The Role and Size of Government: A Religious Issue by Rabbi Dennis S. Ross
I shudder when folks praise Ronald Reagan’s definition of government as a national problem, just as I hate when lawmakers threaten to undermine Social Security or food stamp programs. After all, what critics smear as “big government” made all the difference in my life. My father died when I was ten, and we carried on [...]
Guest Post: Giving Up the Soul
Note from Managing Director: Every so often, we welcome a guest post! Drew Jacob is a philosopher, adventurer and polytheist priest. Travel is his spiritual practice, adventure is his religion. He believes we can live for our ideals, chase our bliss, seek out challenge and make change in the world. He’s walking/bicycling 8,000 miles to [...]
Guest post: Considering “Proof of Heaven”
This is a guest post by Chris Highland, a professor at Cherry Hill Seminary. A former manager at Forbes magazine gave me a copy of the October 15, 2012 issue of Newsweek (via The Daily Beast) with the startling cover story “Heaven is Real.” She said, “You might find this interesting.” I did. Amazing; simply [...]
Guest post: Finding Judaism in Unexpected Places by Pamela Jay Gottfried
(Pamela Jay Gottfried is a rabbi, parent, teacher and student of religion. She is the founding mother and editor of the interfaith blog She Answers Abraham and the author of Found in Translation: Common Words of Uncommon Wisdom.) I am a Jew by choice. Not because I converted to Judaism—I was born to a Jewish [...]
An Opinion Piece: “Stop Injustice at the Department of Education” By Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot
On January 31, 2012, just a few days ago, my family’s financial plans were unexpectedly upended by the Federal Department of Education. For nearly the last two years, we had planned to enroll in the Department’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program as a means of coping with the over $150,000 in education debt we [...]
Guest Post: If You Live Your Life in Fear, It’s Not Much of a Life Worth Living
Originally posted on Groundswell Movement, February 8, 2012, By Jessica Jenkins Macky Alston’s new film Love Free or Die chronicles the life of Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop. Bishop Robinson’s 2003 consecration in New Hampshire brought to a head tensions in the U.S. Episcopal Church, and throughout the worldwide Anglican communion, [...]
Guest Post: “Pursuing Elijah” by David Fisher
What are we?! – MEN! What are men?! – RESPECTFUL!!!! Let’s hear it louder! What are we?!!! – MEN!!!! What are men?!!! – SENSITIVE!!!! WHAT ARE WE?! – MEN!!!!!! WHAT ARE MEN?!!!!??! – COMPASSIONATE!!!!!! I will always remember “Boy’s Night” at the Face to Face/Faith to Faith intensive, during summer 2010. That is a vivid, [...]
Guest Post Part Three: Dharma bypasses ‘history-centrism’
On occasion, State of Formation is pleased to offer its readers and contributors selections from guest bloggers. Over this week we will publish four part series containing excerpts from a recent book authored Rajiv Malhotra entitled Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism. More information about Rajiv Malhotra is located at the bottom of [...]
Guest Post Part Two: Dharma is Not the Same as Religion
On occasion, State of Formation is pleased to offer its readers and contributors selections from guest bloggers. Over the next week we will publish four part series containing excerpts from a recent book authored Rajiv Malhotra entitled Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism. More information about Rajiv Malhotra is located at the bottom [...]
Guest Post Part Four: HINDU GOOD NEWS™
On occasion, State of Formation is pleased to offer its readers and contributors selections from guest bloggers. Over the next week we will publish four part series containing excerpts from a recent book authored Rajiv Malhotra entitled Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism. More information about Rajiv Malhotra is located at the bottom [...]
Contributing Scholars
Journal of Inter-Religious DialogueThe Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue™ is a forum for academic, social, and timely issues affecting religious communities around the world. It is designed to increase the quality and frequency of interchanges between religious groups and their leaders. The Journal seeks to build an inter-religious community of scholars, in which people of different traditions learn from one another and work together for the common good.
Brandon TurnerBrandon is a 3rd year PhD candidate in Religion and Culture at Catholic University in Washington, DC and is interested in improving inter and intra religious dialogue, particularly among the many branches of Christianity. (Twitter account: @turnerbrandon)
Bhikshuni LozangBhikshuni Lozang Trinlae, B.Sc., Ed.M., (भिक्षुणी लोजाङ् त्रिन्ले) is presently a doctoral student in practical theology at Claremont Lincoln University, where she is conducting research in formal vajrayana meditation practice. She was ordained a novice Buddhist nun in Mysore in 1991; took full-ordination Bhikshuni precepts in 1998 in Bodhgaya, India; and is also a priest in the Buddhist vajrayana tradition (Drukpa Kagyu and Gelug lineages primarily).
A summa-cum-laude graduate in physics, she earned her master's degree in education from Harvard University, where she also studied Tibetan language in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. She taught science and English in India and in Tibet while undertaking contemplative training in vajrayana Buddhism. After teaching Buddhism in Taiwan in the mid-1990's, she founded Mahaprajapati Hermitage in Sagarmartha Mt. Everest National Park in Nepal, where she completed ten years of cloistered, intensive, vajrayana retreat, including two great approaching retreats (शतलक्ष मन्त्र इष्टदेव पुरश्चरण/བསྙེན་ཆེན།). Bhikshuni Lozang is also a trained chaplain and certified instructor in relationship education.
More details of her present research, and hermitage, including texts and photo album, can be found at bhikshuni.insightdeliverysystems.com,
research.insightdeliverysystems.com, and mahaprajapativihar.insightdeliverysystems.com.