Philosophy, Spirituality, and Mysticism
What is the Answer to the Problem of Evil? Is there one? Could any answer ever satisfy the soul of a sane and ethical person? For Christians, God is pure Grace. God is in all things. Therefore, there is Grace to be found in all things. The same logic applies to Love and Beauty and … Read more
What is the nature of God? Many ancient and wise people have attempted to elucidate the meaning of the term “God” by saying things like “God is one.” But what does it mean God is one? I humbly submit the following words as a meager gesture towards elucidation, a small and insignificant finger pointing towards … Read more
“THE ALL is MIND…The Universe is Mental — held in the Mind of THE ALL…THE ALL is Infinite Living Mind — the Illumined call it SPIRIT!” ~ William Walker Atkinson Imagine God is a blacksmith and Christ is the bellows and the Holy Spirit is the Air and the Fire is our Soul. Christ is … Read more
Paul said in Colossians 3:11, “Christ is all and in all.” On its face, this is a rather esoteric concept. But what does it mean Christ is All and in All? Consider this passage from Richard Rohr’s book Universal Christ: “Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold … Read more
Wisdom 7:25 describes Wisdom as “a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.” What is an emanation in this context? What does it mean that Wisdom emanates from God? We see the concept of emanation constantly in Neoplatonism, but how does emanation work in Christian theology? Here’s a metaphor I find helpful to my … Read more
Why Am I a Christian? Here’s the story of how I went from atheist to Christian heretic. First I must state how strange it is to describe myself as “a Christian.” It feels much more comfortable to call myself “someone interested in Christianity” or “someone fascinated by Christianity.” My fascination is like a religious anthropologist. … Read more
“I have called this center the self. … an unknowable essence which we cannot grasp as such, since by definition it transcends our powers of comprehension. It might equally well be called the ‘God within us.’…” ~ C.G. Jung I agree with Jung entirely with this statement, with one exception: the center is not just … Read more
What does it mean to know God? Infinite knowing, infinite being; this is usually considered the nature of Absoluteness. The contemporary philosophical movement called speculative realism is a non-theological recognition of the necessity of the Absolute to account for the ground of Being. Yet do I really know there to be an Absolute? Can I … Read more