Tag: Christianity
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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…
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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…
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“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.…
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“Religious indulgences have staged a comeback…”
It remains fascinating that in the age of televangelism and the megachurch movement, the Catholic church has ceded ground to the prosperity preachers who offer wealth health, success and instant miracles for cash fist and last. Religious indulgences have staged a comeback, apparently, only this time not in the Catholic church. Religion as a market franchise. will take on…
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Hazardous Discipleship
Ed Cyzewski and Derek Cooper have written a very helpful book about discipleship. Hazardous: Committing to the Cost of Following Jesus could almost be considered an introduction to discipleship, though the authors push beyond the introductory to describe a way of living that is as compelling as it is risky. Ed was kind enough to answer…
David W. Swanson 