buck

Hi Jason. Welcome and it's a pleasure to meet you.

Hi searchingmom. It's a pleasure to meet you. A passage from Luke 17:20-21 comes to mind: "... the Kingdom of God is within you." I hope that your mothers day was a beautiful experience.

Hi Jericho, welcome. One of the traits I like most about the overall Progressive Christian movement is that of critical thinking. Nothing necessarily needs to be interpreted as a rule to obey or be condemned to hell, but rather each concept can be discussed as a tool to explore oneself and thereby discover a greater personal connection with God.

Hi Firedragon. Welcome and it's a pleasure to meet you.

Hi SW. I'm aware of linguistic mistranslations, but I don't feel that can necessarily be considered malicious as recognition of those differences, those inaccuracies, resulted in resources such as the online NIV Bible, which also allows a comparative study of translations. Buck

Happy Monday. I was wondering if there was a Link To Us page anywhere on the site. I couldn't find one, but maybe someone else knows for certain if there is or is not one available. Thanks, Buck

Hi Chris. I'm a bit new here myself. Critical thinking is something very important to me, and from what I've seen from the conversations so far, this is a good place for quality discussions. I don't want to go off-topic of your intro, but as far as critical thinking is concerned, I'm currently reading Joseph Atwill's book Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus :Flavian Signature Edition and find it intriguing in many ways (mostly because professional story-analysis is one of the services I offer). I'm only offering that bit of info because I think you will find that the community here is quite well-read, and if you need Socratic discussion on any topic, this will be a good venue. Or at least that's my opinion of the community so far. It's a pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to future discussions. Buck

I've just put the book on hold through my Library. I'm #16 in line, so maybe sometime next week I will get the copy. I read the description of the book on Amazon and it looks intriguing. I like the idea of a history being discussed from civic records rather than records of testimonials.

Hi Patrick, it's a pleasure to meet you. Do you have experience in online communities, either closed to paying members only those that are freely open to the public? Your course sounds interesting and worthwhile, and I will certainly make an effort to contribute. Buck

Hi Norm. I can offer some additional feedback to add to my last comment. It's been a long time since I've looked into Gnostic Christianity -- perhaps over 25 years, so I am not current with its current activities or new developments. A lot of the insights I gained of Gnostic Christianity was through the now defunct magazine Gnosis. My basic understanding of Gnostic Christianity is this: Practitioners do not necessarily believe in Jesus Christ as a physical human being but rather a concept where Christ is discovered within oneself, Practitioners may read texts other than the Bible, Practitioners seem to have a propensity towards intellectualism and enjoy constructive philosophical debates, Practitioners seem to be very liberal, embodying many humanitarian values. And that's about all I know or remember about it. I'm not certain if it has a hocusy-pocusy-spooky-wooky aspect to it or not. Progressive Christianity seems to embody many of the points I mentioned above, and if it doesn't, it seems to be accepting of the practitioner who does. So that's why I liken it to Gnostic Christianity. At least at this time... my opinions change as I discover new information. Buck

Hi Romansh and Dude. I first became aware of Campbell through the Bill Moyers interviews (I was very young at the time). I read The Power of Myth & Myths to Live By a few years ago, and I watched the Power of Myth DVD as well. I hold Campbell with a tremendous amount of respect, and not only for his academics. The Mythos DVD sets are a collection of his lectures to a group of people attending the lecture. He sits himself up onto a chair on the stage and then simply begins to talk. No notes in the hand, no que cards. He just talks, and it's difficult to stop listening to him. I wish my command of the language -- and the stuff I need to talk to others about -- was such that I could speak that well!

Oh My, that is now on my list of books to read sooner-than-later! I just bought the Kindle edition and will get to it soon. Buck

Because of the end-result of personal transformation that it produces.

Because the less a person thinks, the easier they are to control, and the more likely they are to try to control others to think at (below) their level. The individuals who have criticized me have their own followings, and are very likely inspiring people to think (pardon the term) the way they do. Criticizing a fictional story written for entertainment purposes because it is not true, is as you say, ironic, and I also feel it is deeply indicative of a much greater problem that appears to be growing in our society. I hope that the Progressive Christianity movement can help offer solutions to that problem.

I've been giving this question some very deep thought since happening across it the other week... and as an initial disclaimer, I have not read the replies to the opening threat (yet--I will read them later this evening). To me, Progressive Christianity is a reformed and extremely contemporary version of Gnostic Christianity. Buck

Ummmm... I've read the Masks of God volumes and watched Mythos 1 & 2 a couple times, but Joseph Campbell's a bit deep, n'est ce pas?

Hello Jeanie and Blake, it's a pleasure to meet you. Very nice video. I hope you continue to make more! Have a great day, Buck

Hi Brian. It's a pleasure to meet you. Buck

Hi Paul, Joseph, and Norm. I guess I was really surprised to read the messages expressing those viewpoints -- or perhaps terrified is a better word to use than surprised. Well, I suppose learning how to deal with those experiences will be an interesting journey. Thanks for your feedback. Buck

Hi everyone. A little background to my question: One of my pleasures is creative writing. I enjoy writing stories to entertain, and through those stories help readers learn something about themselves and humanity. Recently I wrote a fictional short story inspired by the story of Noah and published it on my blog and in a private community of Christian writers. I've started to receive private feedback complimenting the story, which is nice, but I've also started to receive feedback stating that the reader is hoping that the fictional story that I wrote about Noah is true and that if that fictional story is not true, that I shouldn't be telling lies to people ( Ephesians 4: 25 KJV ). My question: How is the Progressive Christian movement (overall) dealing with the attacks of literalists? Buck

The current state of the site is a definite reflection of the professionalism of the organization. Should I stay long enough to become a benefactor I will voice more opinions, but until that time, if I remain, I will remain silent about such things. Thanks, Buck

The aforementioned Modern-Day Mystic podcasts are archived here: Interfaith Voices http://interfaithradio.org/mystics Hi Paul. I listened to that series of podcasts earlier today, and can share the following life-experience inspired by your post, and the podcasts: Some two decades ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a Whilrling Dervish dance with a group of about 30 individuals. The easy and fun part was the outward appearance of the dance -- twirling around each other as everyone travels in a circular path inside the room. That was physically exhilarating and undoubtedly resulted in a pleasantly physical rush of adrenaline. The internal part of the dance was mystical, because along with the outward physical movements of our limbs we had to do one additional movement that sounded easy enough but proved to be incredibly difficult for many. We had to make direct eye-to-eye contact with each person we danced around. When we were told it was difficult to do, many of us giggled. After all, we look at others in the eyes all the time and we confirmed our resolve by looking at each other in the eye and then laughing even more. In hindsight, I can say that before the dance, I never really looked another person in the eyes, even when I thought I was doing so – I was looking at them. The first couple people that I looked at in the eyes resulted both of us laughing in a “this is really weird and really fun” kind of way, but after we had danced with the same partner two or three times, a change became present. The change became present in not one, but each of us as we danced around someone we already knew. Sometimes the other person had a look that said “you are the most beautiful person I have ever shared my soul with,” and other times their eyes darted away to focus on the ceiling, accompanied by a wince of private pain through their facial muscles. Sometimes I felt the most incredible sense of unconditional love when looking in the eyes of another, and other times I could see only my inner pain and wanted nothing more than to get away from that person as soon as possible. After the dance I felt good, and a bit confused and even ashamed… The good feelings were from obvious reasons – the dance was simply fun, full of lots of laughing. I didn’t know why I was confused at the time, or why I felt ashamed – but two decades later, I have a much better perspective from hindsight. I was confused because it was the first time I had ever seen myself through the eyes of others. It was at that time that I began to realize that whenever I had look in a person’s eyes in the past, I had only looked at them and not in them. This was the first time I had a glimpse into the souls of others, and through their souls, a reflection of my own. I was ashamed not because of seeing them. Seeing the others only brought me joy, but it was their reaction to the glimpses of my soul that brought forth my shame – and not because any of them reacted with disgust. My shame was that I did not see the beauty within me.

Aleppo Codex. Another great resource. Thanks, Norm, that is very helpful, too. Buck

Thank you.

Hi Paul. I had no idea those resources existed. Do you happen to know if a similar resource exists for the Torah? I have been able to find versions of the Torah formatted for the web, but I would very much like to see original scans of the earliest known manuscript. Thank you for those valuable resources. Buck