May 2011
56 posts
6 tags
"Do Not Rejoice When Your Enemies Fall"
by David P. Gushee, guest contributor
“Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble.” —Proverbs 24:17
Photographs of firefighters killed on 9/11 are seen outside the World Trade Center site after the death of accused 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was announced May 2, 2011 in New York City. Bin Laden was killed in an operation by U.S....
4 tags
“Osama Bin Laden is dead. God-willing the news is true. Yes, it is a moment to...”
– —Omid Safi
The professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina and author of Memories of Muhammad has created an interesting comment thread after updating his Facebook status this morning. What do you think?
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
9 tags
Touching our Trembling Places: A Generational...
by Iris Tzafrir, guest contributor
A balloon flies over Eisenmann Memorial in Berlin. (photo: Danny/Flickr, cc by-nc-sa 2.0)
Our household was a heavy one. I always felt the presence of sadness and loss; those emotions were part of everything that took place in our family, including birthdays and personal achievements. I knew where the sadness and sense of loss came from, to an extent, from...
6 tags
WatchLive Video: Secular Ethics and Meditation
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Although the Dalai Lama wasn’t able to make it to the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California due to illness, this substitute talk by Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness’ translator, and Robert Thurman, Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, should make for a great hour of...
7 tags
Pope John Paul II's "Healing of Memories" Between...
by Dr. Adam DeVille, guest contributor
In Damascus, Syria on May 7, 2001, Pope John Paul II is helped by Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios Laham III after praying at the Church of St. Paul on the Wall. (photo: Enric Marti/AFP/Getty Images)
As the world watches Pope John Paul II being beatified, I want to reflect on one phrase he used almost from the beginning of his papacy through to...
5 tags
April 2011
50 posts
6 tags
WatchWe Must Pay Attention to the Quiet, Counterintuitive Possibilities: Mohammad Darawshe and Children of Both Identities
by Krista Tippett, host
It’s been difficult for me to answer the simple question: How was it?
“Moving.” “Mindblowing.” “Disheartening.” “Emboldening.”
These are some of the contradictory words that immediately come to mind...
4 tags
The Feast of St. Catherine of Siena: She Spoke...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
A chapel ceiling in Santa Sabina, Rome depicts St. Catherine receiving the heart of Christ, a sign of divine love and mercy. (photo: Lawrence Op/Flickr/cc by-nc-nd 2.0)
Amidst the fanfare for Prince William and Catherine Middleton, another Catherine was celebrated today during the couple’s wedding ceremony. Dr. Richard Chartres, Anglican Bishop of London,...
3 tags
“Ideas cause ideas and help evolve new ideas. They interact with each other and...”
– —American neurophysiologist Roger Sperry, quoted by James Gleick in the Smithsonian Magazine article “What Defines a Meme?”
(via futurejournalismproject)
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
8 tags
Royal Wedding Theology of an Archbishop
by Debra Dean Murphy, guest contributor
Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, presides over the wedding ceremony of Prince William and Kate Middleton as he gives her a ring. (photo: Dominic Lipinsk/Getty Images)
I didn’t get up at 4 a.m. today, but I do hope to catch a good bit of the wedding of William Windsor and Kate Middleton. I doubt I’ll have much trouble finding it replayed (and...
5 tags
Archbishop on the Meaning of the Royal Wedding
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Well, we may as well add to the deluge of posts about the royal wedding with a prenuptial video from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who presided over Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding ceremony today. In this Lambeth Palace production, Rowan Williams shares his optimism in knowing that a young couple are still willing to commit to one another and...
4 tags
Making Life Out of Ruin in Ramle: The Work of...
by Janine Rayford, USC graduate journalism student
“This is the project of my life,” says sculptor Nihad Dabeet, 43, as he gives a tour of his unfinished home in Ramle, Israel. Built over 400 years ago, the house was in ruins until its newest tenant devoted himself to its renovation. Mr. Dabeet says he and his wife continue to excavate and build upon the land, without permission from the...
8 tags
Krista's Washington Post Review of "Love Wins" by... →
by Trent Gilliss, senior editor
If you haven’t noticed, Rob Bell’s name has been turning up in lots of high-profile places — like the cover of Time magazine and on Good Morning America — over his take on the ideas of heaven and hell. The Washington Post asked Krista to review his latest book.
Her opening paragraph might give you an idea of where she stands on Love Wins:
“Rob...
6 tags
Catholicism and Voodoo after the Haiti Earthquake
by Jonathan C. Bergman, guest contributor
In Souvenance, Haiti, a woman immerses herself in a stream during a Vodou ceremony that’s celebrated in conjunction with Easter. (photo: Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images)
Haiti subscribes to two major religions — Voodoo and Catholicism — with born again Christians making great inroads in the past decade. The success of Haitian religious leaders in...
4 tags
Minnesota Public Radio Listeners Respond to a...
by Susan Leem, associate producer
On Being has made an identity shift, expanding its scope to exploring questions about meaning, religion, ethics, and ideas. But our host Krista Tippett still asks her guests a key question during the interview about their religious or spiritual traditions in their formative years. And for a producer, it’s like watching her turn the key in the ignition.
The...
4 tags
"Arab Spring" Forces Americans to Ask Hard...
by Krista Tippett, host
I recently attended a remarkable gathering in Washington, D.C., the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, cohosted by the Brookings Institution and the government of Qatar. For the past eight years this event has been held in Doha, Qatar.
This year, of course, the “Muslim world” is in the midst of seismic change. It was a remarkable experience to be — at this moment —...
5 tags
Easter Monday (Velikonoční Pondělí) in the Czech...
by Susan Lynne White, guest contributor
The end of Easter in Prague, Czech Republic. (photo: Leonardo Sagnotti/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0)
In the Czech Republic, a tradition of spanking or whipping women is carried out on Easter Monday. On Easter Monday morning, it is customary for girls and women to stay at home while the boys and men, usually dressed in nicer clothing and sometimes even in kroj —...
11 tags
An Easter Sunday. A Sacred Echo. Solidarity in a...
by Pádraig Ó Tuama, guest contributor
A sign hangs on the wall of a Taizé community in Burgundy, France. (photo: forteller/Flickr, cc by-nc-sa 2.0)
It is Easter week. This week, we remember the events from Thursday’s meal to Friday’s torture to Saturday’s silence and Sunday’s mystery.
Years ago, 13 years ago in fact, I fell apart. I was 22 and I had already been sick for a year. It had started...
6 tags
Rooting the Poetry of Resurrection in the Garden...
by Debra Dean Murphy, guest contributor
In a Dominican priory in Salamanca, a relief depicts Mary Magdalene contemplating the empty cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified and searching for Truth. (photo: Lawrence Lew/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In the beginning was poetry.
The book of Genesis, as Ellen Davis has observed, starts with a liturgical poem. The creation of the cosmos can only be...
7 tags
A Declaration of Flowers: Thoughts on Byron...
by Christopher Martin, guest contributor
The farm and now heritage center of Byron Herbert Reece, who lived and wrote in the Choestoe area of Union County, Georgia. (photo: UGArdener/Flickr, CC by-NC 2.0).
It’s about as simple as poems come:
Easter is on the field: Flowers declare With bloom their tomb unsealed To April air.
Little lambs New as the dew shake cold, Beside their anxious dams:...
