Creation's Paths

A study of the Transformative Way, repentance, justice, and reform --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/support Get full access to Creation's Paths at www.creationspaths.com/subscribe

A study of Creativity, the Divine Imagination, Theosis, and our duty to co-create with God --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/support Get full access to Creation's Paths at www.creationspaths.com/subscribe

A study on the Way of Silence and the art of letting go and letting be. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/support Get full access to Creation's Paths at www.creationspaths.com/subscribe

A discussion of th first path, "In the Via Positiva. In awe, wonder, and mystery of nature and all beings, each of whom is a ‘word of God,’ a ‘mirror of God that glistens and glitters,’ as Hildegard of Bingen put it. This is Path One.” --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/support Get full access to Creation's Paths a...

Contrasting Creation Spirituality and the Fall/Redemption tradition --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wisdoms-cry/support Get full access to Creation's Paths at www.creationspaths.com/subscribe

This week, we begin our study on Concentration (samādhi), this is the still, focused mind we develop through meditation and mindful living.  It is the 4th of the 5 powers, and a strong tool in our awakening to God and things as they are. Mindfulness develops Concentration, and Concentration causes us to experience the deep interconnectedness of all things and the basic joy and peace that is our na...

This week, we have been building up our Energy/Effort/Persistence (viriya) by focusing on the virtue (middah) of Order (seder).  That may seem like a strange choice, but with a little discernment, we realized it was the right thing to do. Effort is one of the Five Strengths, and as such, it controls Laziness.  When we thought about this, we found many examples of Effort in our lives, and while I w...

When I originally posted about this January 15, 2008, a lot of people wrote in with questions.  The inquiry is important. For Christians and non-christians alike, the common question asked is, "Why did Jesus have to die? Was Jesus’ death a sacrifice to an angry God, or was it something else?"  Fundamentalists have their answer, and people are more familiar with it. Blasphemous movies like The Pass...

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the future of religion.  We are living in an age of solipsism and spiritual materialism that is at odds with the authoritarian past of our faiths.  There has to be a middle ground. Living in the Bootheel of Missouri, there are not many practitioners of Creation Spirituality around.  Adding to that, the Catholics in the area are far more akin to Southern Bapti...

I've noticed in myself that every time there is bad weather in the forecast, I start asking myself about God's Providence.  I admit that part of it is my own primal fear of severe weather, but mostly it is because of what I hear people say on the news after a storm devistates a town. My great aunt was in Joplin, MO, when it was blown off the face of the earth.  She was picked up, thrown across the...

Why did Jesus have to die? Was Jesus' death a sacrifice to an angry God, or was it something else? Whether or not Jesus died as a human sacrifice to a God of Wrath all boils down to the answer to one question very important to the answer to a single question: If there was no sin, would Jesus have been crucified? The Orthodox answer is yes. On the Cross, Jesus stood on the threshold to mediate betw...

We have been talking a lot about the nature of God and the most fundamental beliefs of the the faith of the prophets and mystics. Of the hundreds if not thousands of ways we could take the discussion of the nature of the Deity, I have decided to continue my posts inspired by Brian McLaren's a Generous Orthodoxy .In the book, McLaren describes the God he sees in creation in a simple yet profound wa...

 We have followed the star to the new born Christ, and behold the one in whom God is made manifest to the world. We stand by the river Jordan and watch the skies open as the dove descends upon our Lord. We drink the wine at the wedding at Cana and marvel at the one who produced it. We celebrate the revelation of the Lord. This is the day when we remember the revelation of God to humankind, but how...

 Domine Iesu Christe, Filii Dei, miserere mei, peccatoris. Lately, I have noticed that the Jesus Prayer has been spontaneously popping out of my mouth. I don't even notice that it is happening until it is happening. It has become so common to refer to Jesus as the Son of God that I think most of us have never stopped to consider what it means. McLaren suggests that the phrase "Son of God" is the s...

You may want to skip ahead and then come back to this paragraph. I don't want you to think I am saying something that I am not: I think heaven and hell do not play a large enough issue for the followers of Jesus. I know what you are thinking. There they goes, I knew this was coming, Fire and brimstone, but it is not what you think. I am not talking about a hell in the hereafter to which few will f...

I have been reading Brian D. McLaren's, a Generous Orthodoxy , and it has really been making me think a lot about my faith. At the end of each chapter, he asks numerous questions, and I have been learning a lot about the faith I actually believe. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing with you my answers to his questions. I invite and encourage you to read the book and share your answers...