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Renowned architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983) was widely recognized for his unique blend of philosophical fringe-thinking, which combined a love for science with a mystical vision of life and the universe. Fuller once pointed out that legendary scientists like Galileo and Kepler had been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church as "heretics" for abandoning the idea of an anthropomorphic God (i.e....

Saint Thomas Aquinas can certainly be considered among the Progressive Christians of his era, and is admired for the manner in which he attempted to synthesize the philosophy and ideas of Aristotle with the principles of Christianity. Thomas Aquinas also wrote on a wide variety of subjects involving psychology and the human spirit, including the goal of the artist, stating that the test of...

C. S. Lewis (1898 — 1963) was a novelist, poet, and academic, who is well known for his work The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis also wrote extensively on topics related Christianity, including miracles and the problem of pain---the most famous work in this genre being The Screwtape Letters. Baptized in the Church of Ireland, Lewis fell away from his faith in his teens. However,...

We have already shared the esoteric meaning of the Lord's Prayer by Rudolf Steiner, but there are other writers who also have written esoteric interpretations of the Lord's Prayer. One of the most notable is the metaphysical commentary written by P. D. Ouspensky in the early part of the 20th century. The following esoteric interpretation of the Lord's Prayer is from Ouspensky's work The...

We previously have shared some orthodox interpretations of the Lord's Prayer, such as those from John Wesley, Charles Kingsley, and Helmut Thielicke, so as to highlight the differences between their traditional commentary and the Living Hour's more metaphysical approach. While our book The Lord's Prayer for Daily Life is viewed by some as being a little esoteric, it is not so esoteric as the...

As we mentioned in our post on Benjamin Franklin's religious beliefs, the Living Hour considers Franklin to be among the early progressive Christians of the United States, along with other Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson (who wrote the Jefferson Bible) and Thomas Paine. One of our favorite inspirational quotes from Franklin is: "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement,...

The old saying "there is nothing common about common sense" has never rung so true as it does today. We live in a course and relativist age where the noble drive for fairness and balance has been misdirected toward conflating opinions with facts, and where common sense lies buried beneath a rubble of "truthiness". That being the case, it might be a good...

The writer and wandering traveler Isabelle Eberhardt was an extraordinary woman. The remains of her book Dans l'Ombre Chaude de l'Islam - In the Hot Shade of Islam (salvaged from a flash flood that killed the young author) was once called "one of the strangest human documents that a woman has given to the world." In her early twenties, Eberhardt wrote the following: Vagrancy...

In Fyodor Dostoevsky's parable of The Grand Inquisitor, Jesus reappears on Earth during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Although the crowds adore him, he is promptly thrown in prison and sentenced to death. While in his cell, Jesus is visited by the Grand Inquisitor who says that he must kill him, even though he knows that he is truly Jesus Christ. The...

When Progressive Christians look toward their lineage, few find sympathy with the old Calvinists of 18th century New England. Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is one of the last things we equate with the tenants of Progressive Christianity. And yet Jonathan Edwards, like all of us, is a complicated individual. While going off the rails at times...

Jesus tells us we cannot enter the kingdom of God unless we are born of both water and spirit (("In truth I tell you," exclaimed Jesus, "unless you are reborn, you cannot see the kingdom of God." "How can someone," asked Nicodemus, "be born when they are old? Can we be born a second time?" "In truth I tell you," answered Jesus, "unless...

The 20th century Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a remarkable figure in that he was both a highly trained scientist and defender of the Christian faith---someone who realized that the entire structure of Christ's mythology had to be reworked to fit new scientific discoveries. Having forged that new structure through the crucible of his own experiences and knowledge, he not only...

Some days later, when Jesus came back to Capernaum, the news spread that he was in a house there; 2 And so many people collected together, that after a while there was no room for them even round the door; and he began to tell them his message. 3 And some people came bringing to him a paralyzed man, who was being carried...

On leaving that place, Jesus, followed by his disciples, went to his own part of the country. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue; and the people, as they listened, were deeply impressed. "Where did he get this?" they said, "and what is this wisdom that has been given him? and these miracles which he is doing? 3...

One day the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered round Jesus. 2 They had noticed that some of his disciples ate their food with their hands 'defiled,' by which they meant unwashed. 3 For the Pharisees, and indeed all strict Jews, will not eat without first scrupulously washing their hands, holding in this to...

About that time, when there was again a great crowd of people who had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him, and said: 2 "My heart is moved at the sight of all these people, for they have already been with me three days and they have nothing to eat; 3 And if I send them away to their homes hungry,...

"I tell you," he added, "that some of those who are standing here will not know death till they have seen the kingdom of God come in power." 2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain alone by themselves. There his appearance was transformed before their eyes, 3 And his clothes became...

On leaving that place, Jesus went into the district of Judea on the other side of the Jordan. Crowds gathered about him again; and again, as usual, he began teaching them. 2 Presently some Pharisees came up and, to test him, asked: "Has a husband the right to divorce his wife?" 3 "What direction did Moses give you?" replied Jesus. 4 "Moses," they...

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