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Evangelical

2020-12-28T11:36:25-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Let the Bad Go, The Feast of Stephen (Second Day of Christmas, Sometimes Called Boxing Day)

Last updated on: December 28, 2020 at 11:36 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Some things seem so bad, they can ruin the thing they are a bit like if we are not careful or if we are too crabby. We have a dancing Santa, whose belly lights up as he inexplicably twirls two gold rings, shouldn’t there be at least five? The base loudly plays “You better watch out. . . “ in a “Southern” accent so offensively camp that it should be reported to some campus human resource manger. This object is... Read more

Culture

Pop Culture

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-25T02:14:37-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So Much Love, Fear is Gone, Joy is Possible

Last updated on: December 25, 2020 at 2:14 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Forty-five minutes until the Twelve Days of Christmas begin. We have had some pain this year. Plans have been rearranged. Old customs have been changed to fit new times. Media keep telling us we live in perilous times and while media is often wrong, this is always true: a world that contains death always is perilous. Yet if I stop and listen to the words of the Mother of God: “Let it be done unto Me. . .”, then I... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-28T11:29:32-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Bringing Our Gifts to the Holiday of History: Twelve Days Start on the Eve of Christmas

Last updated on: December 28, 2020 at 11:29 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

How does one best find the joy of a holiday? There are seasons to Christmas: one adapts to the times while keeping the old traditions best one can. Some years, in some places, there is plenty and the feasting is unrestrained. Other times, the faithful cannot even go to Bethlehem and those there must celebrate alone, keeping the customs best they can. Every year is as the year is and we adapt to the limits, adopt new jollities when they... Read more

Apologetics

Culture

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-23T08:45:16-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Mighty Athena in the Castle!

Last updated on: December 23, 2020 at 8:45 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Mighty Athena looks over the castle each Christmas night. Athena is our cat, making twenty years look hard, but still a mighty hunter before the Lord. She has Nessie the Wonder Dog, fifty pounds her superior, quite cowed. If she is not longer lovable, being quite crabby, she is still loved. Almost two decades of ratting, snuggling, and purring encourage toleration of a few years of yowling. One of the most magical Christmas gifts of childhood was a castle my... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-23T08:42:06-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Sign in the Heavens

Last updated on: December 23, 2020 at 8:42 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Last night I went out with my binoculars, a star chart on my mobile, and saw a marvel. Jupiter and Saturn were close enough together from our earthly vantage point that to my very bad eyes they appeared one light. The binoculars gave me some detail and going online showed me more of the wonder of creation. For millennia men have been able to calculate the motions of the stars, sun, moon, and planets and so predict such sights. The orderly... Read more

Apologetics

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-23T08:38:32-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We are the virtual champions! (On a Kind of Virtual Good)

Last updated on: December 23, 2020 at 8:38 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

This year we should enjoy whatever is good, even when it isn’t much. Here is an example of a small good: I am the virtual Super Bowl champion here at Saint Anne’s having defeated virtual competition over the year. The wizards at EA Sports have provided decades of Christmas gifts and I am thankful to them and Hope! I have developed over those decades an elaborate set of “house rules” that make the game (and the season!) last all year.... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-20T19:59:42-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Herod versus Mary at Christmas

Last updated on: December 20, 2020 at 7:59 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Christmas has villains: Caesar and Herod. Far off in Rome, Augustus Caesar was a colonial ruler who viewed Palestine, when he thought of Palestine, as a source of cash. Herod, the sycophantic local, did the dirty job of ruling the region for Rome. Herod the Great was effective at this job, kept the peace and allowed some of the colonial graft to go to local projects. After all, he built a grand Temple and gave God’s people easy wins. Blasphemy.... Read more

Apologetics

Culture

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-23T01:25:42-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Earthly and Heavenly Venus: Donne’s Triumphant Vindication of Harmony

Last updated on: December 23, 2020 at 1:25 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Love (true love) and desire should go together, but sometimes do not. That Hideous Strength, the most important novel for this time, begins with a reflection on a failing marriage and ends in a marriage joyfully consummated. CS Lewis fills, mayhap overfills the book with themes, but one is the relationship of the body to the soul. Picking up on themes in the speeches of Plato’s Timaeus with a heavy use of early and Medieval Christian cosmology, Lewis presents a world of... Read more

Apologetics

Culture

On Books

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-23T10:18:04-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One Truth, Different Icons, One Family History

Last updated on: December 23, 2020 at 10:18 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

An adult child that will remain nameless found our new creche arrangement highly inappropriate. * As very good thinker, she accepted that the one Truth can be expressed in different icons. We see different aspects of one reality in different images. She is busy building a home of her own with different representations of Christmas than we have used. She has gained a new set of customs and new icons from her new family. She has a new patriarch and... Read more

Culture

Pop Culture

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-18T00:18:05-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Make Some Drama, Poetry, Music at Home

Last updated on: December 18, 2020 at 12:18 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

May we make some music, as we can, and so create our own beauty wherever we can. May we read a poem, tell a story, act out a play, in our homes. If you do not feel you can read, sing, or play, then act as the audience. Just now, you may be the only audience a homely performance can have! Living music and theater requires an audience. They are not “viewers,” but participants. Those watching television at home cannot... Read more

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