Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s day yesterday? We were visiting one of our daughters in Los Angeles (who was wearing a green sweater) and my wife and I were wearing blue. All around us people streamed toward restaurants and bars dressed in green hats, shirts, and dresses. We didn’t get the green dress memo. I… Read More Celebrating St. Patrick
Ever been to Qatar? It is a small nation state that sits on the southwestern side of the Persian Gulf in the Middle East. Shaped like an oversized thumb, it is becoming a crossroads of global finance and trade in competition with places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the nearby United Arab Emirates. Qatar… Read More What Can a 7th Century Qatari Mystic Teach a World of Constant Noise?
Last week I got to be the former Bishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, who died in 450 A.D. Really. Yes, it was only for a little while, as part of a “friends of the past” presentation at a Masters program I’m helping with in Switzerland. To play the part of this man, condemned as a heretic… Read More Being Nestorius
Imagine being present at a dinner party, where around the table were people who had lived at different periods over two hundred years. People who considered each other “heretics” and would have eliminated the other viewpoints if given a chance. What kind of dinner party would this be? Last week while visiting Geneva I went… Read More A Dinner Party for “Heretics”
Have you ever had your writings burned? Probably not, but many have been silenced, ignored or patronized by those in power positions. I have seen seven of my articles and three chapters for books published, and am presently working on my first book on the Church of the East. I can’t imagine the pain of… Read More Have You Ever Had Your Writings Burned?
Have you ever gone against an accepted belief or opinion? Have you ever held to something strongly that was not the norm or majority view? You are a heretic. According to the Merriam-Webster definition, a heretic is someone who “goes against accepted or official beliefs.” Another definition of heresy is “any provocative belief or theory… Read More Who is a Heretic? Who Decides?
Originally posted on Encounters of Faith in Asia: Past, Present and Future:
Where was the first Christian church building, probably in 180 C.E.? Where was the first place outside of Antioch that Christian missionaries were sent out to the east? Where were two of the first Asian Christian theologians based, Bardaisan and Tatian? Where was…
What experiences or places most give you “life”? Where you feel extra energy, joy, happiness? Places that don’t drain you but instead refresh you? For me it is activities connected to learning. I am an intense learner. I love to read, learn in any way I can, and then share that learning with whoever will… Read More The Largest Free Literature Festival in the World
Is history a boring subject to you? Did you have a history teacher in school that brings back memories of endless dates and facts, not related and connected? For me there was a history teacher in eighth grade named Mr. Miller. But this man made history come alive! I credit at least some of my… Read More Touring Through History
Have you ever experienced a smell, a taste, a sound and with your eyes closed imagined yourself back in that familiar place? Recently my family and I walked into the Bollywood Theater, an Indian restaurant in Portland, Oregon in the US. The line was long (which is usually a good sign!) but the smells that… Read More Bollywood Theater
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