Catalyst Arizona

Don't forget this evening's Roger Wolsey presentation in Uptown Phoenix! See you at 5pm at 1st UMC (Central and Missouri)

Don't miss this opportunity to hear author, spiritual director, and Kissing Fish advocate , Roger Wolsey, THIS SUNDAY in UPTOWN PHOENIX. Roger not only serves as a United Methodist pastor, he is a certified Spiritual Director through the Benet Hill Benedictine Monastery, a member of the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org; writes as The Holy Kiss for Patheos; is a contributing writer to the Progressing Spirit newsletter, and is the founder of Nature Church Global. 5pm, Feb. 25th at 1st United Methodist in Phoenix! FREE!

Don't miss this opportunity to hear author, spiritual director, and Kissing Fish advocate , Roger Wolsey, THIS SUNDAY in UPTOWN PHOENIX. Roger not only serves as a United Methodist pastor, he is a certified Spiritual Director through the Benet Hill Benedictine Monastery, a member of the Board of Directors of ProgressiveChristianity.Org; writes as The Holy Kiss for Patheos; is a contributing writer to the Progressing Spirit newsletter, and is the founder of Nature Church Global. 5pm, Feb. 25th at 1st United Methodist in Phoenix! FREE!

Join Rev. David Felten, co-creator of Living the Questions, for "Saving Jesus Redux," LtQ's noted exploration of a credible Jesus for the third millennium. Contributors include Brian McLaren, Diana Butler Bass, Robin Meyers, Marcus Borg, Walter Brueggemann, John Dominic Crossan, Matthew Fox, Amy-Jill Levine, John Shelby Spong and a host of others for a conversation around the relevance of Jesus for today.

The twelve (12) zoom sessions will be on Thursdays from 10am to noon Arizona time Feb. 29th through May 16th. Registration, which includes the twelve online Zoom sessions and downloadable study and discussion materials, is just $79 per person. You can find out more information and a link to register at www.livingthequestions.com

REGISTRATION IS LIMITED, so be sure to sign up now for inspiring input, great conversation, and a liberating view of what it means to follow Jesus today!

SPIRITUAL PRACTICES RETREAT:
Experience deep dives into the spiritual practices author Roger Wolsey describes in his new book "Discovering Fire: Spiritual Practices That Transform Lives": Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, Labyrinth Walking, Attuning to Nature, Authentic Relating, Dream-work, Breath-work, Shadow-Work, Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Creative Self-Expression, and more! Friday and Saturday, February 23rd and 24th 9AM-5PM each day. Participants responsible for their own lodging. $199 Breakfast and Lunches provided. Optional dinners together each night. Register Here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6230747 Host Venue: The Fountains, 15300 N. Fountain Hills Blvd. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268

LECTURE & BOOK SIGNING:
"Healing, Wholeness, Psychedelics, and Spirituality" 5pm on Sunday, February 25th Location: Wesley Lounge at 1st United Methodist, 5510 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85013

Roger Wolsey is the author of "Kissing Fish: Christianity for People Who Don't Like Christianity;" and the recently released "Discovering Fire: Spiritual Practices That Transform Lives."

ASU Initiative on Spirituality and Public Life invites you to

“Conspirituality in the Time of Plague: Dispatches from the Front”

Sam Kestenbaum, Journalist who covers contemporary spirituality in America

November 2, 2023 | 4:30 p.m.
West Hall 135
ASU Tempe campus
In person or streaming

Conspirituality in the Time of Plague: Dispatches from the Front | ASU Events Conspirituality in the Time of Plague: Dispatches from the Front Event descriptionAcademic eventsArts and entertainmentDiversity and inclusionFreeOpen to the public Scores of churches closed during COVID-19, but contrary to predictions that religion would diminish, the pandemic led to a peculiar eff...

Eddie Glaude Jr. to speak at ASU distinguished lecture The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University will host the annual Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Distinguished Lecture Series with Eddie Glaude Jr., a passionate educator, author and political commentator.

Humanities Week Oct. 16-20 Events are free to attend.

Something expand your horizons.
Islam and Contemporary Dance: Unexpected Convergences.
In person ASU Tempe campus or online.

Islam and Contemporary Dance: Unexpected Convergences | ASU Events Islam and Contemporary Dance: Unexpected Convergences Event descriptionAcademic eventsArts and entertainmentDiversity and inclusionFreeOpen to the public Some of the United States’ best-known pioneers of 20th-century dance, including Ruth St. Denis, were inspired by Eastern – and specifically Mu...

ASU Lecture in person and online:
Religious Liberty After Dobbs.
Thursday, February 9, 4:00
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/religious-liberty-after-dobbs-2023-maxine-and-jonathan-marshall-speaker-tickets-487313988257

Religious Liberty after Dobbs - 2023 Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Speaker What does freedom of religion and freedom of conscience look like in a post-Roe world? Join us for a talk about these and other questions.

ASU Webinar, January 26, Noon.
“Let There Be Light”: Religion and the Birth of Modern Science.
https://asu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OlKCqBn2QJeh6TPJA-SxYQ

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: CORES2023: “Let There Be Light”: Religion and the Birth of Modern Science. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Did key ideas in religious thought ultimately prove critical to the birth of science? Could recognizing the religious roots of modern science promote better engagement of religion and science today? With perspectives from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, our panel of distinguished experts—from th...

The ASU Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict has excellent programs scheduled this Fall. Check out these links.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-religion-and-conflict-tickets-487282614417
https://asu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OlKCqBn2QJeh6TPJA-SxYQ

The Future of Religion and Conflict What have we learned about religion and conflict over the last two decades? And what does the future hold?

A new 4 week online course from Homebrewed Christianity: Experiencing God, a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We'll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, spiritual technologies, and more.
https://theonlygodordainedsurvey.com/expgodpage/

Experiencing God: an online exploration of the ultimate mystery An open online class bringing together scholars across disciplines and our most significant questions about encountering the divine.

LtQ2 webinar with co-creator Rev. David Felten kicks off October 20th. More info and Registration links at www.livingthequestions.com

Roger Woolsey gives some hopeful statistics about changes in Christianitypp op in Progressing Spirit.

https://mailchi.mp/b0c4615c5ab1/the-jig-is-up?e=927a88c566

The Jig Is Up The 1960s and ’70s were a time of great social change in the United States. Racial desegregation was officially ended. The Civil and Voting Rights Acts were passed. The two major political parties switched platforms and agendas. Women’s Liberation and Gay Pride were on the rise and a sexual revo...

Thursday, October 13. ASU Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict.

Power in the Blood: How White Christian Nationalism Threatens Democracy | Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict For many, the shocking events on Jan. 6, 2021 were rendered even more shocking by the pervasive Christian images at the scene: impromptu worship sessions, wooden crosses, Christian flags, and a prayer in Jesus' name in the Senate Chamber. But the white Christian nationalism on display at the Capitol...

Dayspring United Methodist Church in Tempe is hosting Judith Butler’s Faith in Democracy Tour addressing Toxic White Christian Nationalism.

https://fpl.actionkit.com/mailings/view/10698?akid=10698.11202.oh_l57&c0=10698.pjXt_L&rd=

Arizona Faith in Democracy Tour None

Open in browser

Do Nations Have Souls?
We take might take the answer for granted, but we need a new vision of the question.

Diana Butler Bass
Sep 2

Comment
Share
If you haven’t read or listened to President Biden’s speech last night (September 1) about the “battle” for the nation’s soul, I strongly encourage you to do so. Biden is not and never has been an orator, but he’s a man who speaks from his heart. You could hear how much these twenty-four minutes of reflecting on the current state of American society and politics meant to him. It was, in some ways, an old-fashioned sort of civil religion address. He appealed to enduring American ideals including equality, liberty, and the image of the nation being “a city set upon a hill.”

PHILADELPHIA, PA - SEPT 01: President Joe Biden delivers a speech at Independence National Historical Park on “the continued battle for the Soul of the Nation.” (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
But the context was stark — and quite unlike presidential remarks I’ve ever studied or heard — that we are under a grave threat of domestic violence, and are roiled by division that could literally destroy American democracy. Thus, the speech is a moving admixture of unnerving worry and oddly optimistic hope for a better future.

The remarks were titled, “The Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation.” While some — especially the Republican critics on FOX news — may hone in on the word “battle” as being divisive, the word “soul” draws my attention. Soul is a distinctly philosophical and religious term, the notion that some part of us is spiritual and immaterial, something that includes our hearts and character, that is both deep within us but lasts beyond us.

Most (but not all) people accept the idea that human beings — as individuals — have a soul. But do nations have souls?

When we hear the word “soul,” we typically think of individuals having a soul — as a kind of quality implanted in us even before birth, generally understood as a connection with God, the divine, or the spirit as having existence beyond bodily life. Because of this, some souls were special or set apart, “chosen” for particular roles or work, gifted by the gods for an eternal purpose, one that is, in effect, “immortal.” When we’re born, our bodies house the soul. Death separates body from soul, and notions of life after death often include some hope of reunification or resurrection where the two will be united again. These ideas developed in the ancient world, especially influenced by religious conceptions in Egypt, Greece, and Rome — and continue on to today, carried into the modern world by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic modifications of them.

Other ancients saw things differently. Everything — people, animals, plants, non-biological entities, places — had animating spirits, a kind of power that can be accessed and manifested by individuals, in tribes, and through rituals. In effect, soulfulness — the spiritual power of life, for good or evil — was everywhere in all things, traces of the gods and their gifts for a people who inhabited a particular land. It wasn’t an individual quality, it was simply part of the way things were. In this view, body and soul couldn’t really be separated. Your body was born into an ensouled world. In that context, people learned to read the land, discern the signifiers of spirit within and without, and flourished insofar as these spirits were in harmony.

What does “soul” mean in American history?

* * * * *

When American presidents speak of the “soul of a nation,” they are typically appealing to the idea of soul from the classical world passed down to us through Christianity. American rhetoric is filled with the notion that this political entity has a soul — of being a chosen nation, a New Israel, and a “city set upon a hill.” All of these images of soul imply that somehow, before the United States was a political identity, America was conceived by God, knit in the womb of divine providence, born in the fullness of time. Not just individual Americans, but the nation itself was implanted with a soul — a sacred mission and a spiritual role to play in the world’s destiny.

If you understand American soulfulness in the classical-Christian way, it is easy to get into trouble. A divinely-sanctioned America becomes, as G.K. Chesterton once averred, “a nation with the soul of a church.” That is dangerous because churches often have a very difficult time discerning God’s purposes from human ones. To believe a political community is also a religious body is one of the most egregious mistakes of western history — to claim whatever the nation does is God’s will and that God’s will is whatever a nation does. It can be difficult for a political body to admit that it has failed at its divine purpose, having failed God. And yet, since its beginning, the language of “American soul” has somehow been with us.

The classical-Christian notion of a national soul has two major forms in the United States. The first is that America is a Christian nation (or, in a more recent iteration, a “Judeo-Christian” one). America’s soul is a specifically, purposely, and divinely designed Christian one, based in the teachings of scripture and fidelity to Jesus. To depart from this is to anger God, and the nation must continually return to its singular identity as Christian to fulfill its destiny.

The second form of American soul also involved notions of being specially formed and called. But that formation and calling came not through biblical scripture but by a “sacred” constitution of political documents written by a generation of “inspired” founders. A vaguely divine presence was somehow at work in this, and the Bible served as a kind of assumed moral text, but soulfulness was primarily articulated in an Enlightenment creed of equality, liberty, freedom, and justice — and crafted by human hands. When America fails to live up to this, the nation doesn’t incur God’s wrath. Rather, America can fail faithful generations past — and the possibility of such failure — shame, really — can rouse those in the present to defend the nation’s sacred ideals.

Thus, the American “soul” is shaped by both classical and Christian ideas, creating a kind of mutually-informed understanding of American identity. Although one definition leaned more specifically into the Christian conception of soul, and the other more toward its classical influences, the tensions between the two only occasionally resulted in rhetorical or political conflict. Many Americans found meaning in this blended civil expression of national soulfulness. Even those who were excluded by race and gender appealed to the ideal of the national soul — usually to point out that America had betrayed both its Christian and secular creeds.

But the classical-Christian soul narrative didn’t hold. And that’s a big part of the problem right now. In the late twentieth-century, white evangelical Christians were unhappy with the classical parts of this synthesis and rejected it. They launched a project to rewrite American history claiming that the founders were orthodox Christians and that the nation was specifically chosen by God for a divine mission to the ends of the earth.

At the same time, the United States was becoming more religiously diverse — and contemporary philosophers less enamored of the Enlightenment. Thus, the Christian notions of American soulfulness seemed too exclusive for a pluralistic democracy. The very idea of a “civil religion” came increasingly under fire, and that cynicism combined with an academic project to deconstruct concepts like equality, liberty, and justice. By the early twenty-first century, the classical part of the American “soul” was nearly undone. The tradition was revived by President Obama in a spiritually and racially inclusive way that included recognition of national failures — but its complexities and nuance were too hard for some Americans to hear.

All of this left the notion of an American soul in rhetorical shreds. One half of the old synthesis mutated into a full-on white Christian nationalism; the other part has transformed into a more pluralistic and self-reflective notion of national identity that is currently under fire as “socialist.”

The American soul might not be at war. But it certainly is divided. And that’s the some of what is behind Biden’s call to battle.

* * * * *

All of this takes me back to that alternative conception of the soul. Perhaps the classically informed Christian “soul” was always the wrong way to approach the question of whether nations have souls. It seems that the other vision is more on target:

Soulfulness — the spiritual power of life, for good or evil — was everywhere in all things, traces of the gods and their gifts for a people who inhabited a particular land. It wasn’t an individual quality, it was simply part of the way things were. In this view, body and soul couldn’t really be separated. Your body was born into an ensouled world. In that context, people learned to read the land, discern the signifiers of spirit within and without, and flourished insofar as these spirits were in harmony.

I recently spent two weeks at Ring Lake Ranch, a retreat in a valley in the Wind River Mountains, outside of the small town of Dubois, Wyoming. One day, while I was in town, a store owner said to me, “Oh! Ring Lake Ranch! That place has such an amazing spirit. You can feel it.”

Yes, it does. And yes, you can. Ring Lake has a soul. It has for a very long time. Thousands of years ago, indigenous men from the tribe known as the Sheep Eaters came to the shores of the lake on vision quests and recorded their spiritual journeys in petroglyphs they carved on the rocks.

As you hike around the ranch and its surroundings, you can feel that something calls, it hangs in the thin, clear air, and the the rocks themselves seem to cry out. It is a world inhabited by meaning, where everything speaks. The main job of the visitor is to enter the landscape and listen.

What if the American soul isn’t something we defend or battle?

What if soul isn’t something that we possess but something that possesses us?

Maybe souls don’t dwell in bodies but bodies dwell in an environment of soul.

Could it be that American soul is in the rocks, carried by winds, rivers, and streams, scattered across the sky in the stars? Our spirit is in the laughter of children and the questions of searching adults? America’s soul is a landscape of geography and history, of how good and bad choices mysteriously shape us, of connections through time that we rarely acknowledge. Perhaps soul is just here, it always has been. Everywhere. Before us, after us. Waiting for us to hear and see it, to understand the sacred all around — to envision how we should live, gather, steward, and care in relation to the soulful universe in which we dwell.

The Bible does have stories of being chosen — of individual souls and the souls of nations. But it also tells this other story as well — that God creates all, dwells in and with all, and everything dwells in God. In effect, everything is chosen, everything is soulful, everything bears the imprint of the divine, and the holiness of spirit gives life to all.

Perhaps it is time to end — not continue — the battle for the American soul. Instead, it is time to envision the shared soulfulness we inhabit. Maybe we’ve been warring with the alternative possibility — misunderstanding soul as somehow special for only certain people and nations — and that battle is the source of our deepest sadness and most profound divisions.

Instead of continuing the battle for the nation’s soul, let’s embark on a new vision quest. Together.

INSPIRATION

In our finest hours...the soul of the country manifests itself in an inclination to open our arms rather than to clench our fists; to look out rather than to turn inward; to accept rather than to reject. In so doing, America has grown ever stronger, confident that the choice of light over dark is the means by which we pursue progress.
― Jon Meacham

One ever feels his twoness — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
― W.E.B. DuBois

An excellent history of Fundamentalism and why Fosdick had reason to ask “Will the Fundamentalists Win?” Do you think they have won?

https://mailchi.mp/58bffe391d54/shall-the-fundamentalists-win-at-100?e=927a88c566

“Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” at 100 When I first read Harry Emerson Fosdick’s Shall the Fundamentalists Win?, it changed my life. In disbelief, I read portions of it over and over again and looked at the date. I read it AGAIN and thought, “What?” How in the world could he have preached this in 1922 and it STILL be controversial....

Catalyst Arizona co-founder David Felten continues his monthlong series deconstructing the "Fundamentals" still being clung to by evangelical, conservative, and many mainline Christians — even after Harry Emerson Fosdick rang the alarm over the dangers of Fundamentalism 100 years ago!

Our retrospective on the 100th anniversary of Harry Emerson Fosdick's “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” continues this month with The Case Against Virgin Birth & The Case Against Biblical Inerrancy already posted here on FaceBook and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FountainsUMC/videos. The Case Against Substitutionary Atonement and The Second Coming will be posted in the coming weeks!

If you want to know more about Process Theology, this would be an excellent was to do it!

Christianity in Process: Joining God in World Solidarity Everyone will be invited to join the private online group to connect with other nerds and have access to everything in Audio/Video on the class resource page

Shall the Fundamentalists Win? A Century After the Question: They Have.

Melvin Rogers' lecture at the ASU Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict was a meaningful , challenging reflection on SOUL. Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TKslrYaV4c

The Soul as the Seat of Aspiration: A Philosophical-Historical Approach Melvin Rogers (PhD, Yale), this year's Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Speaker on Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. An associate professor and ...

Jesus De/Constructed Everyone will be invited to join the private online group to connect with other nerds and have access to everything in Audio/Video on the class resource page

The Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty and the Freedom From Religion Foundation come together for a webinar and report on Christian Nationalism.

https://religiondispatches.org/new-report-on-white-christian-nationalism-and-the-j6-insurrection-shows-just-how-dire-the-threat-is/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-report-on-white-christian-nationalism-and-the-j6-insurrection-shows-just-how-dire-the-threat-is&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-report-on-white-christian-nationalism-and-the-j6-insurrection-shows-just-how-dire-the-threat-is

New Report on (White) Christian Nationalism and the J6 Insurrection Shows Just 'How Dire the Threat is' Readers who follow my work will be aware of my conviction that neither the press, nor the American public generally, is taking the serious threat to democracy and human rights posed by the Christian Right seriously enough. It’s a concern I share with Andrew Seidel, a constitutional lawyer and the ...

A Christian perspective on CRT from Serene Jones , the President of Union Theological Seminary in NYC. She will speaking at ASU on March 31st. Watch for more information.

The Bible Talks About Slavery. So Why Are Conservative Christians So Afraid of Critical Race Theory? Republican legislators nationwide are waging a fierce battle to prevent educators from teaching critical race theory—and they’re being helped by conservative Christian leaders willing to intentionally misrepresent their faith for political gain. Take the Conservative Baptist Network, a major par...

Thursday, December 9th, 4:00--5:15 PM MST. Online panel discussion at ASU on "Religion, Civil Liberties and a Culture of Surveillance."

https://asuevents.asu.edu/content/what-happened-here-not-right-religion-civil-liberties-and-cultures-surveillance-911?eventDate=2021-12-09T16%3A00&mc_cid=2b34b0806d&mc_eid=cfa240acac

'What Happened Here Is Not Right': Religion, Civil Liberties and Cultures of Surveillance Since 9/11 Adama was a 16-year-old immigrant from Guinea in 2005 when police officers and federal agents rushed into her family’s apartment in Harlem and arrested her. She was sent to a maximum-security juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania, where she was strip-searched. Adama was released six weeks late...

From the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at ASU, a panel with Antonio Damasio, Anya Bernstein and Patricia Williams.
https://news.asu.edu/20211021-asu-event-address-human-dignity-and-technoscience?mc_cid=571751ece4&mc_eid=cfa240acac

ASU event to address human dignity and technoscience ASU event to address human dignity and technoscience Oct. 27 expert panel to explore how changing conceptions of the human — driven by science and technology — impact our flourishing, now and in the future October 21, 2021 Intersecting crises — the coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice and en...

Oh GOD, What NOW: Christianity 20 Years After 9/11
with Brian McLaren, Diana Butler Bass and Tripp Fuller.
September 2021
After 20 years of change and struggle, where is Christianity going?
https://homebrewedchristianity.lpages.co/911class/

Christianity 20 Years After 9/11 Everyone will be invited to join the private online group to connect with other members and have access to everything in Audio/Video on the class resource page