What is Justice? We Know But We Don’t Know
By Brianne Donaldson
This essay is one of a 6-part series titled “What is Justice?”:First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth
Like the words “God” or “love,” the term “justice” does not explain, but must be explained. All three words, in fact, share something of the same fate, insofar as ea..
PEACE? BAH HUMBUG – OR NOT
By Arlette Poland
What is peace, anyway? Is it even real or possible? Is it the opposite of war? Or is it the opposite of life?
I suspect that Whitehead believed that peace should not be any more concrete than war. In other words, when we use a term, practice a system, there must be some f..
HOLDING THE AMBIGUITIES
by Krista E. Hughes
Stress and ease. Anxiety and joy. Boredom and fulfillment. Disappointment and good fortune. Affliction and health. All of these mark the comings and goings of my daily life:
“If she does not stop wailing,” I think of my 17-year-old cat, “I am going to go mad.”
“When she di..
JOHN COBB’S GLOBAL SPIRIT
by Bruce Epperly
In my last contribution, I reflected on Bernard Loomer’s vision of “size” or “stature” as the ability to embrace as much of reality as possible, including contrasting positions, without losing your spiritual center. Perhaps no theologian in recent times has been as inclusive a..
A DEAD SYRIAN BOY, A STARVING POLAR BEAR, and “I”
by Katie Ladd
I can barely read the news anymore. I hear this sentiment from a lot of people. It’s depressing. It’s filled with violence. Sometimes the news is a pornographic portrayal of personal tragedy – not news at all. Other times it is concerned with real issues carrying global impact, b..
FACTS AND FALLACIES
By Arlette Poland
Years ago, as an attorney, I had to use ‘facts’ in evidence. Now, as a Professor and Whiteheadian philosopher, I teach that we humans, in our drive to give meaning to things, tend to make our meanings too concrete. We decide what a ‘fact’ is with certainty and then proceed as ..
BLACK MOTHER GOD
By Carolyn Roncolato
We are an adoptive family. Our son is black and my partner and I are white. This has been a particularly intense year to be white parents of an African American boy and to deal with the complexities of transracial adoption. It seems that every week there is yet another stor..
MEMORIES
By Ann Pederson
From The Way We Were, Barbra Streisand sings: “memories. . .light the corners of my mind, misty water-colored memories, of the way things were. . . .Or has time rewritten every line?” Some days it seems like time has rewritten every line of my mother’s memory. Or at least the ce..
I AM A WITCH
by Constance Wise
I am a Witch, spelled with a capital W since it is my religion. Often people ask me if I’m a “white witch” or a “black witch.” They think they are playing the silly language game of “white” equals good as in cowboys in white hats and knights in shining armor on white horses an..
PRESENCE TO PROCESS
By Krista E. Hughes
It hangs on the wall of my office, scripted in calligraphy by a friend’s sister:
“My greatest commitment is to the process of creative transformation rather than any one of its products.” So says Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr., the process-relational world’s great sage.
It hangs as a..