Seeing Reality

In his March 10th video Ted Nottingham discussed the Bible verses, Colossians 1:15-17 KJV

[15] Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: [16] For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [17] And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. …

Often we overlook the phenomenology (understanding how we know or perceive things) that is in Scripture preferring to concentrate on issues like “good and evil” or guilt or how to get to heaven.  These topics are the everyday grist for the great religion mills that dot our landscape but they ignore some very important issues.

In this reading from Colossians authored by the Apostle Paul we are drawn to how we view our world.  Our reality is made in two parts, the visible and the invisible. It is all created by God “by him and for him”, in other words this is God’s universe which we are living in. “Before all things”, He is vested in the fabric of our reality.  

We are not living in a simple machine consisting of whirling electrons and specks of abstract energy.  Rather we are living in a vast construction of God matter of an inconceivable nature. I think Ted Nottingham in his accompanying video is drawing out attention to this miraculous vision of God’s majesty.  Not unlike Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) Nottingham sees the connection between Creation and matter as a spiritual one not a material one.

Learn more in his video

Richard Rohr in the Weeds

At times Richard Rohr writes stunning Christology and powerful prose that strikes to the heart of perennialism.  At other times he wanders into the weeds.

In his March 5 post he first discusses the symbolism of taking Eucharist at the Last Supper and how scandalous this practice was to the Jews.  Rohr writes, “As if eating his body weren’t enough, Jesus pushes us in even further and scarier directions by adding the symbolism of intoxicating wine as he lifts the cup and speaks over all of suffering humanity, ‘This is my blood.’  Jesus then dares to say, ‘Drink me, all of you!’ “

To the Jewish establishment this was utter blasphemy.  

Rohr continues, “During Jesus’ time, contact with blood would typically mean ritual impurity for a Jew. How daring and shocking it was for Jesus to turn the whole tradition of impure blood upside down and make blood holy! And what an affirmation of the divine image within women—whose menstruation was often considered unclean.”

These are important insights regarding the magical initiation practices the Christ Jesus employed to awaken people while exasperating the Jewish establishment.  

However in the next breath he goes off on male initiation ceremonies stretching the metaphor  to American holidays stating, “For example, on July 4 in the United States, we celebrate Independence Day with fireworks and parades to show we’re ‘proud to be an American’ while never acknowledging colonists’ genocide of Indigenous Peoples, the enslavement of Africans, how our over-consumption has contributed to planetary devastation, and other ways our “freedom” has cost others.”

What does his political opinions have to do with male initiation ceremonies?

In a ponderous attempt to save the train of thought he continues, “We are not allowed to note these things without being considered unpatriotic or even rebellious. True sacred ritual is different than mere ceremony because it offers an alternative universe, where the shadow is named and drawn into the light. Sadly, most groups avoid real life-changing and healing rituals—even the church.”

Okay, I get the drift;  somehow America is tainted with a past and that corrupts its ceremonies because they aren’t sacred. History is full of corruption. Take a few minutes to study the Roman Catholic Church then consider throwing stones at America .

I respect Richard Rohr for many things , however, these bizarre leaps in thinking serve only to undercut his theological points and fuel his critics.  He seems to be channeling the discredited “Liberation Theologists” of the 1970’s.

All of us occasionally go a little astray from our main points.  Perhaps this was not one of Fr Rohr’s finest but it shouldn’t detract from his solid Christology.  

More about Richard Rohr:

 www.cac.org

Evangelism through Peace

Ted Nottingham has been researching the Perennial Wisdom for decades.  He has studied in United States and Europe and been involved in several spiritual practices. The Holy Spirit had him working as a pastor in the Disciples of Christ church, studying G. I. Gurdjieff, living with Alphonse and Rachel Goettmann the Christian mystics who ultimately  lead him to the Orthodox path.

Along the way he has created many books and videos that document his path of spiritual study.  

This excerpt from an interview with a 4th Way Gurdjieff group gives us a very good view of Nottingham’s outlook.

“Students who reject any relationship between Fourth Way teachings and spiritual wisdom are generally focused on personal power and elitism. That is a dead end as is clearly demonstrated by the state of being of many such persons.

The Work is not for the elite (the word esoteric means inner not secret), but for anyone who has a sincere desire to reach connected with a deeper part of themselves that opens on to encounter with that which is greater than themselves. Emotional healing and purification, self-transcendence,
conscious effort, awakening from sleep are the birthright of all who "hunger and thirst" for Truth and right action in the world.”

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/sufi/ginterviewo.html

Nottingham gives us a glimpse of how he has put his inner study to practical work in the recently released video Unlocking the Door, which contains the audio portion of a sermon he delivered reveals another side of Nottingham’s powerful grasp of the Scriptures as well as perennialist vision of Christ.

     

He says that in the Gospel of John “...peace I give you and I send you…” revises The

Great Commission of Matthew to go forth and evangelize .  Your personal peace found in an inner relationship with God transforms the world. It is the  mystical “peace that no one [intellectually] understands” or which is beyond ordinary comprehension but is obtainable through spiritual work. It is then passed on by breathing or infusing your peace into others thus beginnings of new Evangelism in the end enlarging salvation to include a living illumination.

Video here:

http://tinyurl.com/y2h3pc7f

Facing the New Rome

On March 2, 2019 Richard Rohr posted this:

“Paul offers a theological and ontological foundation for human dignity and human flourishing that is inherent, universal, and indestructible by any evaluation of race, religion, gender, sexuality, nationality, class, education, or social position. He does this at a time when perhaps four out of five people were slaves, women were considered the property of men, temple prostitution was a form of worship, and oppression and wholesale injustice toward the poor and the outsider were the norm. Into this corrupt and corrupting empire Paul shouts, ‘One and the same Spirit was given to us all to drink!’ (1 Corinthians 12:13). (Then) Paul levels the playing field: ‘You, all of you, are sons and daughters of God, now clothed in Christ, where there is no distinction between male or female, Greek [Pagan] or Jew, slave or free, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:26-28). ‘You are the very temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).’ “

When Rohr writes, “Into this corrupt and corrupting empire Paul shouts…”  Paul by way of our author is talking to us in our time. We are confronted with the great corruption of the Globalist world atheist order that is forcing an aggressive materialism on the nations of the world. Not unlike Ancient Rome today billionaires and oligarchs lurk in the shadows with their lurid agenda in their hands.

Read more about Fr Richard Rohr:

www.cac.org    

Creation Spirituality

Some thirty years ago when we were studying the sources of the Perennial Wisdom we found Matthew Fox a Roman Catholic author who was not very popular with the hierarchy of his faith.  He suffered expulsion from the Church over his belief in Creation Spirituality a form of the Philosophia Perennis which sees Christ in everything. He is now a Episcopalian priest and also has a foundation to study the idea of panentheism a belief also found in Richard Rohr’s work.  

In a recent post Rohn said the following, “the Apostle Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold exclamation: “There is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything” (Colossians 3:11). If I were to write that today, people would call me a pantheist (the universe is God), whereas I am really a panentheist (God lies within all things, but also transcends them), as were both Jesus and Paul.”

This is the sort of bold talk that lead to the expulsion of Matthew Fox.  Yet as people continue to stand up for the Cosmic Christ and his omnipresence we can move Christendom towards the New Covenant.  

Robert Rohr   www.cac.org

Matthew Fox  www.matthewfox.org

Fr Richard Rohr Perennial Christian

Since the 1980’s when we first started publishing articles about the Perennial Philosophy the topic has gained a great deal of attention.  This is a very good development.  Many people have written about the Philosophia Perennis or have referenced it in their work while others have clearly used the worldview of perennialism as a framework to write in.  

One author and religious leader is  Richard Rohr,  (born 1943),  is an American author, spiritual writer, and Franciscan friar based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was ordained  in the Roman Catholic Church in 1970.  His Center for Action and Contemplation has many educational and spiritual activities and emails regular updates to subscribers.  His messages are Christian meditations which are decidedly perennial in nature.

Recently he made the statement, “Long before Jesus’ personal Incarnation, Christ was deeply embedded in all things—as all things!”. Of course this is the very heart of the perennialist analysis of Lord Christ as a cosmic eternal being who is timeless and was always here.  He wasn’t just a “one-off” phenomena often depicted by some of the “Bible school” adherents who insist on the Jewish Messiah theory.  

Fr Rohr’s daily readings can be accessed at:

  www.cac.org  

The Sign

                                                                                               

"Christ Appears to Mary Magdalene" by Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1847-1917