Over at Big Think yesterday they had a quote from William James: “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” If only it were that easy! If only our ability to choose were so straightforward! Since I have had ME I find that anxious and stressful thoughts — usually …
Monthly Archives: June 2014
The Experimental Theology of Insults: Two Standards
Richard Beck of Experimental Theology reports the research findings on how we react to insults. Specifically, he and his co-workers ask if the propensity to notice and feel insulted is more an emotional issue (we get angry easily or we are easily slip into negative emotions) or an ego issue (we think we have more …
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Mindfulness? Contemplative Attitude?
I have an ambiguous relationship with mindfulness. It is recommended for so many purposes and I have myself taught Anthony De Mello’s version of mindfulness exercises but I have never got far with it as a personal practice. I didn’t when it was offered me as a way of preparing for prayer (I always found …
‘Galileo, the Church and Heliocentricity: A Rough Guide’
The Renaissance Mathematicus has posted an excellent ‘Rough Guide‘ to a particular aspect of the Galileo affair. A couple of days ago on Twitter, Brian Cox asked the Twitter historians, “Did Galileo know that he would annoy the Church when he published The Starry Messenger?” The very simple answer to this question is, no but a lengthy …
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Review for Religious
‘Review for Religious’, which ceased publication in January 2012, was (amongst other things) an important forum for articles and other materials exploring a renewal in the practice and understanding of the Spiritual Exercises and of spiritual direction. The good news is that the full archive of contents is available online for free. Despite the …
Laws of Nature
I recently read an interesting article (Intelligent Design: Humans, Cockroaches, and the Laws of Physics) from 1997 by Victor J. Stenger in which he combats the kind of fine-tuning arguments that are often evinced as ‘proof’ that our universe is carefully set up for the emergence of complex life forms like ourselves. What caught my …
Praying through Film, Story, Song, Art
(I wrote this a few years back for the Loyola Hall website. It’s a way of praying and an attitude towards experience.) If you want God to speak to you you need to give God a vocabulary. Scripture is, of course, a privileged source of ‘words’ that God might address to you — hence the …
ME/CFS: Problems with the Brain’s Immune System?
Two interesting posts at Phoenix Rising explore new research suggesting that ‘messed up microglia could be driving symptoms’. Your dog can’t tell you when she’s feeling sick, but even so, you know. She moves slowly, she doesn’t eat, she sleeps a lot, she curls up in a corner by herself. “Sickness behavior” is shared by …
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Was Jesus Poor by Choice?
Here are two interesting posts from Dr Robert Myles exploring the suppositions we make when we think about Jesus and poverty. Was Jesus employed? Did Jesus identify with the poor or was he poor?
Gift and Loss
All illness involves loss. At times I’ve read the story of the last fourteen years as a tale of loss after loss–of energy, of mobility, of friendships, of useful work, of reputation, of my own reliability–and when I read it that way it seems like I’m trapped in a collapsing bubble of capability and control. …