Windows On The Soul

In chatting with a single friend recently, conversation drifted to his girlfriend, and his aspirations of marriage, but he felt a certain apprehension. I ventured that every person in history facing such a commitment has a time of apprehension. The basic reason is that one feels that one doesn't know the other well enough. And yet a limit is reached as to how well two people can ever know each other without making a step of commitment. The next level of "knowing" can only be discovered relationally. The way mankind "knows" God is the same. We can know about, believe in and understand his teachings, but we cannot really know Him until we take the step of commitment. We can never know the depth of His love, until we allow ourselves to become His beloved. In the written law, God's nature is only partially revealed, but through His incarnate son Jesus, we have the opportunity to start to know God relationally. May you have a most blessed Christmas and revitalis...

From the very earliest days, thinking man has been fascinated by his unreachable boundaries - from the extent of the heavens to the smallest indivisible particle of matter. Mathematicians discovered "numbers" that are just out of reach of computability, and gave then names like "irrational" and "transcendental". Modern mathematicians are studying the "computability" and "complexity" of various classes of problems, and proved that seemingly simple tasks like optimal timetabling are virtually impossible to compute for real-life sized problems. In today’s rationalist humanist information society, we are constantly being tempted to believe that human reason can overcome anything, despite the limits and uncertainties of knowledge being uncovered in theoretical research. But the biggest problem to rational deterministic thinking, is when given a set of options, a "value" judgement is required. All too often, what seemed "good...

A major difference between Christianity and a number of the world's largest religions, is its focus on restoration to harmony of body, mind and spirit. The Way of Christ is not through mindless meditation to nirvana, or ascetic debasement of body, or humanistic rationalism of the pre-eminent mind. The biblical view is of body, mind and spirit as all parts of a whole, not fragmented. However, the modern church seems to "put down" rational discussion as some-how not being "spiritual". One of the big criticisms young people have of the church, is that it doesn't address their questions. Where are the Christian thinkers and debaters in our churches? Articles like that of Tim Costello's on Community (Education Age 4/6/96) are few and far between. Why is the church afraid of 'development of human potential' - its humanistic background is no different than the majority of teaching in our schools and universities (all the more need to build-up the faith ...