Anyone want to join a writing class? So far its not making, but its a GRAD level creative writing class for fairy tales (any kind of class in speculative fiction for creative writing is hard to find) the professor is bona find and has great reviews…
Reblog/share around please
🙂
http://www.transmography.net/brainery/syllabus-schedule/science-fiction-fairy-tales-spring-2015/
Theology and my favorite Fiary Tale
I may or may not own a billion different versions of Beauty and the Beast. (Plus some figures, snowglobes and plastic McDonald’s toys)
Why? Because its my favorite fairy tale. Why? Because its the first/best fairytale and it is so TOTALLY theological!!!! (did I put too many exclamation points there?)
Things to know about Beauty and the Beast which I have disseminated from years of study (no seriously I have been convertly studying fairy tales for 8 years. First as an “English” major at Oberlin, then as a theological student at Princeton)
1. It is the FIRST fairy tale we know of
2. It evolved from what is the last myth we know of: Cupid and Psyche (in “The Golden Ass”) written a couple of hundred of years after myths were in style
3. Before Christianity, the “happily ever after concept” did not seem to exist in stories….In…
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Epiphany is a realization that changes you…
that’s what the Magi had…it changed them Matthew 2:1-12
Then they were brave…
Why? Because they experienced God….Experiencing God is like experiencing the stars.
We can define the stars…but the experience of these burning masses of gas, is beyond a description.
We can define God as this fully human, fully divine, who was born in a manger, and died to save us all…
but the experience of God is more than that…that is why we gather together each week…each Sunday we come together to share where we see God working in our lives!
And to try not to be-little it…not to make it small…but to magnify it. To proclaim it, to call attention to the good news of God in our lives, one who is present and active.
“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.” Madeline L’engle
Bad things happen, and we are not told to ignore them(heck 2/3rds of the Psalms are people crying out to/yelling at God), but what we are meant to realize, and share, and embrace, is God’s work in & through us.
People asking about a clothing exchange that closed over a year ago is evidence of God’s power.
The church making budget every year for 3yrs even though not everyone gives what they thought they would is pure miracle.
Having a ceiling and roof repair in one year, and having an estate come through the works for a quarter of the cost…..that has been in probate for 30 years…is God at work
Every person who has heard God’s voice, every one who feels God’s work, every one who comes through the farmer’s market or the playgroup, the fact that we are getting more calls for help in a month than what we used to get in a year.
These are all God-experiences…..
They are amazing…
and its is this reason we journey together…we see God’s star in the East, we may get lost, we may need to ask for directions, we may have to go back a different way…but we are doing it because we are experiencing God.
Together!
https://medium.com/@theboyonthebike/god-loves-monsters-4f727db3d046
Beautiful Theology over at theboyonthebike
“The monster was not a threat to God. And while Job had become a threat to his friends, he wasn’t a threat to God either. The creature that the world called “monster,” God called “friend.” The beautiful part then is that the people the world calls “monster” (because their appearance, their story, their otherness feels monstrous to those around them) are the ones that God calls friend. All the things that made Leviathan so frightening to everyone else were what made Leviathan delightful to God. God celebrated all the wild things about Leviathan that made everyone else recoil in horror.”
“In fact, in an especially strange turn of the poem, in some translations God not only celebrates Leviathan — but identifies with Leviathan. Watch how God seems to casually move between how people respond to Leviathan and how they actually respond to Him in Job 41.9–11:”
For ALL TRANS PEOPLE today, if you are struggling, please call Trans Lifeline: US: (877) 565-8860 Canada: (877) 330-6366
For those contemplating suicide because of their “Christian Families” we pray.
L’engle’s thoughts on those who are figuring out their identity and also her wisdom I use to pray for someone I don’t know (excuse the contextually-gendered language)….#LeelahAlcorn @UnvirtuousAbbey Name us Lord, we pray, Call us by name! Help us to name one another, Mother-Father God!
“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.” Madeline L’engle
Today the church celebrates the Feast of Epiphany.
But since we’re Presbyterian flavored Christians, we actually celebrated it yesterday in worship. (Mid-week worship for most Presbyterians I know is limited to Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, and maybe Maundy Thursday.) Anyhow, we received our new STARwords in worship yesterday and I’ve been drawing stars for blog and Facebook readers.
I didn’t invent this idea, but a friend shared it with me a number of years ago, and the congregation I serve has found it to be a meaningful experience.
In our church, people pick a star when they come forward for communion. Some people just take the one on the top of the pile. Others dig down to grab one from the middle. Some look at the word immediately. Others stick it in a pocket without glancing at it. Occasionally, people will trade out their star for a…
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