A Response to Deconstruction – Lazar Puhalo
Many Christian theorists believe that humanity is a collection of Karl Capek's Robots, or mechanical robots, empty and waiting for the right programmer. The inner strength that man finds within himself is there because he is created in the image and likeness of God.
Part of a response to deconstruction is not to see weakness in the person but to recognise an inner strength in the one who has the courage to undertake the deconstruction, and surmise that they have the same strength to rebuild. They do not need reprogramming but someone to walk with them with integrity, respecting their integrity, not seeing them as yielding to inner weakness but giving them credit with having the inner strength to rebuild a more certain and firm structure on the foundation of Christ without having pressure to include the rejected building material (which would compromise the integrity of the rebuilding) and hinder an honest rediscovery of Christ.
A recognition that if Jesus is not Christ, he may be only an emotional affectation. "Jesus" by itself is an emotional slogan, Jesus has meaning because he is Christ. The Incarnation can be an emotional slogan without a meaningful non-juridical reason for it. The juridical understanding is one driver of deconstruction. Redemption from alienation rather than saving man from the Father's wrath is a necessary understanding. Man is the prodigal son to whom God lovingly sent a rescuer rather than passively (and angrily) waiting for our return and penance. Walking with one who is going through the often traumatic process of “deconstruction” with self-recognition rather than some maudlin and often condescending “compassion” is appropriate.
Sojourn – Poem by Dominic Jersak
Sojourn
You are a long way from home
Your clothes are dripping and the bags under your eyes sag heavy
The fog is all encompassing, filling your surroundings with white
Isaac the Syrian on universal salvation & the mystery of Gehenna – Sebastian Brock
Isaac the Syrian, who is also known as Isaac of Niniveh, belongs to the late seventh century, and was thus roughly a contemporary of St Mildred and the Venerable Bede. He originated from the region of Qatar, on the west side of the Gulf, which at that time was an...
‘Mystical Landscapes’ (Katharine Lochman – ed.) – Review by Ron Dart
Mystical Landscapes: From Vincent van Gogh to Emily Carr. Ed. by Katharine Lochman with Roald Nasgaard & Bogomila Welsch-Ovcharov. New York: DelMonico Books, 2016. There has been a regrettable tendency to falsely and naively assume the right wing...
Jesus is First Known … – Kenneth Tanner
Jesus is first the Word of God in the vivid experience of those who knew him in flesh and blood: walking the streets of Capernaum and the alleyways of Jerusalem, fishing at dawn on Galilee, dining in Bethany, or reading the scroll of Isaiah at the synagogue in...
Jaroslav Pelikan: Magister Ludi of Christian Castalia – with Ron Dart
Ron S. Dart (UFV) uses the imagery of Hermann Hesse’s “Glass Bead Game” to reflect on the career and works of Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006).
“Are you ‘saved’?” (uh …) by Brad Jersak
Trinity by Scott Erickson A constellation of questions, common to some Christian traditions, increasingly makes me cringe. Are you saved? Is he/she saved? When were you saved? I know what is intended. They are identifying ‘saved’ with the moment I ‘invited Christ into...
Ascended, Not Absent by Brian Zahnd
Ascension is not about the absence of Christ, but about the ascendancy of Christ. The ascension of Christ to the right hand of God is the ascendency, the rise, the elevation, the promotion of Christ to the position of all authority in heaven and on earth.
Reviews of Mary Ford’s “The Soul’s Longing” & David Ford’s “Wisdom for Today” – by Ron Dart
Dr. Mary S. Ford. The Soul’s Longing: An Orthodox Christian Perspective on Biblical Interpretation. Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press, 2015 David C. Ford. Wisdom For Today From The Early Church: A Foundational Study. Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press, 2015 I have, since the...
The Literalist Hermeneutics of Luther’s Increasing Violence – Richard Murray
What caused Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, to become so bitter and violent-minded in the later years of his life?
Hermann Hesse and Thomas Merton: Countercultural Affinities – Ron Dart
But the longing to get on the other side of everything already settled, this makes me, and everybody like, a road sign to the future. - Hermann Hesse Wandering: Farmhouse There is another side of Kanchengunga and of every...
