\n<\/p>\n
South African sunset, photo by Wade Jones.<\/i><\/p>\n My Though I To date, the blog has had 510,000 visits, a count that does not include Today\u2019s \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Months I Of course I\u2019ve read other Armstrong There What struck me also is I I You might have guessed Another By As First, literalism was rare And second, those who Once the Bible begins to be interpreted literally Could it be that a deliberately imaginative Armstrong suggests the In \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Copyright Tax-deductible Personal
\nfinal post on my blog \u201cProgressive Christian Reflections\u201d will occur on June
\n30, 2021. <\/span><\/i><\/b>More
\nthan ten years of posts will remain available to you on the blogsite, <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/chrisglaser.blogspot.com<\/span><\/i><\/a> and I encourage you to
\nenjoy them. I regret that I never created an index of post titles, but the
\nsearch engine in the upper left corner of my blog can help you find posts of
\ninterest by typing in a subject, topic, name, scripture reference, religious
\nseason or holy day. Or you may work through them by year and month listed in
\nthe right column.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nthey may have been written with current events in mind, I intended them each to
\nbe read meaningfully at any point in time. You may continue to contact me at my
\nemail address used by the delivery service or by leaving a comment on a
\nparticular post. FeedBurner has announced it will discontinue all subscription
\nservices sometime in July, the occasion for my timing. It has been a pleasure
\nwriting this blog, but now, I believe, is a time for silence, something I
\nconsidered when writing the Zen series.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nassure you I am well, content, and thankful to God for this extension of my ministry.
\nThank you for your interest, comments, correspondence, and contributions. I am
\ngrateful to Metropolitan Community Churches for recognizing this blog as an
\n\u201cEmerging Ministry\u201d and ProgressiveChristianity.org for reposting\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/i>many<\/a><\/span><\/i>\u00a0of my reflections<\/a>, as well as the dozens of Facebook pages that allowed me to provide
\nlinks to particular posts. I am grateful for the free services of Blogspot,
\nGoogle, and the delivery service, FeedBurner. I am grateful for artist and
\nfriend Becki Jayne Harrelson and my husband Wade Jones for their technical and moral support.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nalmost 500 free weekly subscribers. Once donations were possible, the highest
\nannual income was $2,000.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Subscriptions
\nhave always been free and the blog non-monetized (no ads). Permission has
\nalways been granted for non-profit use with attribution of author and blogsite.
\nDonations may still be made through the links provided at the end of this post.
\nThank you!<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\npost appeared on July 20, 2016:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\nago I mentioned on this blog that I had finally picked up Karen Armstrong\u2019s
\nbook, A History of God: The 4000-Year
\nQuest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam<\/i>. Perhaps reflective of our desire
\nfor theological ignorance, I found it discounted on the remainder table at my
\nneighborhood Barnes & Noble.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nmust admit that, at times, I have been slogging through it, sometimes even
\nsetting it aside for days at a time. But I read all such books in the context
\nof my morning prayers, hoping for inspiration along the way, so I just read a
\nportion each day. The book is well-written and comprehensive, but overwhelming
\nin its detailing of our fitful attempts to \u201cknow\u201d God. Right now I\u2019m flailing
\nin the chapter on the Enlightenment and actually looking forward to next
\nchapter\u2019s \u201cThe Death of God?\u201d Whew, what a relief after all this kvetching!
\n(Apparently, making God a product of reason makes him\/her\/they more easily
\ndispensable or at least optional. Stay tuned.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbooks on the history of religion, but there were many surprises and aha\u2019s for
\nme in this book.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nnot only writes of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but also of Hinduism and
\nBuddhism, though to a lesser extent. What surprised me is how various religions
\noften paralleled and sometimes informed one another\u2019s trains of thought. Given
\nour contemporary insistence on religious divisions, I found it consoling that
\nthere are historically points of agreement and sometimes civil disagreement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nare also periods of dysfunctional fighting within and among religions, and
\nthough each have suffered their unfair share of persecution and unpopularity,
\nit seems to me that Jews got the worst of it, long before the Shoah, or
\nHolocaust. Made me more sympathetic to the raison
\nd\u2019\u00eatre<\/i> of the state of Israel.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthat all religions have had their intelligentsia\u2014their philosophers and
\nacademics and scientists\u2014which has helped shape the religions as we know them.\u00a0 And that those who tried to make religion
\nonly \u201cof the heart,\u201d could be among the most dangerous because of their
\nsubjectivity that resisted intellectual scrutiny.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhad the biggest challenge reading about Islam. I was already familiar\u2014if
\nvaguely\u2014with many of the names and general movements in other religions, but
\nthere were so many names and movements in Islam\u2014both unfamiliar because of my
\nlack of education as well as sounding exotic\u2014that it reminded me of a classic
\nRussian novel, having so many characters!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nfound the chapter on the Reformers particularly disheartening, especially
\nArmstrong\u2019s treatment of Martin Luther\u2014at this point I reminded myself that
\nArmstrong is a former nun, but that gave me little solace, given her obvious
\ncommand of religious history. Calvin came off better, I\u2019m happy to say, given
\nmy Presbyterian background, though later development of his thoughts on
\npredestination is scary.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthat I would be drawn to the chapter and segments on the mystics and mystical
\ntraditions, by which all religions were blessed.<\/span><\/b> I was already familiar
\nwith many, but now to read of their experiences and insights in relation to one
\nanother and their respective religious traditions made me esteem them yet more
\nhighly. To me, they provide a salvific
\nthread to what was often a brutal enterprise of religion and theology.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nsalvific thread for me was Eastern Orthodox thinking that we can\u2019t possibly
\nknow God as he\/she\/they is in actuality. Also I liked the idea that God is \u201cno
\nthing,\u201d somewhat of a parallel to what I\u2019ve read of Buddhism\u2019s \u201cno thing.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncomparison, Armstrong explains how talkative Christianity became in the West,
\nwith its emphasis on doctrine and systematic theology. Instead, in Eastern Orthodox understanding, we need silence to
\nunderstand\/experience God, which I believe is central to a spiritual life.<\/b>
\nOf course, then we might come back to a religion \u201cof the heart\u201d and the
\nsubjectivity that is potentially dangerous. But communing with God was to be of
\nthe mind as well, and within the context of a spiritual community and a
\nspiritual tradition that can serve as correctives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\na progressive Christian, two other things were of particular interest:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nand \u201cuntraditional\u201d: there was a deep respect for and valuing of the place of
\nmyth in all religious traditions. <\/span><\/b>Myth and storytelling reveal something deeper
\nabout our human experience than can be explained. To take them \u201cliterally\u201d is
\nto do them and us and even God, a disservice.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ntreated others badly and judgmentally were doing so out of their anxiety and
\nfear of an angry god too demanding to please.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ninstead of symbolically, the idea of its God becomes impossible. To imagine a
\ndeity who is literally responsible for everything that happens on earth
\ninvolves impossible contradictions. The \u201cGod\u201d of the Bible ceases to be a
\nsymbol of a transcendent reality and becomes a cruel and despotic tyrant. (p
\n283)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nconception of God, based on mythology and mysticism, is more effective as a
\nmeans of giving his people courage to survive tragedy and distress than a God
\nwhose myths are interpreted literally? (p 286)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbenefit of discovering God using \u201cthe imaginative disciplines of prayer and
\ncontemplation,\u201d and the danger of assuming God as a \u201cfact.\u201d <\/span><\/b>(p 291)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\none of my earliest books and again, in one of my posts on this blog, I wrote
\nthat we can get into trouble when we treat matters of faith as matter-of-fact.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u00a9 2016 Chris R. Glaser. Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution
\nof author and blogsite. Other rights reserved.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\ndonations may be made safely to the \u201cChris Glaser Archive\u201d through the Tribute
\nGift <\/b>section of The Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion<\/a>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
\ngifts may be made safely by clicking here<\/a>.\u00a0
\nThank you!<\/b><\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n