Cambridge MA Just after Christmas I splurged on-line searching out at used book sites the seven volumes of Hans Urs von Balthasar rsquo s Glory of the Lord his wonderful and extensive reflection on the aesthetic element in our theological and spiritual knowledge our apprehension of the beautifu

Cambridge MA Each year in January I head out to Los Angeles mdash or more precisely Culver City within LA mdash to be with the Jesuit novices of the West Coast for a few days of conversation on interreligious dialogue I wrote about this last year in this space so need not describe again t

Cambridge MA As you know I contribute one of these reflections just about every two weeks I try to be regular in doing so and for that purpose also try to write the reflection edit it check it and post it all within one hour rsquo s time Readers posting comments mostly kind are adept a

Cambridge MA I return today for a third time to the theme of Krishna in Advent nbsp In my first and second reflections on this theme I highlighted famous verses from Chapter 4 of the nbsp Bhagavad Gita and from the commentary on the verses by the medieval theologian Ramanuja There is a lot go

nbsp Cambridge MA My reflections last week made clear my hope that in this Advent season we can engage in interreligious intercultural learning by considering as an example the teaching on the birth of Lord Krishna in the world according to the Bhagavad Gita I continue now with verses I c

nbsp Cambridge MA I am in the midst of my ldquo Krsna in Advent rdquo series mdash nbsp the first entry posted a few days ago the next to come in a few days mdash but I cannot help but interrupt to remember two great Christian intellectuals and writers who died forty years ago on Decembe

Cambridge MA I have been teaching a seminar on the Bhagavad Gita reading it with two classical commentaries by Ramanuja 11th century and by Madhusudana Sarasvati 16th century and two modern commentaries by Mahatma Gandhi and by Bede Griffiths the Catholic monk who lived for many years in

Cambridge MA I have been making entries for In All Things for almost a year now and by my count this is the 25th such contribution I have recently written of dreams or nightmares about elections and accountability in the Church interreligious violence and love I have also tr

Cambridge MA When the election was upon us in the past few weeks I was writing in this column about love now that Barack Obama is our president-elect it is a moment to reflect on the meaning of the election Instead of any wide-ranging reflection mdash I am no pandit mdash I would like simp

Cambridge MA In last week rsquo s entry to this column I explained how I attempted to write a piece for the Sunday New York Times rsquo Modern Love section on loving God I explained that I thought that we should be able to speak of loving God in a modern accessible way My piece was not accep