Advent suggests so many mysteries of God’s patience. One rarely commented case is God as Father and embryo. It is extra Biblical so imagination can only begin to tell the bizarre tale. Gabriel’s annunciation and appearance to Joseph begins the period of waiting and soul searching, but a remarkable gap exists in the Advent story. Luke 1:56 makes this cursory remark as though it would suffice: Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Presumably the... Read more
No matter where I seem to go this Christmas I can’t seem to get out of the emotional storm and the long dark shadows that seem to diminish any hope of light. The mass murder of children; fragile life, hope filled life in the midst of a broken world snuffed out in minutes. And now in the wake of the aftershocks that reverberate through the midst of humanity…people point in all directions for why. But reality stares them in the... Read more
This being the season of Advent; I think it’s worth taking a moment to identify what the word “Advent” means. The word carries the following meanings: the arrival of, the coming of, the emergence of. The question is, “of what?” What needed to arrive? What needed to emerge? What needed to come? The easy answer is Jesus. But the deeper answer is, and always has been, Emmanuel – God with us! Let’s begin with “God with us”. With us! Who... Read more
I chatted with Kile Jones about the “emerging atheism” that I see developing in our culture. I find it to be an important part of the landscape of religion and faith in our world. Videos are below – you can get the audio of this show and all the Doug Pagitt Radio show here. Read more
Hesiod’s Theogony suggests a rather insightful equation that informs the Genesis accounts of creation in chapters 1-3. Rhoda A. Hendricks translates it thus: First of all Chaos came into being, and then Gaea, the broad Earth, the ever certain support of all the deathless gods who dwell on the summit of snowy Olympus, and also dark Tartarus in the innermost part of the broad-pathed earth, and also Eros, the fairest of the immortal gods who relaxes the limbs and overpowers... Read more
I interviewed Chris Haw on his book From Willow Creek To Sacred Heart where Chris tells his path from protestantism to Catholicism. In the interview I asked him to evangelisze me to his view. I will post videos at a later time where he does, in part, succeed in converting me. In this short clip we are talking about if there is a need for a “canonized” authority in Christianity at all. He suggest the church is better than the... Read more
The first Advent was rather private, rural, shameful. Nine months in the womb of a young girl. Angelic appearances. Hard to believe. Could it be true that this child is something more than a delusion or a miracle? Though a professed virgin, Mary’s story seemed a bold faced lie to her parents and her community. She was engaged to Joseph — a seemingly good man. And he buys her story, defending her shame. The waiting and watching biological processes emerging... Read more
And so it’s Christmas, nearly. Today my wife and I will buy a tree, begin to write cards (she writes I sign). This process has occurred 33 times; during this period we told daughter number one: ‘There is no Father Christmas, Christmas is, in fact, pagan’. Like all three year olds she smiled sweetly and looked slightly perplexed, then continued wildly ripping her carefully wrapped presents open, discarded the toy and played with the box. Over the next couple of... Read more
It Was A Night Around Christmas The meaning of this poem will be reflected in Part 2 in two weeks. (Spoken to the cadence of “T’was The Night Before Christmas”) It was a night around Christmas, in a crowded old cave With camels and horses and cattle she laid Knocked up by the Spirit, baby daddy beside Psycho girl in some trouble, or maybe she lied No time for a cleaning, no... Read more
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The beautiful anonymity and soft innocence of a young girl in Nazareth would be stripped by an angelic visitation. Who could ever envision the global veneration soon to commence? This Holy Virgin of Martini’s masterpiece cannot be Mary’s vision. The gilded, enthroned Mother of... Read more
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