I was producing and publishing my first podcast this week, so I’ve been a little behind.

On the topic of Marcus Aurelius, I noticed that you stated ” A quick look at news headlines today might suggest that divine intervention has actually corrupted the morality of civilization.” I think that the idea of divine intervention, whether God participates in our reality,can be argued, but I think that suggesting that God’s participation might have corrupted our civilization is something that I have a hard time with. I think that institutional intervention tends to corrupt almost every time.

I believe in the mystical. I believe in a power that can heal inexplicably. I am confident that there are things beyond what we know to be fact, things that require us to believe that they are true. I believe that Jesus healed people, though I can never know for sure what really happened when He met people on the street. I don’t believe that the theology of biblical inerrancy is even worth a debate, but I do believe that the Bible is the inspired text of the people whose lives were changed by a power that they could not adequately describe. I am not Marcus Aurelius, and I will never wax poetic with the likes of Robert Bly, but I can walk through my day with the faith that if I can find in my own life the inspiration that compelled the followers of Jesus to choose to believe something so radically different, then I can experience change in my family, my friends, and myself that I could never experience without the universal message of Love that is bound in that Book.

I truly enjoy the comfort of this fireside chat.

Bryan.