Saturday, October 19, 2013

Colleagues List, October 20th, 2013

Vol. IX No.10
 
GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
 
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address:
waholst@telus.net
 
Colleagues List Web Site:
http://colleagueslist.blogspot.com
 
"Quicklinks" are included with many items
at the beginning of this issue.
 
To get a more complete picture, however,
scroll down to find your special selection
in the body of the blog.
 
*****
 
Dear Friends:
 
I have purchased a new computer and am
still getting used to it. Please bear with me
as I learn how to refine my mailings to you.
 
It was for this reason that my Colleagues
List issue of October 6th was late in coming.
The issue was completed, but I had to learn
how to send it out. We also took a break
for Thanksgiving.
 
My Special Item for this week is a
book notice for Thomas Cahill's new
volume on Heretics and Heroes, the
story of the Renaissance and the
Reformation from his perspective.
 
Colleague Contributions are from
Martin Marty, Ron Rolheiser, Jim Taylor
and Bob Fennell. Thanks to all of you.
 
Net Notes:
 
12 Years a Slave - a new movie with
a realistic take on a tragic era of human
history (The Christian Century, RNS)
http://tinyurl.com/msrdeyr
http://tinyurl.com/l5ztczt
 
Awakening to the Gospel - a
young person's perspective on
nature (Anglican Journal)
 
Women's Time for Real Authority -
A Catholic perspective on why now
is the time for women in that church
to rise to a window of opportunity
(National Catholic Reporter)
 
NT Wright on 'Simply Christian' -
a video presentation on the key
themes of his book of some years
ago (Englewood Review Books)
 
Debt Crisis for Arctic Cathedral -
the new igloo church in Nunavut
is facing financial challenges
(Anglican Journal)
 
Aging Maverick Has No Regrets -
video presentation by the bishop
who has focused on a contemporary
approach to both Bible and Church
(National  Catholic Reporter)
 
Quiet Tribute to Alice Munro -
many Canadians were pleased and
proud to learn of the Nobel Prize
for literature granted to 'our
Chekov' (Toronto Star)
 
German 'Luxury Bishop' Flies to Rome
- the message from Pope Francis to
one of his men is almost deja vu
(Reuters Faith World)
 
Francis is My Hope for the Church -
- Hans Kung is not known for easy
compliments to popes, but here is
an exception (The Tablet, UK)
 
Chuck Smith Flower Child Preacher, Dies
- one of the early evangelical radicals
for reaching out to a new generation in
the 1960s has died (New York Times)
 
 ---
 
Wisdom of the Week:
 
Provided by Sojourners Online -
 
Julian of Norwich, Rabindranath Tagore,
Walt Whitman, Eugene Debs,
Debbie H. Deane and Marian Wright Edelman
share their insights with us.
 
---
 
On This Day:
 
 From the Archives of the New York Times -
 
Martin Luther King Wins Nobel  Peace Prize
http://tinyurl.com/k4rh4ee
 
---
 
Closing Thoughts:
 
Martin Luther King, Jr
Oscar Romero

---
 
Happy reading and reflecting!
 
Wayne
 
*****
 
MY AUTUMN PROGRAMS
AT THE CHURCH AND UNIVERSITY

ACTIVITY AT THE CHURCH

FALL MONDAY NIGHT STUDY
ST. DAVID'S UNITED CHURCH

"Immortal Diamond - The Search
 for the True Self"" by Richard Rohr
Description of the Book:
http://tinyurl.com/n9ymr59 

Mondays, 7:00PM - 9:00PM
September 16th - November 25th, 2013

Team Taught With Jock McTavish
Books on sale at the church --
Registration, Hospitality and Book - $50.00
Book only - $20.

THIS COURSE HAS BEGUN. WELCOME!
 
---

THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY

"Major and Minor Prophets of Israel "
(Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Micah)

Two Six Week Series:
Weekly from September 26th - December 5th
10:00  - 11:00AM

THE SERIES HAS BEGUN. WELCOME!
 
*****
 
ACTIVITY AT THE UNVERSITY
 
UNIVERSITY CHAPLAIN'S GROUP
FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
FALL BOOK STUDY
 
Presented by the Christian Chaplains
For Faculty, Staff and Students -
A Six Week Series on the Book:
"Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed:
 Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World"
 (title shortened)
 
Six sessions - Fridays October 18th
through November 22nd, 2013
12 Noon to 1:00PM
Native Centre Board Room
MacEwan Student Centre
 
THIS SERIES HAS BEGUN. WELCOME!
 
---

Coming in 2014 -

Continuing Education Course HUM 406
 
RELIGIOUS PEACE BETWEEN
THE FAITHS AND SCIENCE

Learn how the great faiths of Jerusalem
(Judaism, Christianity and Islam) can co-operate
and creatively engage science in our time, while
exhibiting an intelligent, relevant spirituality
 
Tuesday Evenings, January 25th - April 1, 2014
700 - 9:00PM - ten sessions.
 
Text: "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright
Link to more course information:
 

Register Now!
 
******
 
SPECIAL ST. DAVID'S LINKS
 
Contact us at: asdm@sduc.ca (or) admin@sduc.ca
St. David's Web Address - http://sduc.ca/
Listen to audio recordings of Sunday services -
http://sduc.ca/St_Davids_United_Church/Audio.html
 
*****

STUDY ARCHIVES
An accumulation of thirty-five books studied
since 2000 can quickly be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/6oxmyj4
 
This collection of study resources represents
more than a decade of Monday Night Studies at
St. David's, plus extra courses too!
 
You are welcome to use our course outlines,
class notes and resource pages in your personal
and group reflections.
 
*************
 
SPECIAL ITEM
 
Book Notice
 
HERETICS AND HEROES
How Renaissance Artists and
Reformation Priests Created
Our World by Thomas Cahill.
Random House Canada, pp. 341
Oct. 29th, 2013 release date
$33.50. CAD Book.
$17.99 CAD Kindle.
ISBN #978-0-385-49557-8.
 
Publisher's Promo:
 
In Volume VI of his acclaimed Hinges of History
series, Thomas Cahill guides us through the thrilling
period of the Renaissance and the Reformation (the
late fourteenth to the early seventeenth century), so
full of innovation and cultural change that the Western
 world would not experience its like again until the
twentieth century. Beginning with the continent-wide
disaster of the Black Death, Cahill traces the many
developments in European thought and experience
that served both the new humanism of the Renaissance
and the seemingly abrupt religious alterations of the
increasingly radical  Reformation. This is an age of
the most sublime artistic and scientific adventure,
but also of newly powerful princes and armies and
of newly found courage, as many thousands refuse
to bow their heads to the religious pieties of the past. 
It is an era of just-discovered continents and previously
unknown peoples. More than anything, it is a time of
individuality in which a whole culture must achieve a
new balance if the West is to continue.
 
About the Author:
 
THOMAS CAHILL's appealing approach to distant
history has won the attention of millions of readers
 in North America and beyond. Cahill is the author
of five previous volumes in the Hinges of History
series: How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts
of the Jews, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, Sailing t
he Wine-Dark Sea, and Mysteries of the Middle Ages.
They have been bestsellers not only in the United
States but also in countries ranging from Italy to
Brazil. His most recent book is A Saint on Death Row.
 
---
 
Author's  Words: (interpreted)
 
Human beings are bizarre combinations of the
physical and the spiritual. Each of us is a
charioteer who must control two steeds: one
material, instinctive, unruly and seeking only its
own low pleasures; the other spiritual, brimming
with nobility, honor, and courage. The charioteer's
identity survives death, for it is spiritual, the rational,
the soul. But the steed that is his body must perish...
 
On our own, in Augustine's view, we are capable
only of sin. But to some few, God has gratuitously
granted graces that enables them to see the light
and choose the good. They are the ones who will
live with God eternal (while the others will spend
eternity in hell.)
 
This is tough stuff; and no wonder it prompted
some thoughtful medieval Christians to look for
a path that might soften these grim austerities.
 
(Thus began the debate over whether the
really real was somewhere else or in the here
and now - a return to the contrasting thought
of Plato and Aristotle many centuries earlier.)
 
Aristotle was far more open about seriously
considering the inner workings of material
phenomena. He helped found the disciplines
of natural philosophy and modern science.
(But Plato too continued to influence with his
emphasis on idealism, which taught that
there was more to reality than the material
and the imminent.)
 
All this was played out in the late Middle Ages,
the Renaissance and the Reformation.
 
---
 
My Thoughts:
 
I have been a fan of Cahill since his amazing
book on the Irish introduced me to the Celtic
world when I was essentially trained in a
Roman mindset. This shift in approaching
important historical developments was Cahill's 
intention and to my great benefit.
 
But Cahill has made a career of writing about
the great hinge-shifts of history in both the
ancient and modern worlds. His vision and
grasp of the human story is great, and his
ability to make history intriguing is significant.
 
I have read much about the Renaissance
and the Reformation since I was a university
student fifty years ago. Now, I am drawn to
a continued study of these great phenomena
in Western history because Cahill opens
doors that more limited scholarship and
sectarian bias had narrowed for me. He
makes what is human to be so intriguing
and universal in scope that I am drawn to
reconsider things I had thought were clear
and settled.
 
The Renaissance and the Reformation
were very different from each other, but
both exalt the individual in wholly new
ways. This is an important distinction.
 
I can visit Renaissance art museums
with a new set of eyes. I can reconsider
the conflicts between Catholics and
Protestants from a more helpful
perspective.
 
Cahill is a master at creating historical
context, and then filling that framework
with marvellous content.
 
We learn about deviant monks like
Erasmus and Luther, and why they too
could not agree on many basics. We
learn about the radical Reformation, and
why Anabaptists were as opposed to
most Protestants as they were to Catholics.
 
We discover how the Roman Catholic
Church went to great lengths to successfully
get its act together on the Continent and
learn what really happened in England.
In the past, too much of this was filtered
through sectarian bias or secular critique.
Cahill is both open to and critical of the
role of religion in human history.
 
All this creates an insightful prologue to
modernity and why so much of the world 
is as it is today.
 
Like usual, another Cahill masterpiece!
 
---
 
Buy the Book from Amazon.ca:
--
 
COLLEAGUE CONTIBUTIONS
 
MARTIN MARTY
Chicago, IL
 
Sightings
October 14th, 2013
 
"Ban on Alcohol Lifted at Bible School"
 
--
 
RON ROLHEISER
San Antonio, TX
 
Personal Website
October 13th, 2013
 
"Pope Francis in His Own Words"
 
--
 
JIM TAYLOR
Okanagan, BC
 
Personal Website
October 13th, 2013
 
"Deadlocks|"
 
 
--
 
BOB FENNELL
Atlantic School of Theology
Halifax, NS
 
October 14th, 2013
 
Wayne,
 
I've been working on this project
for some time --
 
"Both Sides of the Wardrobe"
C. S. Lewis Theological Imagination and
Everyday Discipleship – A Symposium
Saturday, November 23, 2013
St. Columba Chapel, AST Campus
634 Francklyn Street, Halifax, NS

Are you a fan of C. S. Lewis, author of the beloved
Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity? Atlantic
School of Theology (AST) is hosting a one-day
symposium marking the 50th anniversary of Lewis’
death on Saturday, November 23. Scholars, pastors,
and students will be speaking on a variety of topics,
including Narnia, everyday discipleship, and Lewis’
connection to J.R.R. Tolkien. A special feature of the
event will be a dramatic presentation by “Professor Lewis”
(the Rev. Mel Malton) entitled What Christians Believe.

This performance will be suitable for all ages.
Tickets for the evening show may be purchased separately
(special group rates apply). Both the full day symposium
and the evening performance take place in AST’s St.
Columba Chapel. For more information, including
registration information, visit the AST website:

 http://tinyurl.com/l4ks5h5


*****
 
 NET NOTES
 
"12 YEARS A SLAVE"
A Movie Worth Considering

The Christian Century
Religious |News Service

October 15th, 2013

 
Globe and Mail Review
http://tinyurl.com/msrdeyr

New York Times Review
http://tinyurl.com/l5ztczt
 

--

AWAKENING TO THE GOSPEL
View of a Young Person in Nature

Anglican Journal
October 18th. 2013

 
--

 WOMEN'S TIME FOR REAL AUTHORITY
RC Church is Ready, Say American Journalists
 
National Catholic Reporter
October 5th, 2013
 
--
 
NT WRIGHT ON "SIMPLY CHRISTIAN"
Video Describes "Why Christianity Makes Sense" 
 
Englewood Review of Books
October 18th, 2013
 
--
 
DEBT CRISIS FOR ARCTIC CATHEDRAL
Nunavut Church Faces Financial Problems
 
Anglican Journal
October 6th, 20213 
 
 
--
 
AGING MAVERICK HAS NO REGRETS 
Bishop John Spong Continues His Work
 
National Catholic Reporter
October 12th, 2013
 
--
 
QUIET TRIBUTE TO ALICE MUNRO
Canadian Literary Laureate Highly Respected
 
Toronto Star
October 14th, 2013
 
--
 
GERMAN 'LUXURY BISHOP FLIES TO ROME
Not Exactly Francis' Kind of Man
 
Reuters Faith World
October 13th, 2013
 
 
--
 
"FRANCIS IS MY HOPE FOR THE CHURCH"
Hans Kung on Papal Possibilities
 
The Tablet, UK
October 11th, 2013
 
 
--
 
CHUCK SMITH, FLOWER CHILD PREACHER, DIES
Southern California Evangelical Pastor an Early Radical
 
New York Times
October 13th, 2013
 
*****
 
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
From Sojourners Online
 
The mother's service is nearest, readiest, and surest.
It is nearest because it is more natural; readiest because
it is most loving; and surest because it is truest. No one
ever might or could perform this office fully, except only
Jesus. We know that all our mothers bear us for pain
and for death. Oh, what is that? But our true Mother Jesus,
he alone bears us for joy and for endless life. So he carries
us with him in love and travail.
 
- Julian of Norwich

--

 Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
where knowledge is free. Where words come out from the
depth of truth; where the clear stream of reason has not lost
its way in to the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the
mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and
action--into that heaven of freedom, my God, let my country
awake. Amen.
 
-  Rabindranath Tagore
 
--

 "Whoever degrades another degrades me, and whatever
  is done or said returns at last to me."

- Walt Whitman

--

While there is a lower class I am in it, while there is a criminal
element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

- Eugene Debs

--

"Our communities bear witness to the wounding effects
of racism, prejudice, intolerance, evil, and injustice of all
sorts. We are called to see with God's eyes and be
awakened to the reality of the world around us.
We are also called to be God's presence in this world,
to be a part of the answer to its problems. We are not
to be silent but are called, in some way, to take a stand."

- Debbie H. Deane

--

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make
a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can
make which, over time, add up to big differences that we
often cannot foresee.

- Marian Wright Edelman

*****

ON THIS DAY

From the Archives of the New York Times
October 6th - 19th

MARTIN LUTHER KING WINS NOBEL PRIZE
http://tinyurl.com/k4rh4ee

*****

CLOSING THOUGHTS
 "We must learn to live together as brothers
  [and sisters] or perish together as fools."

- Martin Luther King

"It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond
our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. ... We may
never see the end results, but that is the difference between
the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master
builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future
 that is not our own."

- Archbishop Oscar Romero

(end)
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