Earlham

Earlham School of Religion at Earlham College is a graduate theological school in the Quaker tradition. ESR prepares women and men for leadership that empowers and for ministry that serves. This mission grows out of our belief that God calls everyone to ministry. Using a transformative model of education, ESR encourages students to explore the intellectual, spiritual, and practical dimensions of their calls to ministry.

When Earlham School of Religion was founded in 1960, it represented a radical shift in thinking among some members of the Religious Society of Friends. Though the Quaker movement was more than 300 years old, until that point Friends had provided no seminary education for persons called to ministry. That was forever changed when the school launched its curriculum in its inaugural year.

As a seminary, ESR exists to educate and equip women and men for leadership in public ministry, providing a learning environment in which students can continue to discern and develop their calls to ministry. The School of Religion is committed to the concept of universal ministry, and thus defines ministry broadly. Within its educational program, this means that many activities are recognized and supported as ministry. Pastoral ministry, pastoral counseling, peace and justice activities, spiritual direction, teaching, and writing represent a few of the areas of ministry commonly acknowledged at the school.

At ESR one finds a seminary with a distinctive Quaker influence serving a broad range of Friends and numerous other faith traditions. Intellectual excellence is expected as students acquire foundational knowledge and wrestle with pressing theological and ministry issues. Experiential learning is woven into the nature of classroom activities, further facilitating the integration of new knowledge. Ministry gifts and leadership abilities are identified and cultivated. Ministry questions, personal issues, and global concerns are considered in the Light. Students will find a commitment to a understanding of faith as they work with faculty and staff to understand faith and ministry issues.

The school has become an intersection of students from various locations and traditions. Programmed and unprogrammed Quakers alike choose to study at ESR. Several other faith traditions are represented as well, with nearly one third of the student body claiming affiliation with religious heritages other than Quaker.

As Earlham School of Religion fulfills its founding purpose, the school is a significant source of leadership and a resource for renewal. ESR places high emphasis on excellent teaching because quality instruction is crucial to quality learning. As a consequence of this emphasis, the school is a resource for religious scholarship, as ESR's faculty and visiting scholars are representative of some of the finest teachers, thinkers, and ministers in their fields.

Given its diversity, ESR intends to be a point of intersection for persons of differing beliefs. The school welcomes any who wish to learn in the context of a seminary in the Quaker tradition, but also recognizes that it best serves those students who fall within a range of "progressive evangelical" and "confessing liberal" in the Christian tradition. The term "progressive evangelical" refers to persons who maintain traditional Christian doctrines but who are open to learning with and from persons who have different points of view. "Confessing liberal" is meant to describe individuals who do not hold traditional Christian viewpoints, but who continue to identify themselves as members of the Christian Tradition, broadly defined.

The ESR faculty understands that the practice of one's faith is an extension of one's beliefs. Thus as a seminary, ESR educates and prepares students for ministry in the manner of Friends. Given Quakers' understanding of universal ministry, ESR prepares individuals for ministries that serve in a multitude of vocations and contexts. This is one of the more important ways that ESR serves as a source of vitality and renewal in North America and beyond.

The ESR community is not exclusively Quaker. Faculty and students from other faith traditions and other countries are welcome, and in fact wanted. ESR values a strong ecumenical presence because Christianity is not a heterogenous group. Neither is today's society a uniform one. The School of Religion values diversity precisely because it contributes to the learning process by broadening our horizons and preparing us for the settings in which we are likely to minister. Learning alongside others who are different from us contributes to spiritual formation and assists the transformation that occurs in ESR's community of learning.

A variety of educational pedagogies are employed in seminary education today. The School of Religion chooses an approach that is both formative and transformative. The curriculum begins with issues of basic spiritual formation as students focus upon their personal spiritual journeys and begin attending to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The school intends to be a community of dialogue, where important theological and ministry matters are considered in the Light. Ultimately, an ESR education is transformative as works within a holistic approach to theological education.

The Left

Christian socialism generally refers to those on the Christian Left whose politics are both Christian and Socialist and who see these two things as being interconnected. Broadly speaking, this category can include Liberation Theology and the doctrine of the Social Gospel. Christian socialists draw parallels between what some have characterized as the egalitarian and anti-establishment message of Jesus, who — according to Christian Gospel — spoke against the religious authorities of his time, and the egalitarian, anti-establishment, and sometimes anti-clerical message of most contemporary socialisms.

Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus compel Christians to support communism as the ideal social system. Although there is no universal agreement on the exact date when Christian communism was founded, many Christian communists assert that evidence from the Bible suggests that the first Christians, including the Apostles, created their own small communist society in the years following Jesus' death and resurrection. As such, many advocates of Christian communism argue that it was taught by Jesus and practiced by the Apostles themselves (Acts 2:44-45 & 4:34-35).

Christian communism can be seen as a radical form of Christian Socialism. Christian communists may or may not agree with various parts of Marxism. They certainly do not agree with the Atheist views of most Marxists, but they do agree with some of the economic aspects of Marxist theory, such as the idea that capitalism exploits the working class by extracting surplus value from the workers in the form of excessive profits. Christian communists also share some of the political goals of Marxists, for example replacing capitalism with socialism, which should in turn be followed by communism at a later point in the future. However, Christian communists sometimes disagree with Marxists (and particularly with Leninist) on the way a socialist or communist society should be organized. In general, Christian communism evolved independently of Marxism, and most Christian communists share the conclusions but not the underlying premises of Marxist communists.

Pacifica

The Pacifica Foundation was founded in 1949 by Lewis Hill as a visionary alternative to commercialy-driven media. They pioneered listener-sponsored, community radio and have been a beacon for noncommercial, free media.

Pacifica's mission is to promote peace and justice through communication between all races, nationalities and cultures. They strive to contribute to the democratic process through public discourse and promotion of culture, unbeholden to commercial or governmental interests.

Click here for Pacifica's Homepage

The Corpse and the Weapon

The corpse was there, brothers and sisters, and no one's eyes wept.
We felt no pain nor did we pretend, we didn't notice its rags.
We proceeded without seeing it, we disowned it, we did not know it's name,
we didn't inquire, we simply continued without looking.
We were terrorized with so much death, that blood now caused no grief.
It remained alone, thrown in the middle of the street, its eyes open in accusation.

By Isabel de los Angeles Ruano


The will to power destroys the power of will.
The weapon made, we cannot help but use it; it drags us with its own m0mentum still.
The power to kill compounds the need to kill.
Grown out of hand the heart cannot refuse it; the will to power undoes the power to will.
Though as we strike we cry, "I did not choose it," it drags us with its own momentum still.
In one stroke we win the world and lose it. The will to power destroys the power to will.

By Judith Wright

2 Quotes

The "Peace" that prevails today is the peace of fear and the peace of preperation. Ignoring the sincere advise of men of wisdom, the great nations of the world are intent upon the demonstration of their destructive strength. That way lies war, not peace.

Swami Sivananda



Society was divided into warring camps, suspicious of one another. Where no obligation was held binding, nothing could heal the conflict, and since security was only to be found in the assumption that nothing was secure, everyone took steps to preserve himself and no one would trust his neighbor.

Thucydides

A Diary Without Dates

By Nakamura Chio


I, no sense of being alive, live next door to death.

My neck was so feeble, it toppled when anyone touched it.
I felt I had turned to stone.

Every day my anxiety grew deeper, until it enveloped me so thickly that I could see nothing.
Alone in an illimitable desert I wept hopelessly, as if in a nightmare in dawn where the open mouth blue sky wept with me.


The trees wept, a bird's body, a horses bleached bones, all spellbound.
Immoble, we watched with bated breath the figure if death.

The world was unbearably still.
I sat side by side with death, held immobile in reality, only hoping I would not fall.

A poem

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-Second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow,
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

by W.H. Auden
Sept. 1st 1939

Painting: Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy
by Francois Lemoyne

*This is Lemoyne's last picture, on which he had been working within hours of taking his own life.

Theology of the Green Arrow

Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) is one of DC Comics' longest-established and most well known superhero characters. The superhero, who has no actual super powers but is an amazingly skilled master archer armed with a collection of trick arrows, was created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp and first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (1941).

With regards to questions specifically about theology (which is, of course, only one segment of religion overall), the Green Arrow is most commonly regarded as an agnostic. However, he is not at all outspoken or evangelical about his agnosticism, and agnosticism can not be considered his "core" religion, i.e., a descriptor of his primary motivational philosophy.

Although Green Arrow was not overtly political or religious when he was first introduced, he has over the years evolved into an outspoken and devout Liberal Marxist Communist. Regardless of how the Green Arrow identifies himself politically, his deeply held liberal political beliefs constitute his religion in the truest sociological (not necessarily "theological") sense of the word.

In recent years, the Green Arrow died, went to Heaven, and subsequently returned to life. We are unaware if these experiences have had any effect on his theological views. Since returning to life, Oliver Queen resumed his previous vocal espousal of "left-wing" political views. He has apparently had little to say on expressly theological topics.

It might strike some readers as peculiar that Oliver Queen's experiences did little to change is worldview, but this is in keeping with his character. As subjects such as the afterlife and theology apparently were of relatively little interest to Oliver Queen before his death, he may simply have returned to being his old self. If Queen is indeed agnostic or indifferent to religion, this is best understood as his personal belief and an aspect of his character, and not a result of reasoned thought or a consideration of his personal experiences. Queen clearly expends considerable thought on political and social topics, rather than religious, metaphysical or pure philosophical topics. That's simply who he is.

In a very real sense, this aspect of Green Arrow's heroic identity was present from the beginning, as he modelled himself after the legendary hero Robin Hood, who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. By actively declaring his beliefs and seeking to persuade others around him about the correctness of his ideals, Green Arrow has become one of the most consistently evangelical superheroes in the DC Universe. ("Evangelical" is used here not with the Protestant meaning of the word, but according to the Webster's Dictionary definition, "marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause.") Oliver Queen has a vision of heroism that encompasses societal change and concern for the most overlooked members of society, rather than just derring-do and super-heroic fisticuffs.