theFWD submission #4
[intended partially as a provocation, partially completely seriously, for the Future We Deserve collaborative book project] 3rd-Party Certification of Spiritual Agents, Teachers & Centers The goal of certification is to protect both spiritual practitioners (agents), teachers, and centers. Monastic tradition, by adhering to openly published rules and vows and being accountable to a central governance […]
theFWD submission #1
In developing my ideas on secular monasticism, I’ve been attempting to both to hone my thinking and to let it run completely wild. I found a great opportunity to do so in The Future We Deserve. I submitted a few inter-related pieces for this collaborative book on: Secular monasticism Art monasticism Spirituality as game 3rd-party […]
9/11 and Compassion: We Need It Now More Than Ever – From Karen Armstrong – Compassionate Action Network
via Jon Ramer, “9/11 and Compassion: We Need It Now More Than Ever- From Karen Armstrong” – Compassionate Action Network. In today’s Huffington Post from Karen Armstrong: The anniversary of 9/11 reminds us why we need the Charter for Compassion. It should be an annual summons to compassionate action. The need is especially apparent this […]
The Chronicle Review » The Objective Study of Subjectivism
The Objective Study of Subjectivism – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education. Brian Knutson, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University: Thanks to accelerating technological advances, however, the gap between the objective and the subjective is closing fast. Scientists are beginning to objectively study subjectivity. By “subjectivity,” I refer here […]
New Scientist interviews Slavoj Žižek
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek was interviewed in New Scientist. He calls for a deeper collaboration between philosophy and science: Should philosophers be helping scientists? Yes. For the last few decades, at least in the humanities, big ontological questions – What is reality? What is the nature of the universe? – were considered too naive. It was […]
Experimental Metaphysics? « Larval Subjects .
I’m imagining a Universal Otherhood for Experimental Metaphysics… Everything becomes a matter of signs, propositions, representations, texts, and contents. However, what role do practices play in philosophy? This role, if it is indeed crucial, would tend to disappear in philosophical texts, leaving only subterranean traces of nonhuman encounters– perhaps what Deleuze would call “becoming-x’s” –that deeply […]
Links for August 29th 2010
Monos, “a non profit organization that is concerned with the current engagement between monastic culture, spirituality and contemporary society,” “an attempt to offer a facility for the on-going dialogue between monastic spirituality, society, culture and church, and to begin to ask serious questions concerning the relationship between Secular Monasticism, Church and society, both historically and […]
Finding grace
Guest-blogger Phoebe Jevtovic writes for In Otherhood about the process of choosing mealtime graces for the Art Monastery. Phoebe is a soprano specializing in 17th century Italian music. She regularly performs with a variety of groups, including La Monica, Cançonier, Gamelan X and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. She is an artmonk. I was probably […]
The (simultaneous) rise and fall of western monasticism
Also from Dr. Armstrong’s Re-Monking post: Between 1978 and 2004—nearly the entire span of John Paul II’s pontificate—the number of men in [Western] monastic and religious orders (not including priests) decreased by 46% in Europe and 30% in the Americas, while the number of women decreased by 39% and 27%, respectively. Compare this to the […]
More from “Re-monking”
After reading Re-Monking the Church: new monasticism (see my previous post), I sent Dr. Armstrong the following note on his “Ask Dr. Church History” page: I just finished reading your fantastic article “Re-Monking the Church: new monasticism.” A question: In your mind, what does the secular world have to learn from monasticism? I think the […]
