Saturday, October 5, 2013

Colleagues List, October 6th, 2013

Vol. IX No.9

*****

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE

Wayne A. Holst, Editor

My E-Mail Address:
waholst@telusplanet.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:
 
Following this issue I will be taking a
one-week Canadian Thanksgiving break.
Colleagues List will return, October 20th.
 
The Chair of Christian Thought Bentall
Lecture at the University of Calgary took
place this week, thanks to colleague Doug
Shantz, chairholder, and James K.A. Smith
of Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI.

I was there and took notes; which have
been transcribed so you also might benefit
from some of the lecturer's keen insights
into modern secularization.
 
"'The Secular is Haunted' - Assessing
Charles Taylor's 'A Secular Age'"
is how I am presenting a longer title
in this issue.
 
--

Colleague Contributions:
 
Martin Marty and  Ron Rolheiser
are back to share with us this week.
 
--



Net Notes:
 
"Francis Vows to Change Curia" - the
new pope seems intent on following
through with his revolutionry intentions
(The Tablet, UK)
"Hindu Temples Won't Reveal Wealth" -
India's religious establishment does not
want the government prying into its
finances (Reuters Faith World)
 
"Egyptian Christians Offer Forgiveness" -
in spite of persecution, some of Egypt's
Christians are turning the other cheek
(Christian Week online)
 
"Taliban Victim is a Nobel Frontrunner" -
a young woman is being considered for
one of the world's most prestigious
awards (Dawn.com)
 
"Therese of Lisieux - Mystic of the Ordinary"
- a young French saint and Doctor of the\
Church offers a perspective for all of us
 
"Canadians Join Movement Against Persecution"
- with persecution of Chrisitans growing \
in many places around the world, some
Canadians are showing concern  thru action
(Evangelical Fellowship of Canada website)
http://tinyurl.com/oowhnu2
 
 --
 
Wisdom of the Week:
 
Menno Simons, Abigail Adams,
Nancee Martin-Coffey,
Jean Gerson and Karen Ann Selig
 
- offer insights  courtesy of
Sojourners Online.
 
--


On This Day:
 
September 29th - October 5th -
 
From the archives of the
New York Times
 
Allies Concede Sudetenland to Nazis
 
East and West Germany End Division
 
Soviets Launch Sputnik
 
--
 
Closing Thought: Frederick Bueckner
 
We are celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving
by taking an early, short trip and returning for
a special dinner with family.
 
Hopefully, good things will be hap[ening
 to you these next two weeks also!
 
Wayne
 
(end)
 
*****\
 
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
 
---

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

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

---

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:
 
******

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
 
Current Presentation -
 
THE SECULAR IS HAUNTED
Inhabiting Our Cross-Pressured Present
Looking Deeper into Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age”

University of Calgary
Chair of Christian Thought Lecture by James K. A. Smith
Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI
Tuesday, October 1st, 2013.
_____

What does it mean to describe ours as a “secular age?”
Is secularization the process of rational enlightenment
It claims to be, “overcoming” religion? Or does transcendence
Continue to haunt our postmodern present? Using modern
Literature and popular culture Smith suggests that so-called
Secularization is less a triumph of “de-religionizing” disbelief
And more a mode of believing otherwise, an explosion of
believing. Smith also considers how belief in our secular
age is best accounted for by Christian, rather than naturalistic
explanations.

---

What is the map of our time? Is is the new atheism or is it
Fundamentalism – both of which offer blunt guidelines.
Smith find neither to be adequate or understanding of the
nuances of belief or unbelief. Actually, in our time, both
the secular and the religious haunt each other, and all
attempted maps find it hard to chart an uncertain terrain.
Transcendence still has a way of “sneaking up on us” when
we least expect it. As Charles Taylor tells us in “The Secular
Age” many who believe are in doubt, and many doubters
are tempted by belief.

Charles Taylor (Wiki article)
http://tinyurl.com/4qzf85

Our age is haunted, and its ghosts refuse to depart. Most
of us live in this “cross-pressured” space and are impacted
from many directions – all at the same time. Belief has
become contestable today, Taylor says.  In that situation
Taylor gives us words to “name” what we “feel” in this
great  confluence of influences. Taylor is fundamentally
a romantic and helps all of us to better understand what
is happening. Flannery O’Connor tells us that – at the
same time – there is both attraction and disbelief in the
holy.  In many respects, the “church-goer” has become
the “movie-goer” in attempts to gain insight and meaning
to what is actually going on. There will be no undoing
of secularization, but shifts in plausibility are occurring.

This means that a more nuanced definition of “secular”
is needed. Today, “secular” is less the absence of the
“transcendent” in our lives as it is that there are now
many more options to Christianity available in our
Western cultures. A tremendous shift in plausibility
structures has occurred from the Reformation times
to Modernity (1500-2000 CE) from belief to unbelief.

Secularism does not flow naturally from secularity.
Belief continues to exist amid the secular condition.
Ardent secularism cannot function alone in the secular.
There is always “something more” drawing us along.

Some of the best signals of our time come to us
through literature and poetry. Interestingly, the US
is no less secular than Britain, and church-going has
nothing to do with it. There is much contested meaning
in our time. Tolkien continues to attract many, as do
Oprah and Elizabeth Gilbert. Steve Jobs, facing his
own death claimed “I want to believe in something.”
Two generations ago, Peggy Lee sang “Is That All
There Is?” and people have not changed.

At this point, Smith quoted a number of modern
writers and song-writers who, like Taylor, try to
make sense of both doubt and longing for belief.

As part of their recovery, some secularists taste
and consume “bits of religion.” These are people
who have known nothing of religion in their past.
For them, religion serves as neither escape nor
Solution but it is part of their attempts to cope
with their experience of the cross-pressured life.
(Here, Smith quoted from David Foster Wallace
Who, before he committed suicide, was drawn
to “reverence” but was not, before he died,
ready to convert to faith. We live very much
in Wallace’s world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace

How can we move forward? What does the future
look like for Taylor? Smith contends that Taylor
tends to avoid prognostication. Still, in many
post-religious societies, a significant religious
drop-out is experienced.

Tayor also claims that many “wasteland”
Societies (as described by T.S. Eliot) many will
attempt to explore “beyond the boundaries” so
that today, there is a literal explosion of different
ways of believing between transcendence and
immanence.

Smith proposed an intriguing question to ask
people – “What do you think of St. Francis?”

(end)

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

MARTIN MARTY
Chicago, IL
 
Sightings,
September 30th, 2013

"Billy Graham Taught Christians New Ways"

--

RON ROLHEISER
San Antonio, TX

Personal Website
September 29th, 2013

"A Lesson for the Road"

*****

NET NOTES
 
FRANCIS VOWS TO CHANGE CURIA
He Calls It a "Leprosy" on the Papacy

The Table, UK
October 5th, 2013

http://tinyurl.com/oxq9pbp
 
--

INDIA TEMPLES WON'T REVEAL WEALTH
Government Intervention Not Appreciated..

Reuters FaithWorld
October 1st, 2013

--

EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS OFFER FORGIVENESS
Embattled Minority Responds to Violations

Christian Week
September 29th, 2013
 
 
--
 
TALIBAN VICTIM NOBEL PRIZE FRONTRUNNER
Young Woman Attracts Global Attention
 
Dawn.com
October 3rd, 2013
 
 
--
 
THERESE DE LISIEUX - MYSTIC OF THE ORDINARY
French Woman Saint Chose "the Little Way"

UCA News
October 1st, 2013
 
 --
 
CANADIANS JOIN MOVE AGAINST PERSECUTION
Global Effort to  Counter Growing  Religious Terrorism
Evangelical  Fellowship of Canada
October 4th, 2013
http://tinyurl.com/oowhnu2
 
*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners Online:

[The person] that with all [their] heart, ceases
from evil and learns to do well, to [them] the
grace of the Lord is proclaimed throughout
the whole scriptures.

- Menno Simons

--

"I am more and more convinced that
[humans are] dangerous creature[s];
and that power, whether vested in many
or a few, is ever grasping, and like the
grave, cries 'Give, give!'"

- Abigail Adams

--

"Revenge is not justice. Revenge is biting
and devouring and life-consuming and self-
indulgent. Instead of being seduced into
supposedly getting back at that person,
however temporarily satisfying that might
feel, we are better off ... fervently seeking
to be a part of God's redemption and healing."

- Nancee Martin-Coffey

--

"What arrogance is greater, what pride
is more dangerous than to think that
you alone know what is right in one's
situation, when human frailty is so
completely deceived either through
blind love or latent ambition or some
other diabolical deception of this type?"
 
- Jean Gerson
 
--

"Hate may be strong by human standards,
but it is a pale thing when confronted with
the rich hues and timbre of God's amazing,
enduring love. The steadfast love of the
Lord never ceases. It cannot be burned
away, sneered away, or scared away.
But it can be given away, even to people
driven by hate and fear."
 
 - Karen Ann Selig
 
*****

ON THIS DAY

From the Archives of the New York Times

September 29th - October 5th

ALLIES CONCEDE SUDETENLAND TO NAZIS
EAST AND WEST GERMANY END DIVISION
 
SOVIETS  LAUNCH SPUTNIK
 
*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - FREDERICK BUECKNER
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen.
Don’t be afraid.…

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put
miles between you, but at the same time you carry them
with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach,
because you do not just live in a world but a world
lives in you….

We must be careful with our lives, for Christ’s sake,
because it would seem that they are the only lives we
are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world,
and so they are very precious and what we do with
them matters enormously…

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery
it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in
the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your
way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in
the last analysis all moments are key moments,
and life itself is grace….

(end)
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