Today is the fifth anniversary of the death of Brother Roger of Taize, who founded the Taize Community seventy years ago. Believing that community life could be a sign of God’s love, Brother Roger determined “that that it was essential to create a community with men determined to give their whole life and who would always try to understand one another and be reconciled, a community where kindness of heart and simplicity would be at the centre of everything.” From the single community he founded in the village of Taize, France in 1940, communities of Taize brothers now exist in many places around the world.
Excerpt from:
What Does it Mean to Love?
In his characteristically provocative fashion, Dennett, author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea and director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, calls for a scientific, rational examination of religion that will lead us to understand what purpose religion serves in our culture. Much like EO Wilson (In Search of Nature), Robert Wright (The Moral Animal), and Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene), Dennett explores religion as a cultural phenomenon governed by the processes of evolution and natural selection.
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Daniel Dennett (1-6) Breaking the Spell – Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
I enjoyed a passing point made by Derek Tidball recently at Keswick. Here’s the text: “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.” (2Cor.4:1) Derek pointed out that we live in a culture saturated by meritocratic thinking. You have to have a certificate to be able to everything. The same is often true in church world. People expect you to be able to do this and do that like the best of names. The pressure is on if you are involved in ministry, and the pressure is to live up to the standards of expectation imposed by the church. All too easily we can fall into the trap of thinking that we are in ministry because of our merit – our education, our training, our skills, our abilities, etc. But when we realize that we are in ministry through God’s mercy, that changes everything. Suddenly ministry becomes about response. It becomes about our wonder at His mercy toward us. It becomes a real sense of privilege, rather than pure pressure and evangelical purgatory (as some church situations can feel for some in so-called “service”).
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Why Do You Preach – Part 2
Lytia Solomon had never met a park ranger or taken a family vacation to a national park. And growing up in Philadelphia as a “complete urban city girl,” she never knew what a park ranger did. Religion and Spirituality – Temples – Hinduism – India – United States
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In venture with Temple U., Park Service combats looming shortage of rangers
Location: City University of New York NYC Event Date: 11.17.09 Speakers: Daniel Dennett, John Haught, William P.
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Dan Dennett – Great Issues Forum – What Is Religion 1-8
Randall Stephens Listen to Sunday’s All Things Considered (NPR) for a feature on black preaching from the 18th century to the present . Guy Raz speaks with Martha Simmons about her new edited volume, Preaching with Sacred Fire . The story includes audio clips of 20th-century sermons and some insight on how black preaching through the centuries opens a window onto the African-American experience
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Black Preaching and African-American History
It’s funny how, written from a theist perspective, he paints such a picture of atheists . Collins recounts how, as a student at the University of Virginia, conversations would easily turn to religion, where Collins’ sense of the …
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Daylight Atheism > The Language of God: From Atheism to Belief
The empire of controversial Agape Ministries Church spans two states, eight properties and a fleet of 13 vehicles, and its funds are held in 10 separate accounts, it has been revealed. Court documents obtained by The Advertiser show for the first time the scope of church leader Pastor Rocco Leo’s fortune obtained, his detractors claim, through fraud.
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Controversial Agape Ministries Church sells $1.6m home
To understand this post, you need to do something before you continue reading. You need to see the photograph that accompanied this news story when it ran on page one of the Washington Post
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No faith in this immigration story
Several hundred Indonesians rallied in Jakarta on Sunday demanding that the president do more to protect freedom of religion and to punish hardline Muslim groups which have attacked minority faiths.
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Hundreds protest in Jakarta, urge religious freedom