by Jeff Worthy Cultures can be defined by their stories. Today, some of our most powerful stories are conveyed through the medium of film. In 1982, a film that would go on to become a cult classic was released, and it had a profound intellectual and spiritual impact on me. That film was “Blade Runner,” starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, and Joe Tarkel. I was an impressionable young middle schooler back then, and I admit that... Read more
by James Jarrett Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. — Augustine of Hippo So, what is Spiritual Naturalism, anyway? Maybe you’re asking that question for yourself since you found SNS. Maybe your quest for a little more spirituality with your naturalism or a little more scientific “umph” with your “spiritual but not religious” led you to discover SNS in the first place. Maybe someone else has asked you about this community you’ve... Read more
by DT Strain Often in SNS articles we are discussing our spirituality as a practice. Spiritual Naturalism is not merely some laundry list of opinions and, if your opinions, match the list, then you’re a Spiritual Naturalist. I would call this a ‘Spiritual Naturalist enthusiast’ or ‘fan of Spiritual Naturalism’. But by a practice, we mean something we apply in our lives regularly so that we continue to grow, learn, become wiser, and happier. It’s not just ‘positions’ or ‘opinions’ but something... Read more
by Thomas Schenk Spiders give many people the creeps. Yet with their ability to construct intricate webs out of fibers spun from their own bodies, we also find them fascinating. A spider’s web is sticky. Insects that fly into it become stuck. Their struggle to get free informs the spider and it moves easily over the web to put an end to their entangled victim. The spider does not get caught in its own web. This isn’t because it has non-stick... Read more
by Daniel Scharpenburg The 600s in Southern China. This place was considered a backwater, a place where uncivilized people lived. Huineng was a poor beggar in his 30s. He sold firewood to support himself and his mother, who was a widow. One day, in the city, he heard a monk chanting a line from the Diamond Sutra, “Let your mind flow without dwelling on anything.” Just upon hearing that he had a sudden experience of awakening. He desperately wanted to know... Read more
by Thomas Schenk In essence, mindfulness has two components: awareness and the ability to focus awareness. Awareness is a given and we can’t really change it. The ability to focus awareness, however, is a skill that we can strengthen and improve with practice. A more focused awareness is often experienced as an increased awareness. Awareness and the ability to focus it form the base of our being, our deepest subjectivity. The word “subjectivity” has not been treated well in modern culture.... Read more
by Thomas Schenk In his book, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, sociologist Emile Durkheim begins his study of religion by noting that central to all religions is a distinction between the sacred and the profane and that religion has to do with sacred things. Mircea Eliade in his book, The Sacred and Profane, provides details on the range of objects and subjects that various peoples throughout the world have considered sacred. He divides the topic by sacred places and objects, sacred times, and... Read more
by Eric Steinhart We live in networks, although they are almost always very hard to see with our eyes. The most easily visible networks are probably our transportation networks, especially networks of roads. You can see roads branching and intersecting. And you can form a mental map of road networks. Your mental map (if it’s accurate) corresponds to an objectively existing networks of roads and points they connect. Think of the network of interstate highways connecting cities in the United States. ... Read more
by Thomas Schenk In his book, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, sociologist Emile Durkheim begins his study of religion by noting that central to all religions is a distinction between the sacred and the profane and that religion has to do with sacred things. Mircea Eliade in his book, The Sacred and Profane, provides details on the range of objects and subjects that various peoples throughout the world have considered sacred. He divides the topic by sacred places and objects, sacred times, and... Read more
by Jeff Worthy Painting of the Lady of Shalott, by John William Waterhouse. In my 31 years as a secondary school teacher, the students who have passed through my classroom have never failed to teach me even more than I have hoped to teach them. I would never say something along the lines of “I’ve done this for so long that I’ve seen it all.” Any teachers who might say that are falling into a state of complacency and need to... Read more
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