As the old proverb has it, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Seeing or hearing something too often can cause us not to pay attention to it. This can be especially true when something is most familiar to us in a specific context. I am convinced that this has happened with today’s epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 13.1-13, commonly … Continue reading Love at the Root: A Reflection on 1 Corinthians 13.1-13
I started last week’s post introducing this series on tradition by commenting on how so much contemporary discourse around tradition seems to be either revolutionary — expressing a desire to tear down what has come before — or reactionary — rejecting the present in favor of the (imagined) past. These two misunderstandings of tradition are … Continue reading Tradition(ed): What Does It Mean to Be Faithful?
A few years ago I went through a period of reading a lot Buddhist literature. I stopped, not because I didn’t find it valuable — indeed, if you ever need help surviving the experience of having a human mind, Buddhism is a great place to turn! — but because it got repetitive. No matter what … Continue reading The Jesus Manifesto: A Reflection on Luke 4.14-21 and 1 Corinthians 12.12-31
I frame this blog as a forum for me to reflect on the intersections of contemporary ideas in psychology and personal wellbeing and ancient spiritual traditions generally, and Christianity specifically. But while I’ve spent a lot of time here promoting and justifying the first half of that equation, I’ve spent less time (though not none) … Continue reading Tradition(ed)
One of the big questions in any religious or philosophical tradition is ‘What does a good (or holy) life look like?’ Often there are two poles, which we might call the ‘purity’ pole, where goodness is judged by adherence to rules and strictness of behaviour, and the ‘celebration’ pole, where goodness is judged instead on … Continue reading Of Water and Wine (And Joy!): A Reflection on John 2.1-11
Matthew Root 