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11.19.09
Thinking of My Past Education and of Those to Come
"I've seen a helpful reference to our evolving understanding of the prefrontal cortex as "the science of attention." This is a wonderful and evocative phrase. Filled with everything I've learned from Adele Diamond, it gives me a whole new category for thinking about one of my favorite subjects — the organic interplay between scientific inquiry and spiritual inquiry …"
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11.13.09
Compassion Is a Skill to Be Developed
"I certainly found myself identifying with Ricard's descriptions, in his own writing, of his youthful, worldly-wise dismissal of 'happiness' as a goal. I too was dismissive, well into adulthood, of the very word "happiness" and its overwhelming associations with the dream-come-true state that ends movies, for example, or the happiness as 'having it all' American way."
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11.05.09
On Being an "Amateur" Theologian
"After my conversation with Karen Armstrong, I felt that her personal trajectory of faith strengthens her personal appeal for modern readers. She is a formidable intellectual, but as a theologian she calls herself an amateur, in the full sense of the Latin root of that word 'amateur' — 'a lover' of her subject."
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10.29.09
When Nature's Tools Provide the Answers
"Hearing Doris Taylor speak a few months ago was a revelation. I knew I had found our way in to this topic. When it comes to stem cells — as to everything else in life, it turns out — the truth is complicated. And much of the story of stem cells — the big picture that arguments have obscured — falls outside the realm of the most passionately contested issues."
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10.22.09
On the Role of Creeds in Modern Society
"Jaroslav Pelikan understood what a difficult thing unchanging creeds can be for modern people. He knew as well as anyone that historically creeds were employed in part to consolidate power — both of church authority and of Christian empire. But he insisted on capturing a sense of the profound and positive reasons Christianity, alone among the major traditions, seemed to require creeds."
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