Index of Articles

Watershed Spirituality

We can't help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water. Milk drinkers draw close to the mother. Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, shamans, everyone hears the intelligent sound and moves with thirst to meet it. - Jeladuddin Rumi (1207-1273) The Image Unveiled James Hillman, the founder of Archetypal Psychology, has become convinced that individual and corporate spiritual growth is made through the meditation on images. The image of what I refer to as Watershed Spirituality comes from the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. It has to do with rejuvenating waters which make stagnant things fresh, have healing properties, and perpetuate life

Word Count:

3459

3603 min read
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Weakness Made Strong A Lost Anatolian Letter (a fictional account)

Our short but well-preserved letter from Thyatira isn't a find of the Nag's notability but it does contribute to understanding what some members of the community in Thyatira felt about John's jolting letter of admonition. This recently discovered response to Elder John was found by Ian Hodder, a lucky and meticulous Anotolian archeologist, to the now cold forge in the ruins of the Thyatiran Bronzeworker's Association in 2006. Along with the copy was Decius Gallio Gallipor's request to be excused from the upcoming Minerva's Guild Festival on March 15 for religious reasons. Decius

Word Count:

2550

2600 min read
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What Genre of Best Describes the Frankenstein Tale?

GOTHIC: TALES OF macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, usually set amid haunted castles, graveyards, ruins and wild picturesque landscapes. They reached the height of their considerable fashion in the 1790's and the early years of the 19th century (Oxford Companion to English , p. 405-06). Undoubtedly, there are Gothic elements to Mary Shelley's novel. She was familiar with the classics of Gothicism: Mrs. Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), M.G. Lewis's The Monk (1796) and William Beckford'sVathek (1786). In common with these Gothic tales, Frankenstein made use of the correspondence between theme, character and setting. One of the chief elements in

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828

854 min read
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What is the Cental Theme of Frankenstein?

Mary Shelley's work is symbolic. Symbols are meant to be explored with ever increasing depth rather than simply defined. What you envision as the central theme of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus will likely be governed by the interpretive lens you view the novel with rather than some unquestionable meaning revealed by the text itself. Instead of advocating any one theme, I would suggest that you explore your critical and imaginative abilities so that you can see the text in a multitude of ways. In this manner you will be attempting to see the most it can mean

Word Count:

3763

3923 min read
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What Source Influence Mary Shelley in Crafting her Tale?

When the floodgates of the creative unconsciousness finally opened, the never stagnant sources that inspired Frankenstein were readily available to Mary Shelley. In addition to other passions Percy and Mary were voracious readers. Radu Florescu, author of In of Frankenstein, estimates that the couple may have read as much as sixteen hours on a good day during their romp through Europe. Reading, romping and remembering provided the seed bed from which grew a classic. As with the night vision that provoked the tale, the sources she used were not consciously selected. Each contributing resource made its way into the novel

Word Count:

1481

1531 min read
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What’s In A Name: An Emerging Spiritual Discipline

Several years ago a group of us interested in photography started to meet to learn the craft better. Sometimes we reviewed technical stuff (what's a f-stop anyways?). Sometimes we would collaborate on taking pictures for our website edition. We playfully called ourselve the Photo B----s as a way not to take ourselves too seriously. But over time we started noticing that taking pictures and reflecting on our lives through the lens of a Christ-informed spirituality went together. Maybe it was time for a name to reflect this shift of emphasis. Perhaps a name like Watershed Ikonography

Word Count:

613

630 min read
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When The Teacher Comes

FACING OURSELVES HONESTLY is a bitter pill to swallow; we hope it is also good medicine. At the end of our rope, a guide or mentor can be just what is needed to move from self-pity to wholeness. If we can learn to trust. Dante fears that the bitter but gracious truths he had learned about himself will die with him, leaving no opportunity to be translated into life. He is ready for a teacher, but the Teacher has not come. Paul Patterson continues to channel Dante's imagination through the part of The Divine Comedy. In the twilight

Word Count:

2799

2781 min read
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Who Am I?

As is my obsession, I read enormous selections, and some whole treatments of who Jesus could possibly be culturally, theologically and historically. There were loads of interesting but mostly disappointingly partial treatments. Nothing gave me anything like the assurance I needed to take the step toward saying who Jesus is for me.

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3104

3104 min read
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Who Do You Say I Am

"WHAT ARE THEY saying about me? What do you think about me?" Everybody has asked these questions but when Jesus of Nazareth posed them to his friends at Caesarea-Philippi, an ancient Roman cosmopolitan city on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, he started a discussion that continues to baffle, enrage and inspire people two millennia later. I have always wondered if these were real or trick questions. Was Jesus cornering Peter into giving the right dogmatic answer, later to be included in sacred writings, or was this an open question addressed to all people? I don't want

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4134

4134 min read
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Who Was Mary Shelley?

GIVEN HER FAMILY legacy, it seemed inevitable that Mary Shelley was to make a significant contribution to . Both her parents were influential authors and propagandists for their respective causes of feminism and radical liberalism. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a leader in the early feminist movement and wrote a classic entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), still read in women's studies classes today. Mary's father, William Godwin, published a political treatise entitled Enquiry Concerning Political Justice in 1793. His goal was to translate the insights of the French Enlightenment into an English context. Mary

Word Count:

1481

1518 min read
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