Worship should astonish us. That’s why Judson Memorial Church invited a performance artist to play the part of Jesus on Easter Sunday—in the nude.
2014
The Late Great Mosque of Córdoba: When Islam and the West Were One
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Muslim prayer may be forbidden at Córdoba’s Great Mosque, but the guards there can’t keep visitors from spiritual revelations about Spain’s Muslim past.
2014
A Cosmic Prayer: Realizing Our Interconnection
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There is so much beauty in interconnection! A simple prayer turns a morning walk into an experience of sublime wholeness with the universe around us.
2014
Light Hidden in the Darkness: Kabbalah and Jungian Psychology
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Can evil be the source of good? The Kabbalah asserts as much, and Carl Jung concurs, arguing that “where there is no shadow, there is no light.”
2013
Race, Class, and the Neoliberal Scourge
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Neoliberalism, the broad set of ideas positing the market and market-centered values as the ultimate “civilizing” agent at home and abroad, has now structured our society for forty years. Ever since it began its gradual ascendance in 1973, we have experienced a marked increase in income inequality, witnessed the slow death of the labor union movement, and keenly felt a growing sense of anxiety. The task of the American Left has never been simpler and clearer—it’s to reconstitute the very idea of the public, in the hope that this reconstitution will generate a large-scale movement against neoliberalism.
2013
Taking Back the Bible
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Same-sex relationships. Abortion. Contraception. All three are under attack by religious conservatives who say biblical teachings are on their side. The Bible says little, if anything, about the politically charged issues…and what it does say runs counter to their right-wing assumptions.
2013
Fierceness and Reverence: Building the Religious Counterculture
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As religious people, we face our lives head on, knowing that our time is short here. And so we live with a little fire and intensity, fierceness and reverence.
Christianity
Should I Return to the Catholic Church?
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What actions can the pope take that might bring me back to the church? He could start by removing every bishop and cardinal tarnished by the sex abuse scandal and showing mercy, caring, and generosity toward every child abused by clergy—even if such a policy impoverishes the church. He could focus on cultivating the moral conscience that good citizenship requires without making common cause with a strident, social conservatism that rejects reason and reconciliation. He could reinvigorate concern for the poor, the sick, and the elderly, provide education to those left out of secular systems, cultivate local communities, and ordain women. He could make the church a moral exemplar.
Articles
Misty
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A teacher is not one person. A teacher is the many voices he speaks and the quicksilver changes among them: the things he says to administrators and the things he says to parents; the things he says to ninth graders and the very different things he says to juniors; the farce and praise and kowtowing and congratulation, all those necessary notes across the register of human speech. We are whatever we are saying.
Articles
Celebrating the World Reborn
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Figuring large in the mystical understanding of Rosh Hashanah is a daring kabbalistic concept—the nesira, the removal of the investment of inner presence in all the worlds on Rosh Hashanah night, to be returned renewed with all the illuminations and energy for the coming year at the time of the shofar blowing the next morning.
2013
Boycott Hyatt and Patronize Union Hotels: A Jewish Obligation of the Union for Reform Judaism
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The rabbinic arm of the Reform movement has emphasized the importance of collective bargaining for decades. So why have so many recent Reform conferences taken place at union-boycotted hotels?
2013
Rethinking Prophecy
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What defines a prophet? Is it a moral compulsion to speak the truth, no matter the consequences? A look back across history uncovers misguided prophets, prophets of evil, and some true prophetic personalities.
Articles
A Religion of Compassion: A Letter to Pope Francis
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The Catholic Church has become “irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid,” to use the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. In his letter to the new pope, Matthew Fox argues that religion needs to return to its roots—as compassionate, loving, spiritual, and accepting of all people—to regain its relevance.
2013
A Psychoanalytic Guide to Kabbalah
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Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah have a lot in common, not the least their ability to profoundly alter our mind-states and influence our actions. In his modern Guide for the Perplexed, renowned psychologist Michael Eigen breaks down the connections between psychoanalysis and Kabbalah, and how they might be used together for our benefit.
Articles
Toward a New Buddhist Story
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Is a new Buddhist story beginning to develop out of the interaction between Buddhism and the modern world? Both need such a new story.