The word Armonia, and its English equivalent Harmony, come from Greek harmonia via Latin, and ultimately from the Indo-European root ar-, which had the sense of ‘joining’ or ‘fitting together’, very much like the modern sense of an orderly, congruent and aesthetically pleasing arrangement of parts. The English word arm, in its two senses of ‘limb’ and ‘weapon’ also comes from the...
Introduction The concept of grace, from the Greek charis, has been central to all Christian thought as a paradigm for harmony between God and individual human beings and, moreover, for lifting humanity above its pettiness and its self-destructiveness. The consensus has always been that grace is the power of God’s love in awakening a loving response from individual persons inspiring them to excel...
Part One Introduction to the Concept Index Teaching How to Think Two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher, Cicero, taught as a foundation principle the following wisdom: “Before you discuss anything whatsoever, first define your terms”. In January, 2016, Tucker Carlson, the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Caller, explained the rationale for this wisdom, “You can’t fix a problem...
When I first read Sufis of Andalusia as a teenager, I knew that I had met a visionary far beyond the limits of anyone I had read or heard about. Ibn al-ʿArabī, I know now, was in the ocean without shore, but he was there as someone who, like the prophets and messengers and friends (awliyāʾ), stayed near the shore: the ones who go deep and drown, he says, benefit neither themselves or others...
Religion is supposed to provide guidance for human beings so they can better honor and glorify God and live peacefully with others, especially with those who share the belief in the same Creator. But the percentage of those among the followers of the three Abrahamic religions who seem to resent or flat out hate each other is much higher than those who understand religion to be a tool for deeper...
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