Lmst

New Walking Thoughts blog post: Nothing Butters (Part Two): Rather, Matter Matters "...Come along with me now on this roller coaster of classical Christian thinking, with particular reference to the Reformer of the sixteenth century, Martin Luther..."
https://hpaulsantmire.net/nothing-butters-part-two-rather-matter-matters/ #MartinLuther #EvangelicalLutheranChurchInAmerica

I love the bombastic hymns of Easter Sunday, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!,” and all the rest. But I have also long treasured what is for me, and for many other Easter celebrants, I believe: the post-Easter mellow. So I heartily welcomed the recent essay by Isaac S. Villegas, “Resurrection, Then Breakfast.” (Christian Century, May 2025, pp. 32f.) Villegas tells us that Jesus conquers death so that he can come back and enjoy another meal, lingering with his friends as long as he can... more here:
https://hpaulsantmire.net/the-post-easter-mellow/

New post on Walking Thoughts, "God is my copilot?"

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.” (Luke 1:52f.)

https://hpaulsantmire.net/god-is-my-co-pilot/ #ELCA #justice

H. Paul Santmire boosted:

@PaulSantmire

Thank you for speaking out in defense of the most vulnerable among us.

The game is not over yet, the die hasn't finished spinning. Remain defiant in the sneering face of injustice.

Dear Lutherans,

Let us not have a slow learning curve like our Martin Niemöller ("First they came for..."). Let us see and organize against what is happening now. (Link to a post on my blog.)

https://hpaulsantmire.net/being-a-good-lutheran-time-to-get-out-into-the-streets/

Rethinking Mindfulness?
“Google… has its own mindfulness program to help us pay attention, which offers us Words of Ancient Wisdom rebooted in the interests of modern productivity: ‘Mindfulness isn’t just sitting on the floor, legs crossed, and chanting mantras. It’s a tool that, when used wisely, can boost your experience at work, your relationships with others and even your overall well-being. Mindfulness is maintaining a moment-to-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings and emotions, while having an attitude of kindness and curiosity.’

"This is like listening to one’s drug dealer preach the virtue of sobriety. It’s good example of something the industrial economy first destroys and then reconsecrates in order to sell it back to us at a mark-up. Google’s program shows that constantly thinking about one’s attention is completely in keeping with an information environment in which inattention is the norm. Attention talk has become the therapeutic grease that helps the Big Tech machine run smoothly.”

--Anton Barba-Kay, “The Attention Trap,” Commonweal

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/attention-trap

“What has drawn the Modern World into being is a strange, almost occult yearning for the future. The modern mind longs for the future as the medieval mind longed for Heaven. . . . The future has been envisioned, dreamed, projected, painted for us by prophets of every kind: scientists, comic-book writers, novelists, philosophers, politicians, industrialists, professors. And, of course, by ourselves; the cult of the future has turned us all into prophets. The future is the time when science will have solved all our problems, gratified all our desires; when we will all live in perfect ease in an air-conditioned, fully automated womb; when all the work will be done by machines so sophisticated that they will not only clothe, house, and feed us, but think for us, play our games, paint our pictures, write our poems. It is the Earthly Paradise, the Other Shore, where all will be well. And if we are living for the future, then history is on our side—or so we are at liberty to think, for the needed proof is never at hand. That there has for some time been growing a cult of dread of the future testifies not only to the innate silliness and frivolity of this vision, but to its power. The adoration of the future may be beginning to falter, but it is still dominant, still available and useful to the exploitive mind.”*

*Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, quoted by the Front Porch Republic, 1/25/2005.

"What is the cosmic vision given to you and to me from the innermost recesses of the Christian faith? What do we see from within when we contemplate the vast swath of the heavens at night?" my latest on Walking Thoughts, "Epiphany – A Cosmic Vision from Inner Space"

https://hpaulsantmire.net/epiphany-a-cosmic-vision-from-inner-space/

#Epiphany

New post on my Walking Thoughts blog:
"Every morning when I get up and I shave, I know that there’s no way that I can thereafter approach the Holy God. Where I live, on the ninth floor, in order to shave with any comfort, I have to let the hot water line from the basement run for six-gallon’s worth of water. I’ve measured it. Six gallons! What an unholy waste!..."

https://hpaulsantmire.net/six-gallons-wasted/

#water #ecojustice #environmentalism

A Traditional Vision of Christmas Morning

"What shall I say to you; what shall I tell you? I behold a mother who has brought forth new life; I see a child come to this light by birth. The manner of his conception I cannot comprehend. Nature here is overcome, the boundaries of the established order set aside, where God so wills. For not according to nature has this thing come to pass. Nature here has rested, while the will of God labored. O, ineffable grace! The only begotten One, who is before all ages, who cannot be touched or be perceived, who is simple, without body, has now put on my body, which is visible and liable to corruption. For what reason? That coming amongst us he may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that we mortals cannot see. For since we believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, we doubt that which they do not see, and so he has deigned to show himself in bodily presence, that he may remove all doubt." — St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) [from Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (Walden, NY: Plough Publishing House, 2001, pp. 227f.)

#Advent #Christmas

H. Paul Santmire boosted:

“The #NYPD is working to keep the flow of #Amazon goods moving in #NYC despite the strike. They’re breaking the Teamster picket line as best they can and serving Jeff Bezos. Working people everywhere should oppose policing for so many different reason.”
#police #union #labor

https://bsky.app/profile/jphillll.bsky.social/post/3ldob7gst2k2q

For the first time, I will be sharing my annual Christmas letter not only via US Postal mail, but now, here, on my Walking Thoughts blog. "Are the meek getting ready? Everything in our day suggests that..." I hope you might consider reading it. https://hpaulsantmire.net/christmas-2024-the-meek-are-getting-ready/
#Christmas #Herod #MeekShallInheritTheEarth #PaulSantmire #HPaulSantmire #LutheransRestoringCreation

Shades of the Weimar Republic: The U.S. Church Under Attack: “Catholic Charities Bureau, the social ministry of the Catholic Diocese in Superior, Wis., has said its mission is to provide ‘services to the poor and disadvantaged as an expression of the social ministry of the Catholic Church.’ State officials determined that the charity did not qualify for [any tax] exemption because it ‘provides essentially secular services and engages in activities that are not religious per se.’” – New York Times, 12/16/2024

H. Paul Santmire remains a foundational voice in ecotheology.
For decades, he has provided in-depth scholarship on the Christian ecotheological tradition along with wise theological reflection. His clear, winsome explanations and compassionate challenges are a gift to people of faith and conscience. For those who long to find a faithful way through this historic moment of ecological crisis, Santmire continues to offer deep and delightful nourishment.
Debra Rienstra
Author of Refugia Faith Seeking: Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth

My daughter has gathered quotes from colleagues and friends about my life's work. I have agreed, with some resistance, to share these generous comments more widely. They are also posted on my website. I will use this post as the thread to share them. #ELCA #Aging #LutheransRestoringCreation https://hpaulsantmire.net/finis-and-telos-my-just-out-earth-book-in-the-age-of-trump/

H. Paul Santmire boosted:

"...Consider this. My new book is the end – the finis and the telos – of my vocation as a Church theologian and pastoral activist..." New post on my Walking Thoughts blog, including some news about my health: https://hpaulsantmire.net/finis-and-telos-my-just-out-earth-book-in-the-age-of-trump/ #ELCA #Ecotheology #Aging #Religion #theology