Theology

This Life

I've had my views shaken by reading "This Life" by Mark Hagglund... this book has taken away my interest in mysticism, and focused my attention on naturalism again.

Relation between all the 19th century millennial movements: feminism, Tenrikyo, etc.

Existentialism!

Reading "Quakerism: a theology for out time", which I recommend.

A magazine of old Quaker poetry and history for the Piedmont

A form of outreach that could happen easily (but with a lot of work... is that an oxymoron?) is a magazine recovering the Quaker history of the Piedmont, with connections to today.

For example, there are a lot of Quaker journals and poetry from the past. A photo essay with each one would illustrate whatever relevance they had for today. If it speaks to anyone, there could be a list
of Meetings in the area.

The moment

I've just read "Saving God" by Mark Johnston, whose major point is that our "self" is spread over the world, and that the "afterlife" of our selves is a form of idolatry. While I agree with him that our "atomic" self is fictional, fiction is still a work of art, and I find it hard to believe that God would throw away artwork; most of us think it is an awful loss that we are losing all the Victorian fiction, gradually, just by forgetting it's there, or the newspapers and magazines of 40 years ago. We keep our children's early scribbles. I think God doesn't want to lose us, even if "we" are not as separate from the world and each other as we think.

There is so much I like in "The Wisdom of Solomon". A project that I should undertake, but which will probably never get done, is to compile my own "Bible", with entries from, of course, the Bible, and related collections, but also passages from other writers who speak to me: Thoreau, for example. And illustrate it with photos of my life, and my family, just to remind me why I am doing "all this", whatever "this" is!