Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Jordan Peterson vs. Zizek - Interview with Ron Dart with Paul VanderKlay

In Christ, Humanity Ascends to God - Kenneth Tanner

The Ascension changed everything, for the event discloses a great mystery: that to be God is, in essence, to be human, to be flesh and blood, because of Jesus Christ.

A human is now forever God in the person of the Son, and what it means to be God is now forever tied to *this* particular human being, and what it means to be human is now forever tied to this God.

As a fellow human Jesus is our mediator and advocate, made like his brothers and sisters in every way so that he might be One who rules and judges those whose existence he understands from the inside, because he lived our human story with us in the most vulnerable, authentic, and beautiful way.

In Jesus, God has a mother and a betrayer. In Jesus, God has scars and God has memories…of meals and laughter with his friends and cold nights huddled together against the desert air in cloaks, he recalls storms at sea and a grinding emptiness at the tomb of his friend.

In Jesus, God knows hunger and thirst and loneliness and pain. In Jesus, God knows the human devastation of divorce and disease and death.

In Jesus, the One like a son of man who's been given all authority in heaven and on earth is also one of us. And Jesus discloses a God who rules all things by a humility we cannot even begin to grasp. His power is disclosed in weakness and poverty, by surrender and trust.

The One who is to be our judge renders his judgment on his human brothers and sisters from the brutal cross to which we nailed him: "Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing."

And he is now and forever there with the Father in the flesh, for us, and we are there close to the heart of Father in Jesus, as his body. We are mystically one with God in the humanity of Jesus and God is one with us and loves us. Praise Him.

Happy Feast of the Ascension!

Image: The Ascension of Christ, Salvador Dali

Jordan Peterson and Transcending Tribalism - Ron Dart

Prof. Ron Dart, Department of Political Science, University of the Fraser Valley

The culture wars (and the issues that so dominate both tribes) that have so divided the left from the right, liberals from the conservatives have meant minimally thoughtful thinkers find it difficult to salute before either tribe. There can be no doubt that Jordan Peterson has offended the leftist progressive liberals and when such an orthodox tribe is challenged, they tend to caricature or demonize those who refuse to salute at their flagpole. Many have been the detractors from within such a clan that have responded to Peterson in such a predictable way. Those who only think in either-or Manichean categories falsely assume, therefore, that Peterson must be an apologist for variations of the Alt-Right, right or some variation of conservatism. Is he, though? Peterson has been more than candid about his concerns about variations of the Alt-Right and conservatism. 

Those who take the time to read, in some depth and detail, Peterson’s earliest tome, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999), cannot but realize that his creative thinking transcends the rather simplistic categories of left and right. The fact some within the right, delighted by Peterson’s criticisms of the liberal left, assume Peterson is a cheerleader for their ideological perspective, are often disappointed when Peterson dares to question them also. There can be no doubt the publication of Peterson’s recently published and best selling book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2017), has had an ample supply of boosters and knockers but those who reduce Peterson’s thinking to such an entry-level book fail to see that it is only a portal into a much more nuanced vision that transcends left-right categories.  It is significant that Peterson’s recent dialogue of sorts in Toronto with Zizek raised the legitimate question of “which antidote to chaos?” 

The fact that Peterson did his BA in political science, with a focused interest in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, means he has a certain suspicion of groupthink whether from the left or right—his turn to psychology had much to do with an attempt to answer a simple question: why do people uncritically assimilate into herd thinking and how is it possible for individuals to be both free from such tendencies and meaningfully individuate? But, such individuation can become narcissistic or authentic—what are the criteria for the latter and dangers of the former?  It is in the answer to such questions that Peterson probes, again and again, the role of myth, archetypes and the significance of substantive structures of meaning and our all too human journey.   

The fact that Peterson, as a scientist of the soul, is willing to question an approach to psychology that is shot through with the ideology of secularism means his more mythic approach to the relationship between the sacred-secular yet once again transcends more reductionistic approaches to the larger life issues. Peterson’s approach to the Bible and other sacred texts tends to offend both the more simplistic literalists and reactionary secularists—needless to say, both tribes turn on him (many with a vengeance, others in a more thoughtful way and manner). But, there can be no doubt Peterson is in the business of deconstructing dated categories and his ample use of such worthies as Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard and Jung (to mention only a few) serve him well and wisely.         

The first task of any thoughtful person is to engage in the process of trying to understand those we differ with, agree yet disagree with or agree with (and why we do so). Sadly so, many either dismiss or embrace Peterson without truly understanding him. It is not very liberal of a liberal not to critique liberalism but many liberals do not do so—interestingly enough, Peterson dares to critique aspects of liberalism from within a certain classical liberal tradition—many liberal critics of Peterson fail to see this obvious reality. I might add, by way of conclusion, that Peterson is more of a portal than substantive thinker—those he points to are more worthy of meditative reads than Peterson, but for those with little or no background in intellectual history (memoricide an illness of sorts) Peterson is a gateway thinker and cultural icon.  

There are many sources that can be mined in entering through the Peterson portal—there are his ample scholarly articles on clinical psychology, books published, multiple interviews (some more worth the hearing than others), lectures on myth, fairy tales, Bible and other sacred texts, public debates and dialogues and his varied reflections on political leaders and movements (past and present).    

Peterson (whether we agree with him or not) reveals much about the state of our cultural ethos at the present time—our reactions to him tell us much about ourselves and our times, our unexamined prejudices and how we respond when threatened by an intruder to our tribe.

Walking Between Layers of Time -- Return to Bethlehem -- Mercy Aiken

If I’ve learned one thing living in Bethlehem, it is that someday the streets I walk down will be unearthed by archeologists. We are all walking in between layers of time, over the stories of those who’ve gone before us and beneath the stories of who will follow. In this land, I can already feel the weight of the histories to come hovering lightly above me. Stories are easily lost. This awareness makes me long to learn the stories of today and pass them along as I am able.

To excavate the recent history of this land requires patience, imagination, a penchant for wandering in libraries and bookstores and a listening ear–perhaps to the old lady sitting next to you on the bus or the man who sells coffee in the street.

It seems that everyone who lives in Palestine and Israel, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jew has an interesting or heart-rending story to tell of depopulated villages, or the old way to prepare date jam, a murdered family member, living under curfew, a song that a shepherd used to sing to his sheep, a demolished home, what Gaza looked like when she was a child, why his family made Aliyah, how she got into reconciliation and peacemaking.

I arrived here for the first time in the fall of 2015 because I was desperate to understand the stories of this land; garbled and contradictory as they were on the other side of the ocean. I suspect that I carried a subconscious awareness of my need to make sense of what is happening here, and in so doing perhaps I would make greater sense of my own faith.

I remember well my second day at BethBC. One moment I was taking a photo of my feet on the gorgeous tiled floor of my office and the next I was nervously peering out the window at the large group of kuffiyeh-wrapped young men chanting as they walked down the street towards the Separation Wall. A moment later the sound of their chants was drowned out by the explosive sound of something. I cautiously crept outside with some of my co-workers but we quickly retreated indoors. So that’s what tear gas smells–and feels—like!

“Welcome to Palestine” said my co-workers wryly as they quickly shut the windows.

I quickly became accustomed to tear gas and skunk water –crowd dispersal methods used by the IDF against demonstrators—and learned to not go anywhere without a scarf around my neck or in my bag. After a few months of what became daily demonstrations in front of the college, I was explaining it to other visitors in the cool manner of one who’d been around such things my entire life. “That’s a rubber bullet–and that’s a tear gas canister,” I’d say with all seasoned experience of an old-timer as I led newbies through the Bethlehem streets.

But under my bravado, my heart was drying up. I never feared for my physical safety here. But cynicism, anger, confusion and depression were growing. And I could see the same struggle in my co-workers; the ones who had lived their entire lives in this desperately beautiful and violent setting.

The winter of 2015/16 was a relentless flow of blood. If the Holy Land were a woman, she would have been lying in a hospital bed as doctors desperately tried to wrap her wounds and supplement her with coagulants. Nevertheless, the blood did not stop flowing. Every other day was more bad news of someone getting killed or injured. And much of it was documented on shaky phone videos.

If you wonder how Bethlehem Bible students managed to study theology and Christian ministry with the sounds of war and ambulances ringing outside the windows, you’d be correct in surmising that it was not easy, especially when the fresh experiences were piled on top of older traumas which go back for generations. But the people who live under Occupation somehow manage to keep going in circumstances that would make others wilt, flee, lose faith, or adopt a fly-away theology. (Not that they don’t do those things here too – they do.)

When I left at the end of my first year, I never felt so happy to say goodbye to any place. The higher the plane ascended above Tel Aviv, the lighter I felt. And it would be over a year before I would return. But to say that hated it here would be an untruth. I loved it here, deeply. My honest struggle was how to process the painful and disorienting emotions that I had experienced over the previous year.

So, what brought me back?

I suppose it is those interconnected-issues of theology, eschatology and human rights–of working out the practicalities of our Christian faith in an area where every conclusion is challenged by facts on the ground that not only brought me here once, but also brought me back a second time.

And did I mention the people? The living stones who keep the dead stones clean for the tourists and pilgrims who come and go. The living stones who cry out in worship, who weep salty tears, who have been raised as sons of Abraham and Christ. These are the “most holy places” and they move the depths of my heart.

Our dear Bethlehem’s story is not finished and though she still speaks with passion and eloquence, too few have listened. We love Bethlehem for her old stories and not her new ones. Her new stories raise too many questions. They make us uncomfortable. Her old stories are beautiful, but they eventually become meaningless if we are not willing to listen to today’s stories as well…Not the stories we want to hear, not the stories imposed upon her by the ignorant and insincere, but the stories that Bethlehem herself is actually telling.

For God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and it always the living that He is concerned with.

And so I returned to Bethlehem not only because of the unique beauty and tragedy of this place, but because I’ve become convinced that at least part of my calling is to listen to her stories and share them as I can.

(An article I wrote last year for Bethlehem Bible College. And this year, I am working on a book about Bishara Awad, founder of the College).

Christ is Your Man - Homily on the Paralytic - Lazar Puhalo

The Shadow of Hubris: Enemy to Faith - Sarah Van Diest

Perspective. How do we see ______? It almost doesn’t matter what we put in that blank, if our perspective is skewed or obscured, correct conclusions are difficult to make. That has been the case for me in regard to truth. 

I have seen truth, and therefore God, from a perspective that used the eyes of my flesh. I am not talking about seeing truth and God as if they stood in front of me, rather I’m talking about seeing them from a fleshly perspective, from a finite, mortal vantage point where the boastful pride of life raises one’s opinion beyond its gainful limits. What I saw when I looked at truth was a duality that caused a crisis in my faith: How can I have faith in something so divided?

Below are my thoughts as I processed through this mess in my mind. I invite you to wander with me. I know I am not the only one who has questioned the validity of faith, wondering if faith rests in something real or is it a creation of my own? How can I rectify what I experience in this life with all its sorrows, disease, and death with a belief that God is good? Is faith just a matter of choosing to see the good and ignoring the bad?

I began my journey in Deuteronomy 8 where God’s children were warned that pride can abscond with faith, that abundance of blessing can replace reliance on God, and I saw myself:

Pride, the great enemy of faith, grows in comfort, ease, and peace. The barrenness of the time spent in the wilderness is forgotten and arrogance commends the actions of my own hands. Though I speak in thankful tones, even in my prayers, I name the shadow that rises in my heart: hubris.

The Art of Homecoming and Hums - Fran Francis

One of my most favourite things is writing and leading retreats. I love to create a whole experience that unfolds over the day or weekend or week; a journey that involves lots of silence and draws people into their silence through alluring and off-beat invitations. It takes a lot to get people to book into a retreat and often it’s the title or theme that clinches the deal.

Living Room: A Walk Through The House Of My Life is a retreat I’ve led many times now. During the retreat participants are given the makings of a folding cardboard house; this house is blank to start with and as the insights of the retreat unfold the walls, roof space and floors of the house are collaged using visio divina (Holy Seeing) and the end result is a profoundly moving awareness of oneself as the dwelling of God.  No-one realises at the beginning that this is where they are headed – it’s not a secret, it’s just that the “aha” can only happen after some of the other “rooms” and explorations have taken place.

Essentially this is spirituality as the “art of homecoming” (thanks, John O’Donohue!). Winnie the Pooh has been a marvellous guide to this homecoming journey to my retreatants. One of the Lectio readings used is from The House at Pooh Corner in which Owl’s house is blown down in a storm, Eeyore finds him a new one which (awkwardly) turns out to be Piglet’s and Piglet is left homeless...for the few seconds it takes for Pooh to say, “You’ll come and live with me, won’t you Piglet?”

Pooh is a Christ-figure. Piglet finds his true home in Pooh’s house. Pooh brings out the best in Piglet and in such disarming ways! Without hesitation, Pooh offers all that he has and is to his fearful and small companion. Piglet’s generosity in letting his house go without a word (I think the Desert Fathers and Mothers would commend his discretion) is met with a richer generosity which means he no longer lives alone. Owl’s loss is provided for, Eeyore is allowed to be a hero and the whole woodland community is content.

Womankind: the 1st Cosmos & Environment of Human Flourishing - Kenneth Tanner

Embryonic, fetal, and female human persons form a sacred matrix of life, the first cosmos and environment of human flourishing.

Even before the earth, for humans our first and most vital environment is womankind.

Our collective society, in all of its political fracturing, fails to reverence this complex reality of child and mother in our philosophy, our budgets, our ethics, our hearts.

I am not ignorant of “pro-life” persons who seem unconcerned—even contemptuous towards—the economic, social, educational, and professional advancement of women. This is as much about structures as it is about attitudes and inactions.

Our society makes it seem impossible to protect and serve every human person. It’s a failure of imagination, compassion, courage, focus, and generosity.

We seem to assume that we cannot serve everyone—women and the unborn—and we can. We absolutely have the ways and means if not the will and heart.

I am as concerned about this latest wave of “pro-life” laws as I am with the abortion industry. Our culture is a hot mess.

The tragic situations endured by many women deserve our complete empathy, if we want to be serious Christ-followers, those who follow the One who enters into the painful realities of every human person.

If we seek to love we will seek to guard and nurture the life of *every* human person. We will not seek to harm or kill.

Insidious patriarchy plays a negative role here, too, its bad motivations and ends destroy the lives of women, taint the good cause of the unborn, and injure the reputation of the church.

Wayne Northey's "Justice that Transforms" - Foreword by Ron Dart

Wayne Northey: I’m pleased to add this page about three books produced fall 2018:

CLICK HERE for the books homepage

They are of my writings on Restorative Justice over the years, including (in Volume One) by a few contributors. They are part of a projected multi-volume series. I then hope to publish another series of my Peace/Peacemaking writings, tentatively titled Justice That Yields Peace.

Justice That Transforms Cdn edition, or Justice That Transforms US edition.

Foreword by Ron Dart

There has been, sadly so, a predictable tendency within the historic Western tradition to read, interpret and apply the Bible within the crime and punishment, justice ethos in a retributive manner—an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, Shylockian pound of flesh dominating the day, fair Portia banished from the stage.  A rather narrow and reductionistic read of the Hebrew canon (Old Testament) has dominated and, in an imperial sort of way, colonized alternate notions of both justice and mercy that can equally be found in the Old Testament, Apocrypha and New Testament. The Jewish prophets and the Sermon on the Mount are two needful portals and correctives to a one-dimensional and reactionary read of the Bible.

There has also been a predictable tendency within the much longer historic Western and Christian tradition to develop, in greater depth and detail, via legal systems and jurisprudence, more finely tuned notions of Retributive Justice. We might ask why this single-vision approach to justice has so come to dominate and what other options might be mined within both the Bible and the Christian Tradition that question and doubt the reigning monarch of Retributive Justice? The answer to such a nagging question can be aptly and amply answered, from a variety of angles, in this superb book by Wayne Northey.

Each of the in-depth and detailed chapters in this must-read beauty of a tome highlight, in not-to-be-missed insights, how and why the ideology of Retributive Justice has dominated, the consequence of such a reality, and why Restorative Justice has not really been tried and found wanting.

Wayne, to his credit, has spent many a decade in the restorative trenches (he was there at the beginning many a decade ago) and he tells a worthy tale about the need to, Phoenix-like, resurrect the Restorative Justice tradition. There has been a tendency to pit the liberal rehabilitative approach against the more conservative retributive approach, but the 3^rd way of Restorative Justice has many a possibility worth the fuller probing. The genius of the book is the way Wayne both probes ever deeper and thinks ever wider and fuller about these timely and timeless issues. Again, I might add that Wayne’s thinking and writing emerge from decades of being in the thick of the fray and the diverse articles embody such a reality.

The fact that the Restorative Justice position has often been marginalized, misunderstood or caricatured as a sort of naïve idealism is found wanting in Wayne’s animated and vigorous defense of Restorative Justice. I might add that beyond the importance of Restorative Justice is the broader notion of Transformative Justice that Wayne has often pondered. I have been fortunate, over the decades, to have had Wayne lecture in my classes in Philosophy of Law and other classes on Restorative/Transformative Justice. Students have raised tough questions about both positions and Wayne has answered each question admirably, well, charitably and wisely. This book does much the same but in a more in-depth way and manner.

The fact that Wayne engages Biblical exegetes’ questionable read of the Bible when applied to justice, the way the Western Tradition has erred in significant ways in this area, and how significant approaches by the Evangelical and Reformed Christian tribes have only seen with one eye on this issue are held up for serious scrutiny by Wayne in this packed and challenging bounty of a book. Wayne has lived in the midst of these issues at the Biblical, Christian Tradition and contemporary Evangelical and Reformed levels. He knows the nuances and subtleties but he is also acutely aware of how, time and again, Retributive Justice dominates the day (and the practical implications of it). There is a unique sense in which Wayne (although probably not seeing himself as such) comes as a prophetic voice to the establishment and status quo Sanhedrin and dares to question their misread of the Bible and Christian Tradition. Again a careful read of this well-crafted book will, if read discerningly, reveal much that is often, tragically, ignored in how Christians interpret the Dostoevskian crime and punishment dilemma.

I have gently urged Wayne, over the years, to compile and thread together many of the articles he has written on Restorative Justice (and they are legion). I have no doubt that those who read and inwardly digest the articles chosen by Wayne for this unique collection and book will be generously rewarded by each read and reread. Certainly, the way Wayne immerses the curious reader in the trying issues will refocus the way justice is often defined and understood. I do, therefore, heartily recommend this exceptional book to the reader with an open mind: their understanding of justice may never be the same again.

I might add, by way of conclusion, that George Grant’s English Speaking Justice will walk the interested yet further down the philosophic trail that Wayne (and peers) are well on.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Ron Dart

Good Friday Sermon and Easter Sermon - by Randy Klassen via Wayne Northey

 

Wayne Northey: Randy Klassen is an esteemed member of the CoSA Canada Board, and past National Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Mennonite Central Committee Canada. That position and others were sadly eliminated due to financial restructuring at MCCC in the 2019/2020 fiscal year. The NRJC position was first created (originally binational) in 1976, and held by Edgar Epp. 

I had that position with MCCC from 1989 to 1998. It was a period of significant growth of Restorative Justice across Canada and worldwide. For MCCC’s 50^th Anniversary, I presented a brief paper about that at the University of Winnipeg. A copy is on this site here. I’m currently publishing a series of books on that theme called Justice That Transforms.

Randy’s loss of position is a great loss to Restorative Justice as well. Many hope and pray his contributions will continue indefinitely in other ways. One example of such are two finely crafted sermons he shared this Easter with his fellow CoSA Canada Board members. Both were written with criminal justice/restorative justice the context.

My addition?: a thunderous AMEN!!!

I have also linked this page with commentary to Easter Song- Keith Green on this site.

CLICK HERE to see Randy's sermon transcripts.

 

 

Walter Paetkau's "It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake" - Review by Ron Dart

It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake: The first fifty years of Abbotsford Community Services (Walter Paetkau, 2019).

CLICK HERE to purchase a copy.

Abbotsford Community Services (ACS) has, in many ways, been both the organizational conscience and a substantive building block in the ever-growing community life of Abbotsford. It is most fitting, therefore, on the 50^thanniversary of Abbotsford Community Services ever maturing life, that a history be written of this significant organization and it be written by Walter Paetkau, for many years the public face and backbone of ACS.

It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake is divided into five informative and historic sections: 1) The Formative Years, 2) Operations and Facilities, 3) Service Areas, 4) Stepping Back, Looking Forward and 5) Stories Along the Way. The judicious mixing and mingling of history, photographs, personal tales and contributions, shifting and reshaping organizational structures and various contributors to ACS make this hefty volume (nearing 350 pages) more than worth the attentive read. Needless to say, the tome fills in many a detail about the emerging life of Abbotsford, also.

It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake is organized in such a way that bite-sized reads can be done or longer browses and rambles across many pages can be the order of the reading day. Sections are short for those who appreciate a quicker sit, read and meditate whereas those who are more keen on information, facts and statistics will go away with their shopping cart filled to the brim. I might also add that the fine balancing of text and written pages with many a picture does add to the attractive quality of the fifty years in the telling.

The title of this compelling history speaks for its obvious reality--many have been the needful raindrops that have filled the lake of Abbotsford Community Services. The quote from the High Tory, Edmund Burke (page 282) sums up, in a succinct way and manner, the underlying vision of ACS: “Society is a partnership in every virtue and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”. Indeed, Burke and the vision of ACS have much in common. I might also add, echoing Burke, that ACS embodies the “small platoon” that Burke held so high as an important element of the High Tory vision of the historic Anglo-Canadian way. Many a kudo to Walter, Abbotsford Community Services and the role ACS will play in the lives of “those who are to be born”. And, many a salute for the meticulous research and writing done on this book and its contribution to the life and history of Abbotsford.

Ron Dart        

Assoc. Professor, Department of Political Science, University of the Fraser Valley  

Guest Post: Straight Talk from a Jesus-Following Muslim Peacemaker - Safi Kaskas

St. Francis and the Sultan

Straight talk

Believers, be mindful of God and speak in a straightforward way, (Q 33:70)

Are there points of differences between Muslims and Christians?
Yes, there are.

These are the points of difference between us. They, however, should not keep us apart for the following reason:

1- We Christians and Muslims believe in one Creator to this Universe.

2- We both believe in Jesus and his teachings. These teachings and especially the two love commandments can serve as the foundation of a peaceful relation between us as neighbors. Here is how this will work. The first commandment is addressing worshipping God:

• Everyone will have the right to worship God the way their faith requires.
• Total freedom for everyone to choose his/her faith without any threats or repercussions.
• The second commandment addresses loving neighbor, this will require that we practice love, help, and cooperation with all our neighbors and a constitution like the one we have in the U.S. to protect the rights of individuals regardless of religion.

3- Most importantly, I accept you and other Christians as you are. I am ordered in the Qur’an by God himself to be kind to you to use wisdom and kindness when I talk to you and to treat you the way I like to be treated.

4- Muhammad through his covenants with the Christians of his time, while they belonged to different sects, gave all of them assurances for their lives and property and ordered Muslims never to threaten them, ever, until the Day of Judgment.

5- If you decide to love your Muslim neighbors as Jesus asked you to do and we, Muslims, do the same as Jesus and the Qur’an ask us to do, we will be an example to the world to follow.

Working to build bridges is not simply a good idea, it is a religious obligation.

Safi Kaskas is a Muslim scholar and peacemaker. He translated and co-authored The Qur'an: with references to the Bible with Dr. David Hungerford. 

Facebook profile: Safi Kaskas

"How about no pill?" Inclusion and Belief beyond Politicizing - Wendy Francisco

I personally think that God/the Consciousness in the universe, doesn't hang on a political framework - so I don't think we should hang him on one. Or Jesus. It isn't only LGBTQs that need to have a safe place to work things out. I want us to have a place to consider inclusion and our beliefs in God without political tension.

I feel like if we can just grasp who God IS, then lesser things will sort themselves out. And we won't be as prone to dismissing each other when we have so much to do.

I was dismissed today by someone I thought was a friend. I said, I am pro all these causes, but not pro-identity politics and I am not up for ownership by any group ever again. Even though I agreed with her on every specific issue, and told her I vote for issues this way, and even told her that though I didn't vote big two, I voted for a candidate who leaned her way, she just up and walked out because I would not carry a card. I am heartbroken... but all the more resolved never to carry a card because to me, this displays more of a bent towards domination and winning, than actual care for causes.

My side will save the world = Fantasy.

It is a fantasy because the enemy and the savior are inside every one of us... whatever cause you want to apply it to. Political polarization is projection and abdication of responsibility. It is actually a method for leaving things as they are.

The world says, get a majority and win. And guess what, that is also what fundamental religion says. If we are on a side, we are the problem.

And listen, I am not talking about being mealy when someone is being oppressed - I am talking about consigning your identity to identity religion and politics.

Law will not heal this country at this point. We are war-torn and we did it to ourselves because we allowed ourselves to be pitted against each other. When we see basic sanity departing the culture, law upon law will not replace it. That will just create a society whose internal morals are based on its laws and whose hearts and minds are switched off. This is like the world Jesus entered...a world totally out of touch with God.

Everything is politics. Politics is no longer a framework of civil function, it is our flesh and our breath and the glasses we see through all day long. It is our god. Our standard of judgment. Our measure of righteousness.

But, not for me. It was not just evangelicalism that I left, but a dead mechanism that shapes evangelicalism and many other large movements. I am trying to leave a fallen framework of humanity.

I am interested in confronting the enemy in me. Forcing a moral agenda is the great evil that allows us to avert our eyes from our own hearts. We are exchanging love for law... both sides... and we are seeing sanity leave us.

Do I want the red pill or the blue pill? How about no pill. I want something older, deeper.

I think a large portion of what Jesus said addressed politics -- both the evils of empire and the shallowness of the zealots, who I call wannabe empire. I don't believe he campaigned for either side, but for connection to much bigger truths about who we are, knowing that we would then respond to injustice from love and a deep place, not from shrill political domination. He wants us ONE. No discarded groups -- either oppressed or oppressive. He points to that hard tiny lost thread of a road, - healing, reconciliation and forgiveness. He is the only way. The Man is otherworldly.

Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech - David Goa

Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech - David Goa

A seminar for graduate students (Philosophy department, University of Timisoara, Romania). After describing three examples, The Satanic Verses of Salman Rushdie, the cartoons in the Jyllands Posten, and the case of Terry Jones in Florida, David explores the hard-won right of freedom of speech and the matter of the dignity of others. Romanian and English.

CLICK HERE for link to video.

Recommended new site: DavidGoa.ca

David Goa has recently launched a website and we'd love you to have a look at it. The site is davidgoa.ca

In the coming months, he will be adding sections that include video discussions and interviews, links to online exhibitions, etc. In addition, you'll have access to regular podcasts he's now preparing on issues of religion and public life, the genius of Christianity and the compelling insight of other religions. He'll host conversations with a variety of people on their vocation and the gift of their work. 

If you would like to be kept up to date on new publications that David posts, upcoming philosophers' cafés, various lectures, conversations and podcasts, you can do so by simply signing up for his newsletter here:

https://www.davidgoa.ca/david-goa-news/

Review of Roger Scruton’s "Conservatism: An Introduction to the Great Tradition" by Ron S. Dart.

If Lockean liberalism is the conservatism of the English-speaking peoples, what was there in British conservatism that was not present in the bourgeois thought of Hamilton and Madison? If there was nothing, then the acts of the  Loyalists are deprived of all moral substance. Many of the American Tories were Anglicans and knew well that in opposing the revolution they were opposing Locke.  They appealed to the older political philosophy of Richard Hooker. They were not, as liberal Canadian historians have often described them, a mixture of selfish and unfortunate men who chose the wrong side. If there was nothing valuable in the founders of English-speaking Canada, what makes it valuable for Canadians to continue as a nation today?

George Grant, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism

It was the rise of Puritanism in late Elizabethan England, the advancing tide of Calvinist theology and ethics in the last two decades of the 16^thcentury, not the Renaissance of the early and middle decades of the century, that marked the real rupture with the medieval culture.

C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama                                                                                        

Roger Scruton is one of the most published, articulate and probing conservatives in the last few decades. The telling points he raises cannot be ignored and many of the arrows he shoots hit the bull’s eye well and wisely. There is always a need for thoughtful conservatives to counter variations of trendy liberalism (of various and varied colours, shapes and sizes) and Scruton speaks his speech well on such a stage. The role that Scruton played in the founding and editing of The Salisbury Review (1982-2001) and his two books on conservatism, The Meaning of Conservatism (1980) and How to Be a Conservative (2014) position him well to speak about such a tradition.  It was, therefore, with much delight and anticipation that I received Scruton’s most recent compact missive, Conservatism: An Introduction to the Great Tradition (2018), to review—needless to say, there is much to ponder in such a fast-moving overview of conservatism.

Conservatism: An Introduction to the Great Tradition is certainly not Scruton’s first attempt to summarize, in a compact and thoughtful manner, the history, principles and content of the stages and seasons of the conservative vision of the good life. In fact, each of Scruton’s multiple publications, in either an implicit or explicit manner, delve into the conservative way (and what we have lost by ignoring, caricaturing or distorting such a time worthy heritage). The all too sad litany of forgetfulness of the past as a result of a progressive notion of human history has clear cut the forest of centuries of wisdom and time tried insight—such a reality is, rightly so, called memoricide. We legitimately lament the clear cutting of our forests but a much deeper lament should accompany the clear cutting of the past (and the implications of such a short-sighted approach to culture and civilization). But, let us turn to Conservatism to get a fix and feel for what Scruton thinks we need to conserve and who are the saints and worthies of such an ethos and heritage.

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Good Riddance to Cultural Christianity - Wayne Northey

Nones, Religious Right, Voluntary Association

Wayne Northey: Of course, “cultural Christianity” is since inception ever part of Christian expression in all eras, as surely as “tares” grow up alongside “wheat” throughout Church History. The trick is in the discernment and possible/potential related uprooting of cultural weeds. My fundamentalist Christianity thought it got it right when ethical issues cast in five negations defined cultural resistance: don’t smoke; don’t drink; don’t dance; don’t go to movies; don’t play cards. Millions in North America were thus raised. Millions in church leadership got it entirely wrong!…

When North American White Evangelical Church Leadership (in the U.S. clearly, less definitively in Canada) morphed to conservative political shibboleths in the 1970s and since, it still got it entirely wrong, and its further morphing towards the Alt-Right in the Trump era is that tragic false turn gone to seed with Ultimate Ugly Americanism written all over its face: violence, cruelty and arrogance its hallmark.

So yes, good riddance to that “cultural Christianity”. The trick is: how to encourage/celebrate its passing, while eschewing consequent potential embrace of its spirit. Hallmark of antidote to such is surely humility grounded in realism: eyes and ears wide open — as the Prophets and Jesus called for. A tricky proposition; a risk-fraught endeavor...

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The Resurrection of the Human Nature - Kenneth Tanner

 

Resurrection by Luca Giordano (1632–1705)

I find it amusing, this great befuddlement that befalls some intelligent Christians when it comes to the definition of resurrection.

 

On Holy Saturday the New York Times published an interview with the president of Union Theological Seminary in which she mentioned Christian “obsession” with the physicality of our Lord’s resurrection.

Count me among the obsessed.

There are so many witnesses in the New Testament but John’s witness that Jesus Christ ate with his disciples and his words to Thomas that “a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you *see* I *have*” takes the guesswork out of it.

Did Christ Deny His Deity? Homily on the Rich Young Ruler - Brad Jersak

Rohr's "The Universal Christ" - Review by Ellen Haroutunian

Book Review by Ellen Haroutunian:

Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe. New York: Convergent Books, 2019.

It is timely that I write this during Holy Week, as we lean into the Paschal Mystery, which focuses us upon the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There’s no question that the world is a hot mess right now, with rapidly increasing greed, divisions, violence, and cruelty. It seems that the Paschal Mystery should have something profound to offer such a pain-filled world, yet the pain of the world and the confessions of the church seem to rarely meet. And so, Fr. Richard Rohr begins his newest book, The Universal Christ, with the tender words of a pastor, speaking first to those who are alienated and lonely. This Mystery, he says, is the indwelling of the Divine Presence in everyone and everything, and the reality of this oneness in Christ is the cure for human loneliness and strife. It is the pattern of Reality and the path of transformation. This book is theologically challenging but highlights and resurrects a larger hope that has long been in our tradition. It deserves to be read slowly, like Lectio Divina, allowing our weary souls to soak deeply in its riches.  

Before I delve further into this book, however, it is important to say that Fr. Rohr speaks from a solid, Catholic Christology. His magnanimous view of the heart of God is misunderstood by some to be counter to Christian tradition. To be clear, Rohr teaches that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, begotten not made, the second Person of the Trinity, the Word of God incarnated in human flesh, fully divine and fully man. He died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and was bodily resurrected, demonstrating God’s victory over sin, death and hell. Catholics have long taught, as Rohr does, that the Paschal Mystery, which involves actual events in time through Jesus, is always happening still, over and over again.

Fr. Rohr calls us beyond theology into a beautiful and transformative Reality which is the Universal Christ. He contends that much of Christianity’s focus has been on salvation as merely an evacuation plan, being good, and the promise of heaven. Indeed, the faith has become privatized and “time and culture-bound, often ethnic or overtly racist, excluding much of humanity from God’s embrace.”[1]This is because, Rohr writes, we have in effect taken Jesus Christ out of the Trinity and have lost sight of the larger Christ story, which is what God is doing universally throughout all Creation.

This is actually not new stuff. From the beginning, the whole cosmos has been infused with the presence of God, specifically the Word through whom everything was brought into being and who sustains everything in being. The ongoing unfolding of the universe is the work of the Word of God, the Christ, and Christ will bring everything to its ultimate telos: the consummation of everything in God at the end of time. Rohr insists that the implications of having eyes to see and embrace that the Christ is the pattern of Reality itself changes everything. Our notion of faith in the West, he says, has been “rational assent to beliefs instead of a calm and hopeful trust that God is inherent in all things, and that this whole thing is going somewhere good.”[2]To see in this way is what Rohr names as an incarnational worldview. Essentially, it opens our eyes to see transcendence again, after the disenchantment and secularization of the modern era.