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Posts tagged with the category Psychology and Spirituality
The Future of Existential Psychology: Was Nietzsche Right?
If the future of Existential Psychology could be reduced to a bumper sticker, it might be this one: “Nietzsche Was Right.”
In 1882, Nietzsche put some stunning words in the mouth of a character: God is dead, we have killed him, and the implications are staggering. Let me quote from the passage:
“Is not the magnitude of this...
Marriage Equality, Religion, and Polarization
One of the most divisive and polarizing issues in contemporary United States society is marriage equality. Kirk Schneider’s new book, The Polarized Mind, aptly demonstrates why we should be very concerned about this not only because of the importance of the issue, but also because of the dangers inherent in polarization. Schneider (2013)...
The Polarized Mind: Challenging Humanity’s “Great Mistake”
What is a polarized mind? It is a mind stricken with one absolutist point of view, to the utter exclusion, even demonization, of all others. The polarized mind is, in its way, the great "mistake" of history, and yet we repeatedly fall into its clutches. We see this lapse every day—in the streets, the suites, and the battlefields;...
Spirituality: The Paradox of Knowledge and Experience
Paul Tillich once said that doubt is not the opposite of faith, but, rather, certainty is the opposite of faith. This paradox of certainty and faith has created a multitude of chasms and splits among Christians over the centuries, but more so over the last 150 plus years. Since the period of enlightenment, and especially in the 19th century, the...
Everything Is Imaginary
A sometimes inflammatory comment, especially when we get specific with it. If everything is imaginary, then God is imaginary, you and I are imaginary, the truth is imaginary. I sometimes toss out these sorts of comments to be provocative and then act surprised when people are provoked. A recent discussion about whether rights are real induces and...
A Sacred Process
Your image of God creates you. Not to Prove Anything, but to Experience Someone, Richard Rohr
The holiday season has always been a reflective time for me, but this year has been particularly so. Whatever the reason, much of my reflection has centered on my experience of God. As I have mentioned in other blog entries, I was raised in a very...
Reflections on Zombies Before Today’s Apocalypse
The current fascination with zombies and the Zombie Apocalypse seems to clearly reflect of some of the deep-seated concerns with American culture. In his book, Horror and the Holy, Kirk Schneider suggests that monsters often represent two human extremes: constriction and expansion. Dracula embodies Hyper-constriction (deadening qualities) as he...
Behold, the Suffering God: Christmas within the Shadow of Newtown
In the midst of the holiday cheer, carols, and season’s greetings cards, there is something else that demands our attention, something that cannot be silenced and will not go away. I speak of it not because I’m a pessimist, or even a grave realist, or because I want to dispel any of the seasonal magic to which we are desperately...
December 21, 2012—Is the End Near? Or Will a New Era Begin?
My husband and I recently had the good fortune to travel to Mayan sites in Guatemala and Copan, Honduras. To prepare for our trip, we attended the Maya 2012 Lords of Time exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The exhibition explored the current fascination with predictions of a world-transforming...
Western Psychotherapy: Have We Cultivated an Age of Narcissism?
I spoke with a fellow psychotherapist this weekend at the Sixth Annual Conference for the Existential Humanistic Institute in San Francisco about a topic that seems to be presenting itself to me in many circles. It is a topic that I have been motivated to explore because of personal experiences I've encountered, as well as academically and...
Goths, Sadness, and Spirituality
I used to hang around Goth clubs. I would paint my face white, wear a frilly shirt, the whole Goth bit. At this time, even though I was a young man, the people in the clubs were mostly younger than me, and the scene was transitioning from Vampire Goths (people who dressed with imagined old-world elegance) to Indy Goth (people who still liked to...
A Little Ambiguity
A friend commented last night that the whole country is going to Hell because Mr. Obama won the general election, and we voted for a lesbian senator.
"Hell" here is capitalized because this friend meant it literally. We are not living Biblically and are therefore Hell-bound.
I wanted to retort angrily. Oh, so many angry retorts on the tip of my...
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