How we can anchor our spirituality in organized religion and beyond In our secular age, on a secular campus, a university chaplain often hears comments such as “I am not interested in organized religion,” “The church has nothing to offer me,” “My parents are religious but I prefer my own way,” and of course, “I’m […]
Open yourself up to the divine by appreciating the ordinary Those who know me a little know I love the music of Bruce Springsteen; those who know me better know I am also a devout Van Morrison fan. His music, which seems to transcend genre as it captures the spirit of rock, roots, blues, gospel […]
The importance of accessibility of places of worship I often reflect on the faith perspective by which I interpret the world, and use the metaphor of seeing the world “through stained glass.” I first used that title for a column in the Argosy 25 years ago, and I use it now as the title of […]
As an observer and analyst of the intersection between religion and culture, I am academically fascinated and personally horrified by the recent dynamics of religion in Western culture. The church has been in decline in the past 25 years, and many observers have predicted its eventual demise. Now, in 2018, I think that it can […]
Thinking beyond a conventional conception of time and its passage I have been at Mount Allison a number of years and each fall, as the new academic year begins, I hold a contradictory sense about the movement of time. For just a little while, time seems to stand still as all is poised on the […]
The value of contemplation and moral orientation Lately, I have had some interesting conversations on campus around the goals and objectives of the liberal education. I become increasingly aware of the challenges faced by young adults, those aged approximately 18 to 24, and the opportunity we have in the academy to respond to some of […]
The true roots of Canadian Thanksgiving As I write this, the Jewish festival of Sukkot is coming to its end, and Canadian Thanksgiving is coming. Prior to 1957, the Canadian Thanksgiving tradition was to observe a time of thankfulness for the harvest in church on what was informally known as Harvest Sunday. In its traditional […]
This semester I have returned to teaching an upper-level course that explores Biblical themes in Western culture through visual arts and music, although the focus of the course is on literature, including novels, poetry and short stories. Such material has had a popularity across campuses, but that is changing. Overall, courses dealing with religious themes […]
Globalization was the buzzword of the Clinton era, the 1990s. The world was changing, and we were becoming more and more aware of ways in which the world was being understood differently. As New York Times writer Thomas Friedman captured in his book titles The World is Flat and Hot, Flat, and Crowded we began […]
The coming of spring, in the European tradition, has always heralded the sense of renewed hope and optimism in the world. It is the time for romance to blossom, along with the flowers of the trees and fields; it is a time when both nature and people are reinvigorated in their hopes and dreams. It […]