Bože! independent catholic ideas, identity & theology
OC/IC identity
How Traditional Are You?
Now here’s an interesting question, and it struck me while doing the morning trawl, one thing led to another led to another and before I knew it I found myself in the website of a convent scanning their FAQ page. What struck me about it was their answer: “This is one of the hardest of [...]
Going To Church
This essay by Theo Hobson was in my morning trawl (thank you nod to Maggie Dawn – who has been picking the really interesting stuff of late). Hobson visits a Anglican . . . non-worship, worship service in West London and shares the experience. Throughout his description of the art instalations, the impromptu feel, the [...]
Editing A Theme
If you’ve not already noticed I’ve been editing my thinking on the “spiritual but not religious” idea as I go along. Looking at the conversation developing here, as well as thinking about various tangents (thus my first post on it here). Thanks to Sam Urfer I’m quoting from the Onion: “Father Clancy Donahue of St. [...]
What is “Religious”? What is “Spiritual”?
This little “sapling” of a conversation deserves more than its getting. Looking at not only my own initial response on Twitter, as well as the response of others (see previous post) I’m realising that these two words are very “loaded”. Huw, rightly observes that the underlying question remains unanswered – what is our working definition [...]
“Spiritual But Not Religious”?
Last week my friend and fellow Indie-Easterner Huw posed this question on Twitter: “Define ‘Spiritual but not religious’.” My initial response encompassed two ideas that I’ve encountered over the years from a significant number of people who describe themselves as being “spiritual but not religious”. First is the idea that the “institution” of religion impedes [...]
Micro-ekklesia
Thanks to Lyngine for forwarding this rather interesting article from Newsweek to me. Lisa Miller (the article’s author) writes that a recent Pew Forum study shows that 7 percent of Americans worship in small groups in house churches rather than attending larger gatherings/congregational settings. The article goes on to explore some of the reasons – [...]
It’s All Fake!
Have a look at this vid of behavioral economist Dan Ariely describing an interesting experiment involving fake fashion – you know the ones – you find “Gucci”, “Prada” handbags and sunglasses being sold for £5 at street vendors all over London. In the experiment he discovers that wearing fake fashion items seems to . . [...]
ReX – Notes On Religious Share Index
“Alternatively, if one denomination unexpectedly adopts an aggressive policy of buying shares in another, then the resulting volatility will make it hard accurately to assess the underlying reality.” Mark Vernon’s essay in the Guardian Online playing with the imagery of possible parallels between the language, dynamic, and psychology of the eddies of spiritual and religious [...]
Julius Mar Alvarez – Confessor
Born in Goa, of Portuguese family, Mar Alvarez began his pastoral career as a Roman Catholic priest. However, the deteriorating situation with the Padroado (the confused system of Papal privilege and royal patronage governing the church in Portuguese India since the 14th century) lead Mar Alvarez to convert to Orthodoxy. Mar Alvarez was consecrated by [...]
New Indie Book Now Available
Siobhan’s newest book, the product of her Phd work, is of interest to “Indie-philes” as it is a historical exploration of the links between Western esoteric Christianity and the Independent Catholic movement. Priests, Gnostics & Magicians traces two particular streams of esoteric links in the indie movement, first the link with French Gnostic movements, Martinism [...]
Exaltation of the Cross
Today we celebrate the two fold recovery of the cross. Firstly when St. Helen found the cross under the temple of Aphrodite (built by Hadrian over the site of Golgotha) in AD 324. There were all three crosses, that of Christ and the two thieves. According to tradition, St. Helen was at a loss as [...]
Myth-making 101
This essay in Religion Dispatches is really compelling. The politics of the impending health care reform in the US, while fascinating, is of no interest to us here (if you’re a regular you’ll know we don’t do anything but indie thinking and issues), rather the discussion about how a mythology takes shape. The “key” feature [...]
How Did You Gain (or loose) Your Faith?
I’m a fan of the Guardian Belief section each week they ask a question and have at least one writer respond (the pundits comments however, are usually snarky and un-pleasant). This week the question is “How did you lose, or find your faith?” The writer responding is the decidedly Agnostic Stephen Bates – and it [...]
This Is Interesting . . . .
This article by David Gibson of Politics Daily is well worth a read. He explores some of the reasons why Gay men in particular are “more” religiously invovled than their Straight brethren. Some of the conclusions drawn by one of the studies done by sociologist Darren E. Sherkat are laughably funny, but the piece overall [...]
Time Check, Anicetus & Photios the Martyrs
Let’s check in with the calendar – yup – its the 10th Wednesday after Pentecost. It’s so easy to loose track of the simple things – yes? Anyway today is the commemoration of Anicetus the Martyr. Anicetus, ike Euplus who we commemorated yesterday, openly “presented himself” to the authorities boldly declaring that all those who [...]
Indie Radio – How Cool Is That!
I’m listening to the newest edition of the ISM Network, a project of Mother Cait in Pennsylvania – another example of neat projects by indie folk – very cool. Over the past two weeks I’ve been listening snips of various episodes – the variety of topics and the thoughfulness of the participants has really been [...]
Saints? Why Bother?
This piece from the Guardian Belief section is rather timely given my recent experiment in posting the saint for the day – sometimes with a touch of irony, sometimes with a few related ideas. Remembering back to my childhood, listening to older OC relatives talking about (Marian) devotional practice in particular taking pains to point [...]
No Paint No Gain – Update
A few weeks ago we had a thread going based on some reading I had done about how Liberal churches were sabatogeing themselves. Chris Tessone posted some thoughts on the thread and I’ve finally responded. You can see the entire thread by clicking here. Tweet
No Pain No Gain
“Liberal” churches may be sabotaging themselves by reducing the commitment of their members – so suggests a recent report in New Scientist. The persecution of early Christians may have had a dramatic effect on the spread of Christianity because the sacrifices of martyrs and confessors instilled in others the idea of sincerity: “few would willingly [...]
Fear & Friendship – Breaking Barriers of Isolation
We’ve often talked about the ideas and images of what constitutes “church” many converts to the indie life inherit or bring with them into the community. Tim Cravens has just posted a reflection on one aspect of this – the sense of embarrassment many indie clergy feel over not having our own buildings, salaried clergy [...]
What Do You Want?
While making my rounds yesterday I fell into this essay “What Do Converts Want?” – written from a conservative Eastern Orthodox position. Reading the essay got me thinking – and asking the question (again) what is it that attracts folks to our OC/IC tradition – that is to say: what do OUR converts want? Today [...]
When is “religion” not a Religion?
What “is” religion? Religion Dispatches has this interesting essay today about a recent American court case in New York that determined that Feminism is not a religion. Well, D’uh! – I thought . . . . but then kept reading. What emerges in the essay is a rather complex morass of versions of a definition, [...]
Thinking Outside the Box – About the Constrictions of the Box
I read with interest this article by Dr. Murdo MacDonald Policy Officer for the Society, Religion and Technology Project for the Church of Scotland on that church’s stance on stem cell research. I then started asking about how this, and issues like it, are being explored in OC/IC communities. However, I have as yet, seen [...]
More Codex Madness – This Time From India
Trying to get back into the “discipline” of regular posting – this morning stumbled across this from Religion & Ethics News Weekly – describing an effort to recover, and restore the wealth of manuscripts, history, and artefacts in Indian Christianity. The video and related links are well worth viewing. It is worth mentioning here that [...]