The extension of the plot beyond the ecstatic falling in love of romantic comedies surprised me.

If you look at it realistically, Jesus was a very unattractive messiah to believe in. He was a peasant who lived in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire.

Jesus understood that when religion springs out of fear it becomes really a religion of power.

Gaga’s video is a lucid cultural depiction of sin. She  knows who the right guy is, and yet cannot leave the wrong one.

In our context in Rome, Italy, adult baptism has a counter-cultural ring. Most people here are baptized when they are infants. 

Our stories cannot help but echo the universe’s defining moment.

For the past decades, many scientists have affirmed so, extrapolating an overarching, all-explaining philosophy out of the biological process of the evolution of the species.

By focusing on our aspirations, resentments and grievances, the world-as-spa message exhorts us to be self-centered, begrudge the needs of others, focus on our personal freedom.

To become a force for life and healing, we have some striving and some growing to do.

Biographers of Marc Chagall mention the “gift for happiness,” the “sacred simplicity” which characterized his art, and which was articulated in large part by his ingenious, vibrant use of color.

What is my picture of death? What awaits me? Will beauty engulf me, or will I dance on its bosom? Will I finish by myself, or will eternity ravish me with overflowing life.

Freud paraphrases Jesus’ famous words with his own, rather peppery, twist.

The Christian narrative leaves us remarkably healed from fear and free to enjoy the delights of this world and long for the eternal ones.

What remains of modern ideology, free-market capitalism, gives us some nice gadgets but does not nurture the soul.

Joseph could have become a spoiled success, an adolescent who dreams of power, receives power, and remains adolescent.

Jesus is the question that haunts us still. He is the promise we dare not ignore.

A proposal has been growing on me that I believe honors the heart of mature masculinity without succumbing to Nietzsche’s übermensch, patriarchy, or gnostic sexuality.

God’s hiddenness is one of his most unnerving qualities.

“Seize the day. Live for the moment. Be yourself.” Behind the vitality these maxims exude there is such desperation, so much fear.

Instead of logos and pathos, Aristotle chose instead ethos: the speaker’s character.

Why is marrying-for-love so obvious to us today? There are of course many historical factors. But I wonder whether one of the most important ones isn’t a letter written many years ago.

I wish our public discourse would reflect the complexity of life more fully.

The gospel we nod to today is something like: believe in yourself. Be authentic. Be you. You’re beautiful. Fulfill your dream.