Welcome to Reason and Spirit

The time has come to join the blogosphere. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time on Sunday or enough space in the newsletter to talk about all of the things of interest in the world. Here, I can write to my hearts content on a wide variety of subjects. Book reviews, current events, movies, TV, ethics, theology, integral theory, the Bible, comparative religion… the possibilities are endless. And the best part about it is that it is interactive. Questions and comments are a part of the process and that is how ideas grow.

The most difficult thing about getting started was coming up with a name. Something short, easy to remember and not over used that captures the essence of what we are talking about. Reason and Spirit speaks to a pre-occupation that I have had for most of my adult life; how to make sense of existence and our place in the cosmos.

So far, the only two things that have provided any illumination have been the faculty of reason and intuitive insights I attribute to that which we call Spirit. Hence, Reason and Spirit. For those of you who think that perhaps Spirit should come first (like my wife Karen) it is a simple matter of alphabetical order not value ranking.

Unity co-founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore were living examples of the dynamic interplay of reason and spirit. They combined critical thinking and mystical wisdom in a creative way that has allowed us to reframe our Christian heritage and embrace the truth teachings of other traditions. It’s an idea that has started to catch on.

In January we talked about the changes that have been taking place within Evangelical Christianity. Increased dialogue with other faiths, emphasis on social justice, responsibility for the ecosystem and renewing our commitment to eradicating hunger, poverty and ignorance are the focus of this movement that has been called the emerging church. Two great examples can be found here, www.deepshift.org and here, www.sojourners.com . The conversation has started, who wants to be a part of it?