After taking some time to relax and vacation this summer, I’m back! I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how I’ve shifted over the last several years, what I want to contribute to others, and what I want this bloggy-thing to be.
One thing that feels critical (for me) is the need for spaces where we can think deeply and talk about the things that matter— including politics— in a way that isn’t aggressively partisan or blindly ideological. Early in the summer, I led a small group through some exercises and ideas for resisting cancel culture. Like most experiments, some of it worked, and some of it didn’t, but what was really clear to me is how much we need to reconnect as humans outside of our ideological boxes and learn to re-engage in the thorny issues that plague our common life with wisdom and humanity.
The other thing that is becoming increasingly important for me, personally, is to center my work around my own Christianity. I truly am respectful and a lover of many spiritual traditions. I’ve learned a lot from Buddhist meditation, yoga, neopaganism, various indigenous practitioners, Sufis, etc. But in the end, they’ve always brought me back to my own faith and given me a more appreciative perspective. I’ve resisted explicitly labeling my work as Christian, preferring the vague-er “spiritual,” but something of late has been turning me toward staking my claim to that ground more clearly. It’s a call, I suppose.
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So to that end, I’ll be changing the tagline and description of this ‘stack. I don’t imaging my content will change a whole lot, though I might feel more free to write explicitly about Christian spirituality.
The other thing is that I’m launching a community on the Circle app to create more intentional connections. I hate using the word community for this, because I don’t think online “communities” can replace the value of embodied, IRL ones rooted in place. But in a world where so much of our life is now dictated by this pixellated netherworld we call the internet, they have a function. One of the things I hope I can create is a virtual space where we can learn from one another and feel supported in re-engaging real, embodied relationships, communities and places.
This newsletter, and the name of the community, will still be The Unfolding, but I’m now calling it “Christianity beyond borders.”
Who is this for?
Christianity beyond borders, not without borders. Just as a river cuts a clear channel and course on its way to the sea, we need borders and boundaries for containment. We need to know the difference between solid ground and flowing water.
And yet, there are times we need to go beyond those boundaries. Rivers need to flood and flow over their banks from time to time to renew and re-fertilize the soil.
The Unfolding community is a place for those who have some kind of claim to the way of Christ, whether by birth and tradition, culture, conversion, or conviction to connect, convene and co-create, look beyond the borders of their own ideology, theology, praxis, and identification, and return home with deeper wisdom and understanding.
My hope is that in this community we are working toward a Christianity that is:
-broader and deeper than our current political and ideological polarizations.
-values tradition as well as new discovery and understanding
-Grounded in Christ yet willing to integrate wisdom and learning from other spiritual paths
-Believes in a truth that can be revealed and understood, yet cultivates humility about our own perceptions and generosity towards those of others
-Understands that while as humans we must say yes to some people and things and no to others, works toward an ultimate reconciliation of all creation that occurs in the fullness of time
What will be on offer?
First up, we’ll have an introductory meeting on Tuesday, September 19th at 7 pm. This will be an orientation to the space and meet and greet. I’ll be posting daily prompts for reflection to get us pondering, chatting, and relating to one another.
Starting in October, we’ll have a weekly book study on the 12 steps using Richard Rohr’s book Breathing Under Water, with a focus on recovering from attachments to ideological rigidity (whether left or right), mimetic rivalry, fear of speaking out, and all the things that go along with cancel culture. A sort of “Ideologues Anonymous.” That will last for 3 months. I’m not sure where it will go from there, but my hope is that we might come up with a weekly format that allows us to develop this further.
We’ll have monthly zoom sessions on various topics. In October, the topic will be prayer, and how to develop a prayer practice that is actually useful. There will be discussion boards— a place for people to share ideas and talk about things that they might not feel free to do on social media.
What else? In the future, I’d like to do a quarterly book club and have guest speakers.
This group will be small at first, but hopefully enough people resonate with this vision that we continue to grow.
Unfortunately, Substack does not make it easy to integrate Substack memberships with other apps, and the Substack platform doesn’t have the features I need to do all the things I want to do. So this will be a separate membership, at $10/mo, billed on the Circle platform. If you’re already a paying subscriber here at Substack, I’ll be sending you a separate email with your own deal.
I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor!
You can sign up here.
(don’t use that link if you are one of my paid subscribers. You’ll get your own in a separate email).
very interested to keep up with the ongoing discussion about Christianity! i'm hoping to do a series of essays for Rhyd about my own exploration of the Christian mythos, which will probably be a bit wilder than what you're discussing here. seems like there's a bit of a renaissance going on at the moment. exciting stuff!
I love this. Your spiritual attitude reminds me of the late Catholic theologian John S Dunne (1929-2013). John was both prolific and original. His work is rarely written about because it happened outside the traditional boundaries. He described his method as "passing over" and "coming back". He would pass over with desire, curiosity, and humility to another very different perspective than his own.. Then he would come back to his own tradition and, like every traveler see what used to be familiar with new eyes.