Why this book? I read this book at the request of some parents whose children were using this book in a Christian school. It is promoted as a book on […]
“Once you see Jesus as a teacher of enlightenment, faith changes its focus. You don’t need to have faith in the Messiah or his mission. Instead, you have faith in […]
Living Wisdom by David G. Benner is a 2019 revised and expanded edition from an earlier version. The earlier version has 10 ISBN numbers, which means the first edition was published […]
As the book progresses, it only becomes more troubling. Benner writes that we “are called to be human beings” and “to be fully human.” (87) But we are created as human beings; we really cannot be anything other than human. It is what Benner means by “human” that makes the difference.
Benner claims we are to
“recognize Christ as the deepest truth of our being. It is not just becoming like Christ but actualizing the Christ who is in us. It is a journey toward union with God.” (99)
“Actualizing the Christ” is a concept foreign to the Bible. But if one is a Panentheist and a Jungian, it makes sense because Christ is contained everywhere in creation according to Panentheism. This is a major teaching of Richard Rohr which Benner shares. “Actualizing” the Christ who is already part of our unconscious as an archetype is to awaken the true Self. This is what Benner means by being human.
Jim Ballard, an admirer of the Hindu guru Paramahansa Yogananda and other Eastern teachers, is the author of a small, illustrated book, Little Wave and Old Swell: A Fable Of Life […]
First published in Midwest Outreach Christian Journal, Fall 2008; title and article modified for CANA website On March 3rd, 2008, Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle began an online class with […]
From Oprah Winfrey’s Television Show, April 9, 2008: A woman in the audience says that even before she read Tolle, she had come to believe that Christianity is about […]
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” The focus of this book is on following a dream, with the idea that this […]
[Note: Most of this article is an excerpt of the longer CANA article, “The Piscean Jesus.”] Many claim Jesus was a prophet, teacher, spiritually enlightened master, an avatar, a man who […]
I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s […]