3 Must Read Non-Christian Authors for Christians

1. Rene Girard



2. Daniel Quinn



3. Joseph Campbell

New Film About Myths and Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, is one of the most landmark texts of the last century.  Many have seen their faith enriched through this text while others have found "freedom" from their faith through it while still others have seen their faith made more robust through his work.  Many of the most famous cult films have drawn their story lines from his well, including Star Wars, The Matrix and many others.

This new film displays the incredible and sometimes controversial gifts that Campbell gave us through his work.  If you have never read or heard of him, please watch this film and check out his books.  Whatever your view on Campbell, he has been one of the most influential men of the last century, not only for his own work but for how he influenced the work of so many others.  Please enjoy this film and if you get a chance this Christmas, I highly suggest going to watch it.  Happy Advent!


Finding Joe - Trailer V.7 from pat solomon on Vimeo.

William Blake on Thanksgiving

"I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's"

Awaken to Your Divine Dignity, Don't try to Achieve it.

Watch Richard Rohr on PBS. See more from RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY.

“We cannot achieve our inherent dignity—our divine sonship and our divine daughterhood. All we can do is awaken to it and start drawing upon it, appreciating it, reveling in it. We live with an inherent dignity by reason of our creation, a dignity that no one has given to us and no one can take from us.

And it has nothing to do with our race or religion. Hindus have it and Buddhists have it and pagans in Africa have it. They are just as much children of God as we are. Objectively. Theologically. Eternally. Where else do you think they came from? Did some other god create them, except THE GOD? Their divine DNA is the same as ours. We deny our supposed monotheism if we believe anything else.”  - Richard Rohr

Leonard Cohen on How To Preach a Sermon

"What is the expression which the age demands?  The age demands no expression whatever.  We have seen photographs of bereaved Asian mothers. We are not interested in the agony of your fumbled organs. There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this time. Do not even try.

You will only hold yourself up to the scorn of  those who have felt things deeply. We have seen newsreels of humans in the extremes of pain and dislocation. Everyone  knows you are eating well and even being paid to stand up there. You are playing to people who have experienced a catastrophe. This should make you very quiet. Speak the words, convey the data, and step aside.


Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and they will know what you know because they know it already. You have nothing to teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not shout at them."  - Leonard Cohen, "How to Speak Poetry"

The Colossian Forum: All Things Hold Together in Science and Faith

More Light, Less Heat from The Colossian Forum on Vimeo.

TCF's introduction:

"The Colossian Forum takes its name and inspiration from Paul’s stunning proclamation in Colossians 1:17: “All things hold together in Christ.


Today, in a time of deep divisions between science, culture and Christian faith, Paul’s six simple words change everything. They reveal that all reality is ultimately united in Jesus—and therefore all divisions and animosities are reconciled in Him. We’re dedicated to reclaiming that liberating truth and proclaiming it to all who suffer from divisions unreconciled.


Once we get a glimpse of our unity as the Body of Jesus. And we discover the reality that all things, including science and faith, hold together in Christ, we can begin talking about hard issues and creating space for the riskiest of questions. Come Join the Conversation."

Bucky Fuller Restored Pangea and Preached Jubilee

‘You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.’

- Richard Buckminster Fuller

‘If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.’     

-Kurt Lewin

‘There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order to things.’

-Niccolo Machiavelli

"Explore the assumptions of the person asking the question." 

-Daniel Quinn


"The best critique of the bad is the practice of the better." 

-Richard Rohr

Billy Graham & Woody Allen - Classic

Insurrection - Taking a shot at Peter Rollins' book...

The Other Journal and the Church and Pomo blog have been doing a series on Peter Rollins's new book, Insurrection: To Believe is Human, To Doubt, Divine.
There are a number of responses to his material there so be sure to check it out. Some critique, confusion  and some affirmation.  Peter should also be coming to Grand Rapids soon and we're hoping for some more developments regarding his work then.  

Slavoj Zizek, Cornell West & C.S. Lewis take on OWS

Today, listened to a fantastic interview (thanks to Nic Babarskis) featuring Slavoj Zizek and Cornell West about Occupy Wall Street.  Throughout the interview Slavoj was making some remarkable statements.  I thought I'd capture some of them here for you and then follow it up with a response.  Enjoy!



"We know what we don't want, we definitely do not yet know what we do want." - Slavoj Zizek (comment on Occupy Wall Street about the history of failed attempts at Socialism)

‎"It's clear now that a more radical re-thinking of our entire way of life, mode of life, not just individual, but collective, is necessary." - Slavoj Zizek

‎"Small level lifestyle ecologism - Because it makes you feel good, it prevents you from asking for more radical changes...The problem is not, do you recycle the coke of can, the problem is our entire economic system." -Slavoj Zizek (Starbucks Syndrome = 1% charity attached to our consumerism excuses the need to do more substantial changes)

‎"True capitalism is a perverted religion...the true evil is egotism plus envy...the important thing is not for me to win, but for the other guy to lose." - Slavoj Zizek


‎"Did you notice how today, brief sexual adventures are ok, but people are afraid to fall in love...love is a fall, but a beautiful fall." - Slavoj Zizek


‎"'Time to outsource your dating...we will enable you to find yourself in love, without the fall'..But for me the fall is the authentic moment. Fall means when you are traumatized in a good sense by another person... we don't want to take the risk to open ourselves to the neighbor." - Slavoj Zizek


And now a little bit from Clive Staples Lewis...


"The better stuff a creature is made of - the cleverer and stronger and freer it is - then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong." - C.S. Lewis




OWS represents a similar dynamic that took place in the 18th century revivals that overtook New England.  Cornell and Slavoj highlight that most demonstrations and protests have been single issue protests.  The interesting characteristic that OWS has against those other historic movements is that it is a multi-issue protest.  For many that undermines the entire approach and purpose behind the protests but for Zizek that actually gives OWS credibility.  A multi-issue protest means that there is much more that needs to change than a single issue, a deeper angst than most of us are willing to acknowledge all at once which means a deeper problem that needs to be solved.  The solutions being proposed are thus many but all acknowledge a better way of life for all is needed and access to that better way of life is going to require some radical re-determining of how power is distributed in our society.  

This was true in the revivals. The Revivalists didn't have a better approach that they were promoting over and against the old approach that had steps or a three year program for change - they just lived the better approach and did it because they found that it was better. By living it, they pissed off the establishment and elated the crowds. Religion was no longer to be controlled and administered by ordained, situated, white, male clergy - it could be done outdoors, in a field, by the untrained, by men and women, by slaves, by children, by disenfranchised and marginalized malcontents, by criminals, etc. All of these partook in the Revival and the spiritual manifestations that took place - but they were rarely or never allowed to participate in spiritual communities or activities prior.

This meant that God's Spirit was available to all and as such - all that God had given to mankind was available to all - even spiritual leadership, responsibility and gifts. This had always been the case, but society had hid religious life and leadership so far back into a white and male dominated corner that God needed to break out and so He did and he did so with the least of the least and by breaking the power structures and social expectations that had been established in the social religious setting.

These dynamics are exactly (to me) what Wall Street has done with the power and responsibility of our economic system and now it's time for it to break out. Liberal Democratic Capitalism has a shelf life and the rot has begun to stink long enough. It seems that's why the transition and change is necessary as it was in the Revival time. Revivals aren't necessarily good, they're just necessary because of the mess that precedes them. That's why transitions like the one being fought for at OWS are so important - they demand change even if it's going to be messy - because the mess (corruption) that precedes the revival - though organized - is much worse than the mess that comes with change.

With the transitions of the Revivals came the upending of many social norms as well as mass confusion on a lot of important issues. That's just the nature of change at this level. If it were more organized it wouldn't be a movement, because movements aren't signed up for - they begin by resonating at a deep place within the soul of humanity, so much so that there is an eventual breakthrough and uprising of some sort, and there is usually a cost that is paid in both economic and cultural capacities, even to the point of death for many.

Corruption doesn't go away without a fight so change agents need to get to a point where they are willing to pay the price that corruption demands of them. I'm not sure if we are at that point yet with OWS, but it does seem close.

Am I redeemed because I'm created or created to be redeemed?

‎"I'm not valuable because God redeemed me, I'm redeemed because God values me."