Whimsical reflections on theology and economy

Do not worry about the morrow. I won't, Jesus. I'm too busy worrying about today.

We are inclined to see the prophets of Ba'al as fools who worshipped a false god. Some of the meanings of Ba'al--as a god of weather and fertility, for example--go to the heart of the ancient agricultural economy. How different is this from our focus on the economy? The GDP is our god, and tax is the new Satan.

Our recession is resulting from an upsurge of 'collective superego.' We feel guilty about all the fun we had during the economic boom. We know we overdid it. We feel unworthy of good things. We regret what the 'collective id' led us to do. There are only separate egos, no collective egos. Our reason cannot be collective, whereas our passions and self-remonstrances can be collective. This is why Republicans will always be resurgent after a period of self-remonstrance, and why they will always play to passion.

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when god loses his.

C'mon, America, spend. Catch a bad case of gimme now. Drive new wheels. Purchase an 80-inch plasma TV for the fifth bathroom. Refinance. Spend your negative equity again. Bundle it together in tranches. Sell them to the greedy blind bastards that are managing our retirement accounts.

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Sounds like a program for international relations....

Prothero

Stephen Prothero has recently published God is Not One. In brief, he argues that religions are not all the same. They are motivated by essentially different views of the world, its core problems, and their proposed solutuions.

He's right about this, I think. No religion is one; taken together, they are a bewildering multitude.

The idea that 'religion' has a single essence and various manifestations is a creature of Romantic philosophy. Cool as reading, but misleading as social science or description.

Yes

There is an affirmation showing through or hiding within each moment.

Divine Violences

The violence of our time is the spiritual earthquake determining our future, and that of our children.

The known God knows this violence; the unknown God knows it not.

Humility and Transcendence

The highest transcendence is recognizing the superiority of another without denigrating oneself. God recognizes everyone's superiority in absolute self-possession.

Or God is an arm wrestler. With jacked up biceps.

Anonymous Christianity

No, it isn't a reference to Karl Rahner, my learned readers.

Check out the theologically inclined comments of an Anonymous reader over at RITN-Religion in the News. The topic is "Virginity and the Moral Worthiness of Religions." The comments are worth your attention. Post some of your own.

Stem Cells and Blindess

Stem cells are being used to restore sight of people who lost their sight after traumatic injury.

Most excellent.

Our Troubled Country

If you want to be troubled by the conversational drift of a certain segment of our country, read the comments posted in reply to Jon Voight's Open Letter to President Obama, published by the right-leaning Washington Times.

I disagree with much of Voight's letter, but he maintains a certain measure of decorum. Many of the comments, on the other hand, are repulsive. At some point, this blog will attempt to draw out the theology entailed in such comments. But first, two aspirin.

A yachting trip and Lazarus

A yachting trip? The 10 worst BP gaffes in Gulf oil spill.

Luke 16:19-31 "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz'arus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz'arus in his bosom. And he called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz'arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, `Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz'arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' And he said, `Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, `They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, `No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'"

The parallels are there.

Certainties

Our certainty about how others should live their lives is testament to how little we live our own.**

**At least I think so.










"Truth and Falsehood"
Image Credit: Iza Bella

FBI file shows Ted Kennedy was death threat magnet - Boston.com

FBI file shows Ted Kennedy was death threat magnet - Boston.com

Ted Kennedy was a flawed person, but he turned the corner on his life. In his last years, he was a delight. He appeared to face death with courage, and his political convictions were heart-felt and real. To be sure, not everyone shared them.

It's hard to imagine what it was like to live (as the family's leader) after the assassinations of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. And now, this news comes out...

The cruelty of the human animal never ceases to stun and disappoint. In my mind, Kennedy's optimism and care for others is even more luminous.

God is poetry

God is the poetry of the Universe, and the Universe is the poetry of God.