The Unclad Soul

Kant, the brilliant German philosopher, wrote, “Wisdom is organized life.” That is genius. And that is what we are missing today; organized life. Well, genius, too. Everything is a mess. Our president. Congress. Religion. Education. The economy. The environment. It’s all a disorganized, sloppy jumble of ideas and chaotic priorities. And our own lives reel in the confusion. We lack wisdom. We are missing any real guiding principles. What do we represent as a people, as a nation, other than angry personal divisions, a shallow obsession with materialism, empty religion, and a contorted political system that only works for affluent, well-connected individuals and corporations? Our major social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter can be places of real connection, family photos, invites to fun events, cute videos of pets, helpful news and interesting pieces of art, essays, and great music. But too often these are also places of vitriol, rage, bullying, bigo...

Emerson, the brilliant essayist, philosopher, and poet, started his long and productive career initially as an ordained minister. When his young wife died of tuberculosis he was devastated. He questioned his faith and the simple beliefs he thought as a minister should be accepted unconditionally and believed by everyone. He left the ministry, went to Europe, met with towering people in literature like William Wordsworth, Thomas Carlyle, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. When he returned to America he was transformed and began a series of lectures on spirituality and ethical living.  In one of his many books, he wrote, “Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” It is a beautiful and profound statement and one I fully embrace. And it is a part of a personal religious search I started years ago. As a young minister I struggled with biblical texts that I could not make sense of, thing...