Posts Tagged ‘spirituality’
What is spirituality?
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on July 2nd, 2011
Episode #32 is a question Barbara Zeman and Shirley Paulson asked each other. What concepts do we envision when we use the term ‘spirituality?’
It’s an important topic for this website, especially, since the very name of the website includes the term, ‘spirituality.’ I remember when I selected the name, I thought the word was a powerful one, even though just about everyone has a different definition of it. I thought it would be good to discuss its meaning from time to time, to see if we can find some clarification on the subject.
Shirley Paulson and Barbara Zeman discussing 'spirituality'
Barbara starts off by asking what’s driving my passion with these topics? Why do I care so much? I think there is something very deep, very relevant for today, and very beautiful about the happenings in early Christianity, and that something was a type of spirituality. But interestingly, the very thing I find so beautiful seems also to have been that which the early Church was concerned with.
Barbara points out that whatever is spiritual removes us from our material senses and makes us lean on something entirely different. It sure does take us out of our comfort zones, and yet it also brings a new kind of comfort and happiness. Is there a reason to be afraid of it? Probably, because it challenges the authority of worldly ways. On the other hand, it speaks with grace, purity, and compassion. So whatever it is, it doesn’t seem capable of harming anyone. And even though it appears to draw persecution, it can’t be destroyed.
Please join the conversation. If you know of someone who can contribute to this question, would you please pass this podcast along and encourage them to contribute to the comments?
Thanks!
S+C | Politics and Religion
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on July 22nd, 2009
Episode #26 is a conversation with Will Buchanan on the relationship between politics and spiritual ideas.
Sometimes the effort to discuss politics and religious convictions in the same conversation can be hazardous. All the more reason to find a basis for successful conversations.
Will is a student at Principia College, where he’s studying political science. He’s also deeply committed to his spiritual growth. Our discussion raises questions and uncovers possibilities for those who deeply care about the relevance of spiritual living in a political context.
Whether you lean left or right, it’s encouraging to find common ground in the belief that God’s goodness is available to everyone at all times. It gives hope for peace, and it encourages grace in the midst of our differences.
It might be helpful to clarify one point in the podcast conversation. Near the end of the podcast, Will is discussing “three degrees” of human experience, which come from his study of Mary Baker Eddy’s book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (115). He is distinguishing between the second and third degrees, in which the second is a transitional state of thought to the third level, which includes spiritual understanding and power. Will describes the meaning of that third state of human thought without clearly identifying it; but his point is that it’s helpful for us as humans to be clear about the type of thinking we bring to our experiences. We are able to achieve wisdom, spiritual understanding, and spiritual power (the “third degree”) as we grow spiritually; and on that basis we are not victims of politics, but contributors to society’s well-being.
Please do join us in this conversation. We’re interested in they way you make connections between your spiritual searching and your political pragmatism. Share your comments at the end of the show notes on the website, SpiritualityandChristianity.com.
Some relevant links:
S+C | Religion, technology, and emerging media
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on May 31st, 2009
Episode #23 is another conversation with Meg Ballias, a student at Butler University and Shirley Paulson, a Christian Scientist.
Meg is immersed in the issues of emerging media, and we decided to explore together the impact this new technology might have on religion, and vice versa. Meg is a Journalism student who was selected as one of the scholarship students attending the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) convention in Boston this year. She was featured on episode #21 also.
Globalization can offer exciting new opportunities, but the idea of a single currency for the world, for example, can also be scary if it leads to the end of society as we know it. Meg wonders aloud whether journalism technology is contributing to it or offering sufficient warnings against it. Some of our other questions have to do with the relationship between soul and digital machinery. Does God give humanity dominion, or are we victims of our own creations? Does moral strength play a role in the development of technology?
We feel like kids peering into an unopened treasure box, ready to discover things no one ever told us about before. We’d love to hear your insights and questions too. This is a topic that needs the best of everyone’s thinking. Please join in! Post your comments on the Spirituality and Christianity.com website. Subscribe to the podcass at the link on the right side of the website page: “Sunbscribe to S+C Podcast.” Thanks!
Related Links:
S+C | Living with God on a daily basis
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on March 1st, 2009
Episode #18 is a conversation with Bob Wellington, a long time friend and spiritual thinker. Bob has experienced a variety of religious practices, searched for his own path, and exemplifies a kind of postmodern approach to religion and spirituality. We’re discussing a very contemporary problem: how to be responsible with mounting pressures from economic stress.
Sometimes people who live with a deep-seated spiritual connection with God are challenged to show how that spirituality can be relevant in the midst of lost jobs or lost hope. The theme of our conversation centers on responsibility, because so many people find it tough to take care of themselves during economic downturn, let alone care for dependents and 
others. Bob and I think that a very spiritually understanding of God, or love for God brings genuine hope and peace. It’s not naive, because finding the connection with God’s grace and government opens our eyes to the presence of goodness.
Please join the conversation and tell us your stories. Click on the comments button at the end of the show notes here on teh website, spiritualityandchristianity.com. Thank you!
S+C | Getting at the heart of Christmas
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on December 19th, 2008
Episode 13.5 is a conversation with Swedenborgian Mark Pendleton on the subject of Christmas. He is the Associate Pastor at the Glenview (Illinois) New Church. It’s a Bible-based church using the writings of 18th century Emanuel Swedenborg.
Mark starts off our conversation by saying Christmas is about hope and also about realizing hope. I couldn’t think of a more relevant way to get into the subject, especially this year. I have relatives and close friends who are either laid off from work or whose houses are in foreclosure. So, if hope is more than a theological pipedream, it’s worth 
thinking about it.
Christmas, for Mark, is about the way the Lord came into the world making it possible for us humans to respond, giving us ideas so that we can be governed by in our responses to bad things that happen.
Those are kind of startling words. The presence of the baby Jesus was and still is like a signal that there’s another way of thinking about things around us. In my Christian Science approach to everyday human struggles, I also see that “God so loved the world, giving us His only begotten Son…” (John 3), and this is a reminder that we are loved — now. Being loved is a different feeling from the anxiety of loss.
So, how do these “ideas” and this “love” relate to the struggles? Mark says the way it works in his Swedenborgian approach is that the Lord gives us “spiritual principles,” which are an option for us to move to in with our minds and hearts. These principles, or “spiritual realities” are stronger and longer lasting than those natural events — like the job losses, for example. We both found that this spiritual sense of things is very real, despite the immediate problem at hand. It means that Jesus’ birth was a very tangible, understandable event in human history, and that his human presence made his examples and teaching practical to the rest of us humans and our very human troubles.
Platitudes about God’s goodness in the middle of needing enough to pay the rent or mortgage would sound condescending and patronizing if there wasn’t something very real and powerful in the Christmas story. Mark’s point about hope was that the Lord is always showing us how the things of the Spirit really do transcend the “natural” or earthly things.
My experience with Christmas — which is truly an every-day-of-the-year concept — is that no matter what’s going on, there is good to be found right here and now. Opening our hearts and minds to that reality not only makes us feel the love and joy of Christ, but makes us feel generous. It’s so much more fun giving than sorrowing over what we don’t have.
Mark puts it so well. He says, “The Christmas story interpreted spiritually can be thought of as the story of 
the birth of unselfish love in a human heart — or, the birth of a love of serving other people, of being of useful service, without thought of reward.” I can’t imagine a greater gift than the knowledge of being loved and wanting to love others.
Merry Christmas from both of us!
Here are a couple of links related to our thoughts on Christmas and on Mark’s church, The New Church:
1. ChristianScience.com: Christmas
S+C | Women in the Bible
Posted by: Shirley Paulson in Podcast on March 29th, 2008
Episode #7 is a mother-daughter discussion of women in the Bible. Heidi Winder, my daughter, raises the question: What’s so scary about women?
We noted that women in the Bible and throughout Christian history have been marginalized, sexualized, demonized, and marked as incompetent — by men. Men wouldn’t do that if they weren’t scared of something. We started the discussion with some evidence of this very deliberate reaction. Mary Magdalene, for example. Was she a prostitute, as the Church Fathers have taught us? Or, was she a spiritually mature, strong leader, as her gospel claims? What about Martha, the sister of
another Mary? Why does the emphasis on her character remain on her bustling about as a hostess, when she was also one of very few who confessed to the identity of Christ?
Heidi and I discuss other women throughout Jewish and Christian history, whose lives and characters have been under attack. The common thread we found in these women is that they were extraordinarily strong — spiritually. We could see how spiritual strength could be perceived as a threat, when it is invisible to earthly prowess. But the solution is not in the destruction of femininity, or even the hostessing and attractiveness attributed to womanhood. Rather, a stronger spirituality in both men and women can remove the threat and enable women to make their contributions to Christianity and to the world.
Let us know if you have some further insights to add to this conversation. We feel we just cracked the door open to a very large topic. Click on “Comments” below this posting of episode #7 in Spirituality and Christianity, to tell us what you think. Thanks!
Also mentioned in this podcast: