via Instagram https://ift.tt/2LfufQE
Friday, December 14, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
The Dark Night of Soul
Just before the Dark Night came calling, Fiona Robertson felt she was on top of the world. She was the co-founder of an award winning health project, had a charismatic new boyfriend, and felt more physically fit than any time in her life.
Yet in quiet moments she felt that something wasn’t quite right. The material success she’d achieved wasn’t really giving her peace. Within a relatively short time, a series of circumstances occurred that undermined her carefully constructed sense of self-esteem.
“Becoming the person I had believed I should be did not bring about the happiness or contentment I had imagined it would, simply because it wasn’t who I really was,” she writes in her new book, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Journey from Absence to Presence.
Robertson here shares how she navigated the spiritual crisis first described in a poem by St. John of the Cross. She explains how the process involves the disintegration of a false self that masks fear and unworthiness, and the emergence of a mature, stable and integrated true self. She describes what she’s learned by comparing her experiences with those of a group she calls her amam cara, a group of friends and associates who’ve also experienced the Dark Night of the Soul.
Links:
- Book site
- Robertson’s main site
- Wikipedia’s description of the Dark Night of the Soul
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2PBMQa5
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Saturday we'll talk about Navigating the Dark Night of the Soul. Join us. It's free!
via Instagram https://ift.tt/2zT89zd
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Facing Death Without Religion
How do non-religious people – which now comprise nearly 30% of the American population – face the coming of death? That’s the subject of Dr. Christel Manning’s John Templeton Foundation-funded research project.
Although a fair amount is known about how religious people face the certainty of their demise, relatively little is known how non-religious people do. This category, which religious studies scholars refer to as “the nones,” now comprises 27% of the population, up from about 7% in the 1980s.
Unlike their religious contemporaries, this group lacks the powerful set of stories, symbols and rituals that have for generations characterized the predominate American approach to dealing with dying. This group instead relies on different types of what Manning refers to as “maps of meaning.” These might include the sense-making that comes from personal growth narratives gained from such processes such as engaging in a 12-step program or therapy after surviving a divorce.
In this podcast, Manning describes her own belief-system journey; what is currently known about how aging people in general approach the coming of death; and the new types of secular rituals that are emerging to help non-religions people become more comfortable with death and dying.
- Manning’s faculty page
- Her research project’s description
- Death Cafe website
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2A6yBEF
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Friday, October 26, 2018
Someone painted this rock and left it outside in my progressive town...
via Instagram https://ift.tt/2qbgxVm
Friday, October 19, 2018
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Improvisation and Spiritual Practice
For Jules Munns, the art of improvisation he’s devoted his life to is much more than simply a type of theatrical performance. Improv, he says, is as an activity that helps people uncover previously hidden aspects of their selves and thus become more fully human.
Munns here explores the notion of improvisation as spiritual practice. Just as is the aim of passive meditation, improvisation helps practitioners achieve mindfulness, awakening and a connection to a larger Mystery and deeper meaning. In addition, it helps practitioners do something that most forms of mediation do not: connect and interact with others in surprising and unscripted ways.
Munns is the co-Artistic Director of the Nursery Theater and the founder of Slapdash International, London’s longest running festival of improvisation. He’s also a performing member of the Maydays, an award-winning improvised comedy company with bases in Brighton and London. One of the UK’s most prolific improv teachers and actors, he's performed and taught at festivals across the UK and in countries including the US, Pakistan, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Finland.
Links:
- The Maydays
- The Nursery Theater
- Jules Munns Site
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2PBJkgJ
Sunday, October 14, 2018
I stand with my indigenous brothers and sisters, whose legacy...
I stand with my indigenous brothers and sisters, whose legacy endures despite Trails of Tears and attempts to disappear them from their country’s memory… (at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6S6urAy84/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=tsyms4h3cd1p
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2QMvkkD
My new thrift store kicks! Even though they were a bit too big,...
My new thrift store kicks! Even though they were a bit too big, had to have them. Put a new insole on these babies and a little shoe-stretch stuff on them, and let them walk my body around. Italian leather, square front. Jello’s in the house! (at Lambertville, New Jersey)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo6SdiSAWXJ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1th6sp3l026n0
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2A9aF4O
Friday, October 05, 2018
The One Thing that all women, POC, LGBT and all...
The One Thing that all women, POC, LGBT and all “marginalized” people share… ( listen to the entire podcast here: https://radiopublic.com/the-podcast-of-the-diversity-and-GqzL4P/ep/s1!db096 )
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2zUKYVv
Thursday, September 27, 2018
The Radically Inclusive Ministry of Yvette Flunder
It was a gradual process that led the young Yvette Flunder to question the tenets of the United Church of Christ in which she was born and raised. She couldn’t reconcile her emerging beliefs with her church’s patriarchal orientation and its emphasis on preparing adherents for the next world rather than addressing the injustices and inadequacies of this one. She also realized she never again could call herself a member of a church that completely rejected same-gender-loving people such as herself.
Bishop Flunder here traces the path that led her to become a visionary religious leader with a mission of tending to the spiritual needs of marginalized people around the world, particularly those of African-American descent. She speaks of her vision of radical inclusion,which she believes requires an equally radical social ministry reaching to the furthest margins of society to serve all in need without prejudice or discrimination.
“The greatest mistake at the Christian church has ever made was to put a back cover on the book, to somehow suggest that we could make a manual out of the living word of God,” she said.
Reverend Flunder is the founder and senior pastor of the City of Refugee United Church of Christ in Oakland, California. In 2003, she was appointed Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a multi-denominational coalition of over 56 churches and faith-based organizations from all over the world. She’s also the author of Where the Edge Gathers: A Theology of Homiletic Radical Inclusion.
Links:
- City of Refuge United Church of Christ
- Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
- Record a response to this episode
- Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!
Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2OiVz4w
Friday, September 14, 2018
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)