{"id":5416,"date":"2020-06-21T18:38:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T18:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ccmj.org\/wp\/?p=5416"},"modified":"2020-07-13T08:59:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T08:59:26","slug":"richard-rohr-christian-cosmology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/archives\/5416","title":{"rendered":"Richard Rohr: Christian Cosmology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A succinct\u00a0intro. to\u00a0 Christian Cosmology\u00a0– Peter

——— Forwarded message ———
From:\u00a0Center for Action and Contemplation<\/strong>\u00a0<Meditations@cac.org<\/a>>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2020 at 07:15
Subject: Richard Rohr Meditation: A Christian Cosmology
To: Peter Challen <peterchallen@gmail.com<\/a>><\/p>\n\n\n\n
No images?\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation
From the Center for Action and Contemplation<\/em>\u00a0
Week Twenty-five<\/em>\u00a0
Cosmology and Nature\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A Christian Cosmology<\/strong>
Sunday, \u202fJune 21, 2020

The word\u00a0cosmology\u00a0<\/em>has been used more frequently in recent years, even in religious circles. If cosmology is the study of the origin, processes, and shape of the universe, then it also involves the study of God, the universe\u2019s Creator. I find it utterly enticing, but I also know how threatening it has been to Christian thought as a whole.

Up until Copernicus and Galileo, western cosmology was very linear and largely informed by faith, with little attention to science. With a kind of extended egocentricity, Christians thought the earth was the center of the universe. God dwelled on his throne (and God was considered male), Jesus somehow dwelled beneath God, with heaven, the earth, and hell set below in their fixed places. But after the Copernican revolution, scientists have discovered ever more galaxies, and demonstrated that we humans are not the center of anything. We are just a small part of a much bigger ecosystem and universe. It is a very humbling lesson that we are still adjusting to five hundred years later! From that revolutionary moment, religion and science largely stopped talking to one another and started going in two different directions.

At a minimum, we need a God as big as the still-expanding universe. Otherwise, many earnest people will continue to think of God as a mere add-on to a world that is already awesome. However, I believe our traditional faith has a key to open the door to a new cosmology. That key is the proper understanding of the word\u00a0Christ.<\/em>

Christ, as I like to say, is more than Jesus\u2019 last name. Christ is God, and Jesus is the Christ\u2019s historical manifestation in time. Jesus is a Third Someone, not just God and not just human, but God and human together.

If we cannot put these two seeming opposites of the divine and human together in Jesus Christ, we usually cannot put these two together in ourselves, or in the rest of the physical universe. A merely personal God becomes clannish and sentimental, and a merely universal God never leaves the realm of abstract theory and philosophical principles. But when we learn to put them together, Jesus and Christ give us a God who is both\u00a0personal\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0universal.\u00a0<\/em>Jesus is a map for the time-bound and personal level of life, and Christ is the blueprint for all time and space and life itself.

When cosmology became largely a secular science, a large number of Christians felt free to reject evolution and history. Today, however, we are living in a wonderful time of convergence. We have a chance to bring them together again. As author Beatrice Bruteau (1930\u20132014) wrote: \u201cWe need a new theology of the cosmos, one that is grounded in the best science of our day . . . so that all the world turns sacred again . . .\u201d [1]I hope this week\u2019s meditations offer you a vision of a cosmology that is scientifically accurate and still entirely suffused with the presence of God.<\/em>\u00a0

Gateway to Action & Contemplation:<\/strong>
What word or phrase resonates with or challenges me? What sensations do I notice in my body? What is mine to do?<\/em>

Prayer for Our Community:<\/strong>
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other\u2019s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts\u2019 longings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen.<\/em>
Listen to Fr. Richard read the prayer.<\/a>
Story from Our Community:<\/strong>
I wait for the ruby-throated hummingbirds to arrive. They are amazing birds, so tiny, and highly energetic. They have beautiful iridescent plumage which reflects the sunshine. They drink nectar from flowers and eat bugs caught midair for protein. The Wild Red Columbine blooms in time with the arrival of these hummingbirds. These two species are in a mutually beneficial relationship, tubular columbine flowers are pollinated, hummers are fed. I like to understand how God has encouraged this. God seeks nourishing relationships.<\/em>\u00a0\u2013Fawn P.

Share your own story with us.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0

[1] Beatrice Bruteau,\u00a0God\u2019s Ecstasy: The Creation of a Self-Creating World\u00a0<\/em>(Crossroad Publishing Company: 1997), 13.

Adapted from Richard Rohr,\u00a0Christ Cosmology and Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See<\/em>, (CAC: 2010),\u00a0MP3 download<\/a>; and

The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For,\u00a0And Believe<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Convergent: 2019), 6, 17\u201321.

Image Credit:\u00a0Una \u201crete\u201d di rami all\u2019Arte Sella<\/em>\u00a0(Wood and Art in the Forest of Italy)<\/em>\u00a0(detail), 2008, Arte Sella, Trento, Italy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Forward to a Friend \u2192<\/a>\u00a0Forward this email to a friend or family member that may find it meaningful.\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A succinct\u00a0intro. to\u00a0 Christian Cosmology\u00a0– Peter——— Forwarded message ———From:\u00a0Center for Action and Contemplation\u00a0<Meditations@cac.org>Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2020 at 07:15Subject: Richard Rohr Meditation: A Christian CosmologyTo: Peter Challen <peterchallen@gmail.com> No images?\u00a0Click here\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Richard Rohr’s Daily MeditationFrom the Center for Action and Contemplation\u00a0Week … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-richard-rohr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5417,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions\/5417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}