After his death, his followers decided that Jesus had been divine. This did not happen immediately; as we shall see, the doctrine that Jesus had been God in human form was not finalized until the four...
A truly compassionate person touches a chord in us that resonates with some of our deepest yearnings. People flock to such individuals, because they seem to offer a haven of peace in a violent, angry...
A person who is impartial, fair, calm, gentle, serene, accepting, and openhearted is indeed a refuge.
A myth, therefore, is true because it is effective, not because it gives us factual information. If, however, it does not give us new insight into the deeper meaning of life, it has failed. If it work...
Cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.
What is lawful, what is unlawful? asked Ku Yuan, prince and poet of Chu. This country is a slough of despond! Nothing is pure any longer! Informers are exalted! And wise men of gentle birth are withou...
This continues to be the case: the religion of compassion is followed only by a minority; most religious people are content with decorous worship in synagogue, church, temple and mosque.
There is always a moment in warfare when the horrifying reality breaks through the glamour.
One of the most characteristic new developments since the 1970s has been the rise of a type of religiosity that we usually call fundamentalism in most of the major world religions, including the three...
Oedipus had to abandon his certainty, his clarity, and supposed insight in order to become aware of the dark ambiguity of the human condition.
Mecca became a station for these northbound caravans. It was conveniently located in the center of the Hijaz, and even though it was built on solid rock, which made agriculture impossible there, settl...
Jezus van Nazaret, een Galilese genezer en duivelbezweerder die de ophanden zijnde komst van het koninkrijk vna God verkondigde. Anti-Romeinse gevoelens kwamen vooral op bij grote nationale feesten, e...
It was only possible to define or comprehend something when there was duality. A person can see, taste, or smell something that is separate and apart from him- or herself. But when the whole [brahman]...
Het was absurd, stelde Filo, om het eerste hoofdstuk van Genesis letterlijk op te vatten en te denken dat de wereld in zes dagen was geschapen. Het getal 'zes' was een symbool voor volmaaktheid.
Every year in ancient Israel the high priest brought two goats into the Jerusalem temple on the Day of Atonement. He sacrificed one to expiate the sins of the community and then laid his hands on the...
By using feminist arguments, for which most had little or no sympathy, as part of their propaganda, the colonialists tainted the cause of feminism in the Muslim world, and helped to distort the faith...
And how could I hope to sense God’s presence when I continually broke the silence, frequently had uncharitable thoughts, and above all, constantly yearned for human affection and wept when reprimanded...
Am I my brother’s guardian? Cain asked after he had killed his brother, Abel. We are now living in such an interconnected world that we are all implicated in one another’s history and one another’s tr...
Again, what works well in the spiritual domain can become destructive and even immoral if interpreted literally and practically in the mundane world. It
A myth could not tell a hunter how to kill his prey or how to organise an expedition efficiently, but it helped him to deal with his complicated emotions about the killing of animals. Logos was effici...