The religions start from mysticism...But, I compare this to a volcano that gushes forth ...and then ...the magma flows down the sides of the mountain and cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it's just rocks. You'd never guess that there was fire in it. So after...
Biblical mysticism is the attempt to exit "this world" to an alternative reality that pervades the old order. Its goal is to jettison the mind-set that says "greed is good," "selfishness is normal," and "killing is necessary." Mysticism in biblical terms is not...
My favorite lines about Christ's "Second Coming" are in the story "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote. In this autobiographical piece of great delicacy, the author describes his last Christmas with the woman who brought him up. The author is seven at the time; she...
If one is honest about what Jesus says about loving others (including one's enemies) and about sharing one's possessions with others, one has to admit that Jesus wasn't very practical at all. Indeed, he was over-the-top radical. He was far more radical than I like or...
In an age when, through athletics and diet and the intensity of exercise, we have rediscovered our physical bodies, we have neglected the “body” of our Christianity. Liturgy is the sensuality of the Christian experience, and the muscle of our mysticism. And we have...