Being threatened is comforting with "THE DIVINE MAGICIAN" by Peter Rollins

"I wish to argue that this founding event—which I will explore as we go along—is not concerned with a set of beliefs concerning the world, but rather calls us to enter into a different way of existing within the world. The good news of Christianity—that is to say the life-giving event harbored within the tradition—is not an invitation to join an exclusive party. Indeed, as I hope to show, this good news involves discovering that those parties aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and that there is a way of celebrating life that is more authentic, enriching, and healing than anything we might find through membership to some special club." PR

I read books like "The Divine Magician  for the following reasons: 

My faith trajectory needs a little support

My mental discoveries need some affirmation

My insecurities need to die

"When a child goes to college there’s always a threat that she might learn new ideas and come back with a very different way of viewing the world—a way that might threaten the fabric of the traditions that once comforted her." PR

I feel alone on my journey, but the evidence is overwhelming that I am not.  I am not the only person who has looked at the traditions she came from and put a big question mark in front of them.  I am not the only person looking for a narrative that makes more sense  than the one that resembles more of a worn out hand-me-down sweater.  I am not the only one trying to find authenticity in a world of stage plays.  

"Faith not only demands that we create systems, but reminds us that any structure we form is ultimately made for people; people are not made for the structure. Faith thus demands that we both form views and opinions about how best to live in the world and acknowledge that these views need to be fluid, open, and rethought in relation to new situations." PR

There is a term known as "shit-disturbing" that has its origin in the back of the farmyard.  Over the years, piles of manure collect as the farmer continues to add to the pile.  Then one day, that farmer wants to take that manure and spread it on the field.  The process of disturbing releases a powerful odour.  This is known as "shit disturbing". 

What may turn away someone from the putrid smell, will also be a catalyst for growth.  For only when the shit is disturbed and spread on the ground, can true growth occur.  

Christianity, as a religious system, does not aim to transform the way we believe, but strives to mold and shape the content of our beliefs. What is judged here to be of prime importance is the actual belief that one affirms. So those who agree are deemed “saved,” and those who disagree are at best heretics, or at worst “lost.” PR

I am spending a lot of time mining the manure piles of this world (shit disturbing).  This is the stuff that may stink to the one not familiar with it, but when added to the ground of my life, I am hopeful for amazing growth.  In the end, it doesn't matter what ideology I embrace, what creed I sign off on, what language I speak or how I imagine the cosmos... what matters is how I love in this world.  

'And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.'

When Paul writes against “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world,” he is making it clear that the life of faith is not some worldview that can be learned in school. One could have the perfect philosophy and still be nothing but a clanging cymbal. PR

I think I could stop reading now and have my conclusion on how my life will best be spend.  I think I figured that out quite a few books ago.  But I keep reading and I keep getting reminded that Love is the ultimate of everything.

Thank you Peter Rollins.  This was a great read and it has helped me more to understand that there is still value in the narrative, even through I am 2000 years past a story that I can't prove in my mind.  Maybe it is a waste of time to wade in the murky waters of proof and evidence, when I can swim in a much bigger ocean of Faith, Hope and above all LOVE!!! . 

"The word supernatural is almost universally tied to a religious worldview. Regardless of whether we affirm the supernatural or deny it, the term seems inextricably and necessarily connected with belief in higher powers. Interestingly, however, this religious definition of the supernatural is concerned almost only with the purely natural realm. For instance, miracles are ascribed to physical occurrences like a resuscitation of someone who was dead or the feeding of a vast crowd with a few loaves of bread and a handful of fish.

In contrast, there is a different way of approaching the supernatural, one that doesn’t see it as describing a change in the natural realm, but rather as describing a change in how we interact with the natural realm (hence supernatural). This is a view of the supernatural that can be affirmed by the theist and the atheist alike." PR

The Butterfly View of "THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS" with Huston Smith

"What a strange fellowship this is, the God-seekers in every land, lifting their voices in the most disparate ways imaginable to the God of all life.  How does it sound from above?  Like bedlam, or do the strains blend in strange, ethereal harmony?  Does one faith carry the lead, or do the parts share in counterpoint and antiphony where not in full-throated chorus?"  HS

I won’t be able to go to a university to take a course in World Religions… but I did the next best thing. I picked up a book. Huston Smith’s “The World’s Religions” has been such an eye opening and inspiring read. Smith takes the reader on a flight over the world’s religions and from a very elevated perspective. Instead of writing it from the position of a caterpillar in the ground surrounded by one expression of “faith”, he takes the reader on a butterfly’s vantage point to see what one can see from the top. There doesn’t seem to be any agenda except to see what every one has to offer in beauty of expression. It’s not a technical primer, but an invitation to see the world differently through the eyes of other humans. 

"But if we take those religions seriously, we need not fail miserably.   And to take them seriously we need do only two things.  First we need to see their adherents as men and women who faced problems much like our own.  And second, we must rid our minds of all preconceptions that could dull our sensitivity or alertness to fresh insights.  If we lay aside our preconceptions about these religions, seeing each as forged by people who were struggling to see something that would give help and meaning to their lives; and if we then try without prejudice to see ourselves what they saw-- if we do these things, the veil that separates us from them can turn to gauze." HS

In the years I traversed religion and my own expressions of it, I kept looking for "the right one".  There was no such thing as beauty in diversity, there was only a dualism in the works.  Someone was right and the rest were wrong.  So as I changed expressions over the years, I kept hidden within me the yucky feeling that was telling me that maybe we are all right or all wrong and maybe it isn't even about right and wrong.  What if every expression out in this great big world is beautiful and just a human attempt at the impossible... to understand the meaning and cause of our existence.  What if that venture is truly out of our reach, and the best we can do is imagine what could be?  

"That Hinduism has shared her land for centuries with Jains, Buddhists, Parsees, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians may help explain a final idea that comes out more clearly through her than through the other great religions;  namely, her convictions that the various major religions are alternate paths to the same goal. " HS

I have an admiration for the Hindu way of looking at life and people.  I spend two weeks in person and forty five years in relationship with my longest friend, Jenny.  In the two weeks I spent in her home in the tropics of Trinidad, I was never asked to change who I was, I was never shamed for who I was, I was only loved for who I was and that made a huge difference to me.   Because that was in 1991... and something in me then was taught and still believed that because of where she lived, the family in which she was raised and the way she prayed... she was not embraced by the Creator of the Cosmos.  In fact, in order to be embraced, she would have to change everything about her.  But for those two weeks, something in me greater than the religion I brought with me came to the surface... that something was a little thing called love.  For two weeks, I just learned and listened and took in what I could.  I left that country enriched because of the openness of their culture and their love for me.  

"To claim salvation as the monopoly of any one religion is like claiming that God can be found in this room but not the next, in this attire, but not another. Normally people will follow the path that rises from the plains of their own civilization;  those who circle the mountain, trying to bring others around to their paths, are not climbing." HS

This book can encourage you to climb the mountain.  If your goal in life is just to circle the base and convince others that you are right and they are wrong... then maybe a book like this will have no place in your library.  But if you want to climb the mountain and gain an appreciation and love for the other climbers, then this book will give you a peek inside different worlds and different paths on that mountain.  

Religion may begin in ritual, but explanations are soon called for, so speculation enters as a third religious feature.  Whence do we come, whither do we go, why are we here?  -- people want answers to these questions. HS

I am in my fifties just starting to ask questions.  I am in my fifties just discovering my own passion.  I am in my fifties just wanting to see what love really looks like in this home we know as Earth. 

"Being finite, the human mind cannot begin to fathom the Infinite it is drawn to." HS

Here is my biggest question.  If we are truly finite and beyond us is an Infinite that we have no hope of fully comprehending or understanding, then why the need for so many soloists?  Is there not a place in this world for a vast choir of different voices?  

"We listen first because, as this book opened by noting, our times require it.  The community today can be no single tradition;  it is the planet.  Daily the world grows smaller, leaving understanding the only place where peace can find a home." HS

If this book does anything for the reader, I would hope it opens a door to understanding and love.  I used to believe I needed to change the world to think like me... I now want to embrace the only thing that can change the world... love.  And the way I understand love... it doesn't require that I change anyone... it only invites me into its flow and that is the most beautiful thing.  

For understanding, at least in realms as inherently noble as the great faiths of human kind, brings respect; and respect prepares the way for a higher power, love -- the only power that can quench the flames of fear, suspicion, and prejudice, and provide the means by which the people of this small but precious Earth can become one to one another." HS