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“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

(This quote is actually from environmental scientist David Orr’s book Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World.)

To err is human

what is truth?

“To err is human” – many people (of faith) are hardly aware how much they lean towards this human quality when they understand themselves as lifelong spiritual seekers on a path. Among Quakers, the idea of the “absolute perhaps” became established. It is expression for continuous divine revelation and the consequence thereof that we, as humans, can never exactly or definitely know, where truth lies – since God will eventually reveal us more. As it happened for millennia since biblical times.

Continuous revelation as a theological principle is being used today too often as justification for self-indulgent arbitrariness. Continue reading “To err is human”

Irren ist menschlich

what is truth?Irren ist menschlich” – viele (gläubige) Leute sind sich heute wohl kaum bewusst, dass sie sich kräftig dieser menschlichen Qualität zuwenden, wenn sie sich als lebenslange spirituelle Sucher auf dem Weg verstehen. Bei den Quäkern hat sich eine Vorstellung des “absoluten Vielleicht” eingebürgert. Es ist ein Ausdruck dafür, dass sich Gott fortwährend offenbart und dass wir als Menschen nie genau oder abschliessend wissen können, wo die Wahrheit liegt – denn Gott wird uns noch mehr offenbaren. So wie dies über Jahrtausende seit der biblischen Zeit geschehen ist.

Diese theologische Grundhaltung der fortwährenden Offenbarung wird heute allzu oft als Legitimation für Beliebigkeit gebraucht. Continue reading “Irren ist menschlich”

The calendar says, let’s start again (+de)

Let us figure out how it works to play peacefully
Let us figure out how it works to play peacefully

In the universe’s infinite wisdom, we have so many chances to start anew. During the past week, I had the opportunity to get down to the floor, to pick up the little toys and enjoy the excitement of learning processes together with the toddlers. What is simple about the complexity of a four-wheeled cart, a wooden tower of tracks with holes, gravity, friction, direction, and interfering hands of a cousin? These are all learning opportunities for interaction, relational practice, personal development, and exploring the world around us. Continue reading “The calendar says, let’s start again (+de)”