Category: Spiritual Agency
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The Reckoning: When Self-Forgiveness is Your Toughest Assignment
As the great Anne Lamott so charmingly put it, “Forgiveness means you’ve decided not to kill them.” A lovely sentiment, really. We hand out that kind of grace like it’s a participation trophy, don’t we? It’s easy, almost a performance art. We stand on our moral high ground, nodding sagely at someone else’s obvious character…
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Why Doubt Isn’t the Enemy of Faith (It’s Probably Its Best Friend)
Doubt. It’s the great heresy, the existential villain of every Sunday school lesson, and the silent assassin of countless heartfelt beliefs. We’re taught to see it as faith’s enemy, that insidious whisper on our shoulder in a world that desperately wants us to just sit down, shut up, and believe. But this is a profound…
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The Divine Comedy: When Faith and Logic Have a Drink
I have a friend who, in a bold and public display of intellectual courage, announced on Facebook that he was finally going to tackle Dante’s The Divine Comedy. My immediate thought was, “Oh, bless your heart.” My second was to wonder if he knew what he was really getting into. Because while most people see…
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Rituals for the Unbeliever: Crafting Sacred Moments in a Secular Age
Let’s talk about the word “ritual.” For many, it immediately conjures images of ancient, dusty texts, incense-filled rooms, or perhaps, at the other end of the spectrum, some brand of new-age nonsense involving crystals and vague cosmic energy. It’s a word that comes pre-loaded with baggage, implying a devotion to something beyond the rational. But…
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The Ethical Tightrope
Navigating Morality in a World Without Divine GPS Alright, let’s talk about morality, shall we? That ever-present, delightfully inconvenient whisper in the back of our minds, nudging us towards right and away from wrong. For a significant chunk of human history, this moral compass came conveniently pre-packaged, often with a divine warranty: “Thou Shalt Not,”…
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Your Personal Pantheon: Crafting a Spirituality That Actually Works (Even if it Looks Nothing Like Grandma’s)
Alright, let’s wade into the wonderfully murky waters of “spirituality,” shall we? For many, the word conjures images of patchouli oil, crystals, or perhaps endless hours of meditation on a mountaintop. For others, it’s inextricably linked to dusty hymnals and stained-glass windows. But what if your spiritual journey looks nothing like a Pinterest board, nor…
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When Sacred Cows Come Home to Roost: Reconciling Ancient Faith with Modern Humanism
Alright, let’s wade into what might be the philosophical equivalent of a minefield, shall we? We’re going to talk about the grand, often bewildering, intersection of ancient faith and modern humanism. For many, these two concepts exist on opposite sides of an unbridgeable chasm, eyeing each other with suspicion, if not outright hostility. One speaks…
JUSTIN LOCKRIDGE 