A Discarded Wheel in Narnia

A forest is one of those places where the boundary between the physical and the spiritual realm thins. When you stop to think about it, much of our life is spent surrounded by artifice. We fill our ears with artificial sounds, our eyes with artificial sights, our noses with artificial smells, and our mouths with...

demons of walmart

We are a people who are understandably obsessed with causation. The moment something of great importance happens we turn our collective attention to the question of causes. In the case of moments of great joy and wonder, this rush to causation has the effect of "breaking the spell." Rather than reveling in the moment, we...

free love

“We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives with the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters I saw the above quote recently on Twitter along with the hashtag #academia." To...

faith and feelings

“Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him, and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the state of his own mind--or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see. Encourage this. Keep his mind off the...

affirmations and questions about social justice

I've had many conversations in the last few weeks about "social justice." Some of these conversations were brought about by the recent Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel. There are things I liked about the statement. There are things I didn't like. I generally wonder about the purpose or effectiveness of such statements. I've...

do good without god?

In a previous post I addressed the question: Can a person be good without God? By "good" I mean a status or condition of wholeness and healing. The gospel and universal experience compels an answer of "no." A person cannot be made good without God. The best we can get is an approximation or temporary goodness....