AaronMcGallegos
Ask Diana Butler Bass a question today
Posted on: 02/02/2009 11:46
Diana Butler Bass is the guest host today on USA Today's "Faith & Reason" forum. You can log in and ask her questions here:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/index
Below is the blurb from the forum:
Is mainline Protestant Christianity -- which includes denominations such as the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Episcopal Church -- dying away in America?
Statistically, the mainline has declined by the millions in recent decades. But church historian Diana Butler Bass makes a contrary case: That it is thriving despite the odds. She once told me,
Mainline congregations have a beautiful world where they are enacting service, doing justice, learning to pray and caring for one another. And no one seems to realize they are there.
Do you agree? Ask Bass yourself -- and learn more about the dimensions of faith in practice in the USA now. I've invited Bass to be today's guest host on the Faith & Reason Forum. She's the first of several guest experts who will host the Forum while I’m away this week.
Comments
Boots
Posted on: 02/02/2009 11:50
Cool
Arminius
Posted on: 02/02/2009 12:11
Dear Diana:
Congratulations to the lauching of your new book From Nomads to Pilgrims: Stories from Practicing Congregations. We shall discuss it here on wondercafe—after we are through with Christianity for the Rest of Us.
I have only one question and concern: Why does mystical experience, in your writings, and in progressive/liberal Protestant Christianity in general, get such short thrift?
Our religion was founded by mystics, and our sacred books are based on the accounts of mystics, but mysticism does not seem to be held in high regard by modern, progressive, liberal Christianity. Why is that?
By "mystical experience" I mean any experience of the pure, unconceptualized reality that we experience in mediatation and related practices.
Thanking you for your kind reply,
Hermann
AaronMcGallegos
Posted on: 02/02/2009 13:52
Hi Arminius,
Thanks for your question to Diana. You have to post it on this site for her to see it and answer it:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/index
Peace,
Aaron (Admin2)
Arminius
Posted on: 02/02/2009 14:07
Thanks Aaron, I missed that.
Getting old, eh?
But maybe it wasn't altogether wrong to post this concern on wondercafe.
Keep up the good work, Aaron!
trishcuit
Posted on: 02/02/2009 14:08
My everyone is so POLITE today! I love it! (must be the athiests haven't gotten out of bed yet.)
stardust
Posted on: 02/02/2009 14:47
trishcuit
Ouch.....they're gonna git ya for that
Arminius
Posted on: 02/02/2009 15:02
Well, I've posted my question to Diana. Anyone interested in her reply, click on the link that Aaron provided.
I even mentioned our cafe. Perhaps she'll drop in one day?
paradox3
Posted on: 02/02/2009 17:57
DBB has posted a reply to Arminius now. Just follow the link that Aaron provided if you would like to take a look.
trishcuit
Posted on: 02/02/2009 18:05
trishcuit
Ouch.....they're gonna git ya for that
In the words of Captain Jack Sparrow....
Sticks and Stones, luv.
Panentheism
Posted on: 02/02/2009 18:11
The book Nomads is an earlier look at the churches studied and found in Christianity for the rest of us- Her new book comes out in March and is on History.
Arminius
Posted on: 02/03/2009 03:55
Thanks for this, Pan. I look forward to her new book.
__________________________
Hi paradox3:
I'm very pleased with her reply!