image source: the Taizé Community. The Transfiguration is a biblical story that connects strongly with negative theology and the contemplative way I’ve an article that appeared at Religion Dispatches a couple of days ago. It’s about atheism and negative theology. I’ve heard from a lot of folks about it. [...]
More on depression and dark nights
Lisa Preece, Depression. See more of Lisa’s work at lisabellaphoto.com This semester I have been taking a directed study on apophatic theology. I have been overwhelmed with the power of apophasis since discovering it during my first semester at Emory. It is the only kind of theology that has ever affected me deeply. Apophatic theology, [...]
William James considers the M word
Roy Behrens, William James (2001). Source: William James Cybrery. Used by permission of the artist THE FIRST THING TO KNOW: Mysticism is not a very nice word. In a recent post I said that you will not find that word mentioned very often at psnt.net. This is true, despite the fact that negative theology and [...]
