A few years ago Brené Brown wrote something about terrorism. At the time she was thinking in terms of the terrorist acts we witnessed since the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, but what she wrote has some current, chilling implications. Here’s what she said: “Terrorism is time-released fear. The ultimate goal of…
I recently read a paper by Kristofer Carlson on the development of the canon. As you probably already know, the real history of the Bible is nothing like the usual Sunday school teaching, and is often at odds with theological educators. Carlson’s work traces the details of the controversies and decisions that brought about our…
The images of Mary are ubiquitous in Italy. She occupies a more important place than either God or Jesus. Perhaps that’s because Mary is actually human like us whereas neither God nor Jesus is really like us according to Trinitarian ideas. This image is from the ceiling of a very small chapel in Parma named…
At least some are allowed to travel. 🙂
“Riposo a casa” said the banner hanging from the balcony on Via Goito in Parma. “I rest at home.” The world on hold. Annoying, disturbing, disruptive, perhaps deadly, we experienced the results of a pandemic of fear. Isolation is not a fundamental human condition. In fact, enforced isolation is a method used in torture. Brené…
Finally, it’s starting to feel like Italy.
“We’ll just connect on Skype.” “We can do a ZOOM conference.” “All the classes are on-line now.” Oh, did you think that the issues fostered by the COVID-19 virus were limited to medical and economic? Did you believe that human isolation as a preventative measure was really a good thing? That it “saved” innumerable lives?…
