Consciousness and the Mysteries of Transcendence

Paradox

Humans are a part of Nature, and God is said to transcend Nature. But yet Christ is supposed to be within us always. So God is both within us and beyond us. She is us. But She is beyond us as She is beyond everything. But somehow also incarnated in everything.  This makes ideas like … Read more

Why I Read The Bible After Deconstruction

The Bible

“The Bible.” Just that phrase is enough to invoke an involuntary gag on my part, slightly disgusted at all the baggage it inherits from the particularly noxious American (and Southern) brand of toxic, evangelical Christianity I grew up with. There are two basic approaches to “The Bible”: one is faith-based, the other is…more critical, for … Read more

Was Jesus a Stoic?

Zeno the Stoic

Was Jesus a Stoic? If by “Stoic” we mean explicitly a member of the Hellenistic School of Philosophy started by the Greek philosopher Zeno in the 3rd century BCE, then no. But Jesus was not some backwoods carpenter with no exposure to the broader world of Greco-Roman philosophy. The Bible tells us He was learned, … Read more

Did Jesus Bodily Rise from the Dead?

Jesus Christ's Entombment

Did Jesus bodily rise from the dead? This is the core question of Christianity. Many Christians believe that the entire crux of Christianity depends on the truth or falsity of this claim. Such Christians believe that if we could someone travel back in time and discover that Jesus’ physical body was still in the tomb then the … Read more

N.T. Wright on the Resurrection: A Jungian Analysis

Resurrection

The central claim of the orthodox Christian faith is that Jesus Christ was crucified and three days later was resurrected. The Christian scholar N.T. Wright argues from a careful study of Jewish and Christian sources that the early Christian apostles claimed very specifically that Jesus underwent a bodily resurrection. From a Jewish context, this is … Read more

God’s Presence In Our Lives

Tea

The Gift of God’s Presence God’s presence in our lives is like a gift I can unwrap by merely shifting my awareness and intention in a small, quiet way. God’s presence is a gift that keeps giving itself as something to be continuously experienced. It is a gift that prolongs forever that feeling of joy … Read more