ramadan, lent

I went into my favorite spot for Lebanese food this evening, picked up some maza and falafel to go. Tomorrow starts Ramadan, shopkeep said, so there'll be a special evening menu throughout the month. We chatted for a bit. His mom is Muslim, his dad Christian. He fasts for Ramadan and Lent. I feel such affection for Islam during Ramadan. May we all break our fasts together one day, En'shallah.

Some Ramadan blogs:
http://ramadankareem.blogspot.com/
http://thehijablog.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/ramadan-kareem/
http://jewaira.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/ramadan-blessings/
http://www.maryams.net/dervish/2008/08/31/ramadan-mubarak/

this green and pleasant land

http://englishheretic.blogspot.com/2008/06/cult-of-ku.html

'

I was dismayed to read in Dave Evans’ recent book “The History Of British Magick After Crowley” a section in which he doubted the sources of Kenneth Grant’s fascinating discoveries of a form of Oriental black magick known as Ku. The gist of Evans’ argument was that he had contacted the University of Pennsylvania (from where Grant stated the Journal was published) and that they had never heard of the journal that Grant mentions in Hecate’s Fountain . So I decided to do a search myself. The journal and article is referenced at the back of a number of Grant’s books – as attributed to two authors: Shyrock and Feng. After a small amount of ‘googling’, I am delighted to say the article not only exists, but that the secretary of the American Oriental Society was kind enough to furnish me with a pdf of the article. Rather than freely disseminate the pdf, which would be doing a disservice to the AOS, I would suggest anybody with a real interest in obtaining a copy can email me and I'll provide details on how to obtain the journal article.'

Borg: a way, the way

Christianity as "a way": Marcus Borg (via apprising). "The cross is both personal and political."

Song of Songs

Text analysis homonculi of poetry is at fleshmap.com.
Here is The Song of Songs.

It's not all just sex, but it is mighty sensual.

heidi montag: kinda baptist

Tuesday, Jul. 01, 2008

Jesus was persecuted, and I'm going to get persecuted, ya know?

• HEIDI MONTAG,
• The Hills star, who describes herself as "kind of nondenominational Baptist"

Photo: Frazer Harrison / Getty | Source: AP

obama dobson 2

James Dobson and Barack Obama on political efforts, religious efforts, and the role of politics in religion, and the role of religion in politics:

Street Prophets: Confused Theology?

CNN: Distorting the Bible?

And doesn't Dobson's claims of distortion hinge on dispensationalism? I think Obama has higher theological ground here because he's saying "honestly, let's take the Bible as a whole seriously, then let's figure out how to conduct ourselves publicly, plurally." Dobson's position is necessarily more weak, because he must at once defend the passages in the Torah which condemn homosexuality, but he then must say that taking the other legalistic passages as seriously as Obama suggests we must is bad form. Dobson's position is clearly the more confused of the two.

However, this is not a theological argument. This is a debate about faith and secular democracy. Obama, by admitting to the tough parts of Leviticus then talking about how best to navigate our way faithfully through modern American life shows himself in a much stronger position than the Dobson camp would like. They're scared of Obama because Obama is right and they are wrong.

The cracks are showing in the old quid pro quo between the religious right and the economic and constitutional conservatives.

infinitude

Reading this at Songs of Unforgetting:

The Infinite

An infinite that excludes the finite is not truly infinite; it is limited by that which still lies outside of it. The “truly infinite” (das wahrhaft Unendliche) is that infinite which includes all finites within it, for it alone is limited by nothing whatsoever outside itself.

Philip Clayton

Tags: god, infinite, panentheism, Philip Clayton, quotes

Makes me wonder about old James Carse, about Finite and Infinite Games, and if finite games can exist within infinite games... if memory's working, I think Carse covers that and posits they can and do (a timed game of chess within a infinite game of simulated city building, for example?).

That's a good book. That needs more play, theological and otherwise.

Here's Carse talking about religion (skip to the 5 minute mark) at the Long Now Foundation: