Minister’s Column
April 23, 2026
| I have been reviewing some works of ontology, or the study of being, particularly Paul Tillach’s The Courage to Be. What is neutrally applicable to all that is real. This has been a very dramatic year with very real losses, griefs, and deaths to be mourned. New organizing movements have emerged. Part of it seems to be an expression of the ontological difference between fear and anxiety. Fear has an object. I am afraid of this thing. Anxiety is fear of non-being. When we organize, we convert some of the anxiety into fear. I think that the tendency to focus on specific bills, laws, and political actors is part of the transformation of anxiety into fear. May we continue organizing, growing, and realizing our whole selves in ever larger communities. |