GOOD-centric Exterior Spiritual Disciplines:
To live out goodness, fairness, and love
Freedom from Complexity
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” ~ Socrates
While time is relative, our experience of it is not: We each get 24 hours in our day. How we spend our time is how we spend our lives. Are we frittering our hours in an off-hand way or using our hours to cultivate a stronger quality of being (interior spiritual disciplines) to transform our world into one more loving, good, and fair (exterior spiritual disciplines)?
The GOOD-centric exterior spiritual discipline of simplicity challenges us to make intentional decisions about how we spend our time and to make wise omissions. Slowing down, clearing weeds from our calendars, saying "no" to yet another shopping trip or ball game or television show frees us to say "yes" to building a better world or fostering deeper relationships in our own private world:
Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical, stressed, superficial, inpatient, active, quantity-over-quality. Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity. It is about making real and meaningful connections – with people, culture, work, food, everything. (Carl Honore, In Praise of Slowness)
| Thinking a Thought Whole |
| My Catholic Imagination |
| My Catholic Questions |
| The Nicene Creed |
| Religious Traditions |
| Philosophy of Religion |
| Social Sciences & Religion |
| Stages of Faith |
| The Lazarus Life |
| No Golden Fleece |
| Judaism |
| Eastern Orthodoxy |
| Protestantism |
| Islam |
| Hinduism |
| Buddhism |
| Taoism |
| Baha'i |
| Unitarian (& Quaker) Universalism |
| Liberal Christianity |
| New Age, New Thought, New Anything |
| Perennial Philosophy |
| Arguments for God’s Existence |
| Qualities of God |
| Wagers: Aurelius vs. Pascal |
| Faith & Reason |
| The Problem of Evil |
| Process Theology & Theistic Existentialism |
| Non-God Statement |
| GOD-centric Statement |
| Are you really GOD-centric? |
| Intra-Religious Conversation |
| Conversation with the Non GOD-centric |
| Rules of Inter-Religious Conversation |
| Inter-Religious Conversation |
| The Eternal Question of God |
| The Eternal Question of Humanity |
| The Eternal Question of Life |
| Ending with a Bang, Not a Whimper |
| Closing Thoughts |
| The GOD-centric Process in 10 Easy Steps |
| Preface |
| Ch. 1 Music & Arts |
| Ch. 2 Praying the Hours |
| Ch. 3 Contemplative Prayer |
| Ch. 4 Prayers & Poetry |
| Ch. 5 Lectio Divina |
| Ch. 6 Reading for Study |
| Music |
| Arts |
| Prayers of Adoration |
| Prayers of Petition |
| Prayers of Intercession |
| Prayers of Thanksgiving |
| Preface |
| Introduction |
| Ch. 1 Simplicity |
| Ch. 2 Service |
| Ch. 3 Stewardship |
| Ch. 4 Celebration |
| Epilogue |
| From GOD-centric to GOOD-centric |
| From Panendeist to De Facto Atheist |
| A Note to Non-GOD-centric Christian Believers |
| GOOD-centric Statement: Upon This Rock I Stand |
| Freedom from Complexity |
| Absence of Luxury, Pretentiousness, Ornament |
| GOOD-centric Guiding Principles: Simplicity |
| Education |
| Economics |
| GOOD-centric Guiding Principles: Service |
| Fairness in Education |
| Goodness in Education |
| Love in Education |
| Fairness in Economics |
| Goodness in Economics |
| Love in Economics |
| Environment |
| Animal Welfare |
| GOOD-centric Guiding Principles Stewardship |
| Fairness for the Environment |
| Goodness for the Environment |
| Love for the Environment |
| Fairness for Animals |
| Goodness for Animals |
| Love for Animals |
| GOD-centric to GOOD-centric |
| GOD-centric vs. GOOD-centric |
| GOD-centric & GOOD-centric |
| Devotional |
| UnDevotional |
| January |
| February |
| March |
| April |
| May |
| June |
| July |
| August |
| September |
| October |
| November |
| December |
| UnJanuary |
| UnFebruary |
| UnMarch |
| UnApril |
| UnMay |
| UnJune |
| UnJuly |
| UnAugust |
| UnSeptember |
| UnOctober |
| UnNovember |
| UnDecember |