To God, Who Gives Joy to Our Youth
For Reverend Raphael Barousse, OSBFather Raph - Uncle Bubby - on His Birthday Introibo ad altare DeiAd Deum qui laetificat juvenitutem meam You look into the mirror and ask yourself“Who is that old man staring…
Tag: Religion & Spirituality
A Christian Response to a Dawah Pamphlet
The following is a rather lengthy response I made to a Muslim friend who sent what I believe was an online pamphlet of sorts from a Dawah site, comparing Christian and Muslim beliefs, and I…
A Theology of Gender: Julian of Norwich and the Image of God
Gender is a big topic in general, and there has been lots of discussion about how we should approach it from a Christian perspective. You can’t separate two things which weren’t already joined. As a…
Sanad: The Importance of the Prophets in Islamic Tradition
The old French word for ‘tradition’ is tradicion which directly translates to transmission. Scholars of Islamic traditions have stated that in fact, the secret of Islam within the Muhammadan community lies in the chain of…
Good News: The Strange Starkness of the Gospel of Mark
I have just read through the Gospel of Mark for my Lenten preparation, and the starkness of it is really quite haunting, and sometimes jarring. I feel like it’s the gospel where Jesus comes across…
Exaltation
We Christians are condemned Ever to be crucified. It is our binding and our breaking. It is our only hope and home. It is our only exaltation. There, upon the tree, We must be mocked…
Divine Arrows: A Quranic Reflection
Among my all-time favourite sections of the Quran is chapter 64, Surah At-Taghabun – its title meaning ‘loss/deprivation’ in English. I resort to reading that beautiful chapter whenever distress engulfs me and when I notice…
God’s Good Chaos: A Reflection on the Problem of Evil
The problem of Evil is one of most staggering dilemmas for the human mind. If we define it as such, then we acknowledge a spiritual component, and yet if we do that, we also acknowledge…
Abraham’s Sacrifice: Reflections from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
In the past, I’ve had some interesting conversations about the controversial story of Abraham/Ibrahim being asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son, which appears (with the variation of Isaac or Ishmael) in both the…
The Problem of Pain in a Time of Pandemic
With the rapid spread of Covid-19 shutting down a good chunk of world affairs and affecting the lives of people around the globe, the topic of God and his role in “natural evil” comes back…