Category: theology
-
Violence 4: Children Are (Not) Resilient
As it often does, the most recent neighborhood education meeting I attend each month featured a representative from Chicago Public Schools. This man spoke for about twenty minutes and took a number of questions from the participants. It was a normal presentation aside from the subject matter: helping students cope with the upcoming school closings.…
-
Violence 3: We, The Violent
So far, in these meditations on violence, I’ve not actually defined the word. We probably imagine a violent act to be one done intentionally, likely by a person with power who willfully injures or destroys one with less power. How much more specific can we be? Consider whether violence can ever be just. Is a…
-
Is God A Platitude?
I experienced the last chapter of Aleksandar Hemom’s memoir like a punch to the gut. Or, more accurately, like preparing in slow motion for a fist that finally and devastatingly makes contact. I finished the book and walked around the living room shaking my head, sighing loudly, trying unsuccessfully to find my breath. The Book of My Lives is a…
-
“The will to power and of possession has become limitless.”
The worldwide financial and economic crisis seems to highlight their distortions and above all the gravely deficient human perspective, which reduces man to one of his needs alone, namely, consumption. Worse yet, human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away. We have begun a throw away culture.…
-
Violence 2: Suburbia
For a number of years Maggie and I lived in Chicago’s suburbs. On our evening walk from the parsonage we would pass beautiful old homes and newer McMansions that gobbled up most of their available lots. In contrast to our current city neighborhood those walks were notable for how few people we saw; life was…
David W. Swanson 