Because Biography is not Identity: From what we do to who we are…
In a throw away line in a podcast shortly before his sudden death, philosopher-poet-theologian John O’Donohue observes that, “biography is not identity.” Think about it. We spend so much time trying to impress people about what we do, or the achievements we can list on our CV, and far too little time focusing on the inner landscape of our life. In his book The Road to Character, David Brooks differentiates between what he calls resume virtues and eulogy virtues . The first focuses on the virtues that leave people saying “wow, I’ll employ you”, the second...
Read MoreWhat does it mean to flourish?
It’s become a bit of a catch word – one you find in vision and mission statements which commit to building flourishing communities of hope or whatever. It’s a noble and inspiring sentiment, but what does it mean to flourish? We could immediately dash to definitions. Depending on your source, you will be told that to flourish is to prosper, to thrive, to be in a state of activity or production. If you go to the Greek philosophers you might well come out at Aristotle and his idea of eudaimonia (roughly translated as flourishing) by which he was pointing to the life well...
Read MoreQuotable: Glittering Vices – Rebecca Konyndyk De Young
This week our selection of quotes comes from Rebecca Konyndyk De Youngs intriguing 2009 book Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and their remedies. The title explains the book, which after an exploration of some of the historical understandings of the seven deadly sins (and the opposing virtues against which they were stacked), explores each in turn – envy (the bitterness that flows from believing others have it better), vainglory (believing that image rather than reality is all important), sloth (which rather than laziness, is seen as resistance to doing the work...
Read MoreIs narcissism becoming a virtue – or whatever happened to humility?
Yesterday I led a professional development day for staff at Grace Christian School, in Bunbury. One of the topics we explored was the rise of narcissism, and ways Christian schools can help provide a corrective for it. Of course there might be some readers who wonder if a corrective is necessary. After all, pendulum’s tend to swing back and forth, and the current wave of self love has followed hot on the heals of too long an era where the need of the individual was always seen to be subservient to the needs of the group, and when any delight in self was viewed as sinful and a display...
Read MoreDeciding what’s right: Introducing a new series…
I hope you enjoyed the ‘Why believe?’ series, which was a 101 introduction to apologetics. Lest you missed it, the posts are still readily accessible. We covered ‘Why believe: A sort of apologetics 101’; ‘Theism and all that’ which explored some of the basic arguments for the existence of God; ‘The Bible: Bloodthirsty Text or Solid Witness?’; ‘The Church: Hazard or Witness?’; ‘A World Minus Jesus’; ‘Easter cancelled. They’ve found the body’ (not); ‘Miracles, Maths and Mystery…’ and...
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