d r a f t Good background discussion of acculturation in the context of archaeological digs at WindrosesiteorLittleRockVillagein Kankakee River Valley; Pokegon settlement on St. Joseph River north of South Bend, Ind., and Benack Village site in Marshall County, Ind. -- on Tippecanoe River https://www.potawatomiwildlifepark.com/history Elizabeth Bollwerk, ControllingAcculturation: APotawatomiStrategyforAvoidingRemoval," MidcontinentalJournalofArchaeology,Vol.31,No.1(Spring2006),pp.117-142 https://www.academia.edu/695665/Historical_Archaeology_A_Midwestern_Case_Study_Controlling_Acculturation_A_Potawatomi_Strategy_for_Avoiding_Removal Bollwerk of the International … Continue reading Potawatomi acculturation strategies for avoiding removal — article in archaeology journal (verbatim excerpts)
Early Catholic missions to Potawatomi people in northern Indiana, southern Michigan — misc. references
d r a f t Kevin Kilbane, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend Their presence drew the first Europeans to what is now northern Indiana. They played roles in the founding and growth of parishes and institutions such as what became the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College. They held strong in their faith … Continue reading Early Catholic missions to Potawatomi people in northern Indiana, southern Michigan — misc. references
Primary sources on Potawatomi Trail of Death in central Illinois, Sept.-Oct. 1838
Memorial at Fulton County Courthouse, Rochester, Ind. (Chris Light, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0). In September and October 1838, a band of Potawatomi Indians from northern Indiana crossed central Illinois under an armed guard of Indiana state militia. Their forced removal was known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death, and it was part of the Indian … Continue reading Primary sources on Potawatomi Trail of Death in central Illinois, Sept.-Oct. 1838
Trying to follow Pope Francis’ pastoral example on interfaith dialog and preaching from the pulpit of our lives
Francis and Lutheran leaders, Malmö, Sweden, Oct. 31, 2016 (Lutheran World Federation). Back in the 1990s when I was first teaching at a liberal arts college founded by the Ursuline sisters, I met a Norwegian-American pietist Lutheran of the older generation at a church potluck. He asked me what it was like teaching at a … Continue reading Trying to follow Pope Francis’ pastoral example on interfaith dialog and preaching from the pulpit of our lives
How do you react to abuse without becoming a hater yourself? A ‘nasty’ Episcopal bishop gives us a role model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNfrbAztlcs What these paradoxes of opposites are all about is a phenomenology in which it is part of the very nature of passionate conflict to turn one into his own enemy. “We become what we hate” is an old yoga maxim. And in watching the conflict of the Irish Troubles, the Dublin yogi, George William … Continue reading How do you react to abuse without becoming a hater yourself? A ‘nasty’ Episcopal bishop gives us a role model
Saints, sinners (an echo of Luther’s simul justus et peccator?), politics and ‘both-and’ dialog in Pope Francis’ interview
Editor's (admin's) note. When I shared this on Facebook, I introduced the link with this headnote: "New post to my spirituality blog. In which I'm reminded: (2) We're complicated; (2) Pope Francis' remark about saints and sinners sounds like Luther; and (3) it's always a good idea to look for 'both-and' dialog and reconcile differences." … Continue reading Saints, sinners (an echo of Luther’s simul justus et peccator?), politics and ‘both-and’ dialog in Pope Francis’ interview
What’s the right way to do centering prayer? ‘Pray as you can’: A stripped-down Trappist spiritual practice for today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IKpFHfNdnE Editor's note (Oct. 17). I started this a couple of days before I had a tumor removed from my bladder. But I ran out of time, and I was in no mood last night to stay up late journaling before a 5:30 a.m. check-in time today. The procedure went off as scheduled; I'm home … Continue reading What’s the right way to do centering prayer? ‘Pray as you can’: A stripped-down Trappist spiritual practice for today
‘Let’s take care of it’: (Mostly) Lutheran resources on Laudato Si’ and ELCA’s 1993 statement on Caring for Creation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vjxWnFnKFo (YouTube, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Nov. 5, 2021) The power of God is present at all places, even in the tiniest tree leaf. Do you think God is sleeping on a pillow in heaven? ... God is wholly present in all creation, in every corner, behind you and before you. -- Martin Luther … Continue reading ‘Let’s take care of it’: (Mostly) Lutheran resources on Laudato Si’ and ELCA’s 1993 statement on Caring for Creation
DRAFT ‘Now rest beneath night’s shadow …’ DRAFT
d r a f t https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKyiGWYOQLU St. Thomas Boys' Choir Leipzig, 2016 (CHOR GESANG - Das Musikmagazin). "He who sings prays twice" -- St. Augustine (Catechism of the Catholic Church) Maybe I shouldn't admit this in public, but I've had prayer at the top of my B list for quite a while now. After a … Continue reading DRAFT ‘Now rest beneath night’s shadow …’ DRAFT
Laudato Si’, climate change and intersectionality: Not really somebody else’s problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d51EtDceF38&t=106s An ongoing discussion of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' is changing the way I think about intersectionality. It first came up several weeks ago in a Zoom dialog on the Laudato Si' Action Platform. The dialog, conducted by the Springfield Dominican Sisters' action program committee, would have been held at the motherhouse. It was … Continue reading Laudato Si’, climate change and intersectionality: Not really somebody else’s problem
The four core values or pillars of Dominican life, a presentation to 2019 associate candidates’ class
Shared here from YouTube for convenient reference. Begins with a group discussion following the steps of lectio divina. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3h7N7VyVBA&t=191s The blurb on YouTube summarizes it like this: Sister Marilyn Jean Runkel, OP shared what the four pillars of Dominican life are to the 2019 associate candidate class on Sunday, October 13, 2019. The sharing and … Continue reading The four core values or pillars of Dominican life, a presentation to 2019 associate candidates’ class
Upon this chipotle I will build my church and Covid shall not prevail against it — the Gospel according to St. AutoCorrect
A bit of levity on a grim topic Friday afternoon ... brought to you by one of those automatic spell-checking devices. And a moral to the story -- It's fun to have fun with typos, but we all need to be vaxxed. It started with a notice on the Capitol Fax blog, a portal maintained … Continue reading Upon this chipotle I will build my church and Covid shall not prevail against it — the Gospel according to St. AutoCorrect
New York Times op ed, podcast on evangelicals, US religious history by Molly Worthen of UNC-Chapel Hill
Molly Worthen, historian at UNC-Chapel Hill who studies 20th-century evangelicals (and has a keen grasp of theology qua theology, has an essay on the culture wars in the New York Times op ed section that starts with St. Augustine, mentions the "exhausted majority" from the Tribes of America study and ends up by suggesting the … Continue reading New York Times op ed, podcast on evangelicals, US religious history by Molly Worthen of UNC-Chapel Hill
Supreme Court’s drift to right-wing fundamentalism alarms ACLU, Jewish temple in Philadelphia
Editor's (moderator's) note. In early November the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case brought by a Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia seeking to opt out of the city's requirement that social service agencies serve clients irrespective of race, creed or sexual orientation. It was one of the very first cases heard after … Continue reading Supreme Court’s drift to right-wing fundamentalism alarms ACLU, Jewish temple in Philadelphia
My article on Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay, Springfield College and Ursuline Academy (1999, in the Sleepy Weasel)
https://www.facebook.com/peter.ellertsen/posts/2807407206186974 Editor's (admin's) note: Facebook shared the above post, from 2017, this morning as one of its "Memories." It shows an inscription by Vachel Lindsay on the inside title page of a book he apparently donated to SCI. I used a copy to illustrate an article I wrote in 1999 for The Sleepy Weasel. I … Continue reading My article on Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay, Springfield College and Ursuline Academy (1999, in the Sleepy Weasel)
Notes & quotes: ‘How Our Lady of Guadalupe Became Lutheran’
Luisa Feline Freier, "How Our Lady of Guadalupe Became Lutheran: Latin American Migration and Religious Change," Migraciones internacionales [Tijuana], 5, no. 2 (July-Dec. 2009) http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1665-89062009000200006. xxx [Luisa Feline Freier is a Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Universidad del Pacífico in Lima, Peru. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from … Continue reading Notes & quotes: ‘How Our Lady of Guadalupe Became Lutheran’
Can the free exercise clause be used to establish white Christian religious norms? We may be about to find out
[Roger] Williams described the true church as a magnificent garden, unsullied and pure, resonant of Eden. The world he described as “the Wilderness,” a word with personal resonance for him. Then he used for the first time a phrase he would use again, a phrase that although not commonly attributed to him has echoed through … Continue reading Can the free exercise clause be used to establish white Christian religious norms? We may be about to find out
SCI institutional history on the college website up to the time of its 2003 merger with Benedictine
Found this morning while I was zapping old files from my hard drive, a cheerful, public relations-y history of Springfield College in Illinois that I wrote for the college website shortly after its "partnership" with Benedictine University Lisle, which evolved into an outright merger and ended abruptly in 2014 when BenU closed down the Springfield … Continue reading SCI institutional history on the college website up to the time of its 2003 merger with Benedictine
Notes & Quotes: Article on Joe Biden’s faith in The Washington Post
Screen grab of the Post's website this morning. Seen today on the Washington Post website (the second Sunday after Epiphany, no less!), a perceptive article on President-elect Joe Biden's Catholic faith that raises some of the same issues I hope to touch on in my expanded study of cultural issues in the old Swedish-American Augustana … Continue reading Notes & Quotes: Article on Joe Biden’s faith in The Washington Post
Yet another reminder Roger Williams had it right: When we mix religion and politics, we get politics
[Roger] Williams described the true church as a magnificent garden, unsullied and pure, resonant of Eden. The world he described as “the Wilderness,” a word with personal resonance for him. Then he used for the first time a phrase he would use again, a phrase that although not commonly attributed to him has echoed through … Continue reading Yet another reminder Roger Williams had it right: When we mix religion and politics, we get politics
Notes on ‘melting pot’ from America’s website
By Cecilia González-Andrieu, a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, Calif., and a contributing writer for America. Excerpts: We know ourselves heirs of a promise that transcends the brief span of our individual lives; the promise of the resurrection. At the same time, we know that we will get there not … Continue reading Notes on ‘melting pot’ from America’s website
Of outward signs, inward grace and Pastor Nadia’s prayer for a time of pandemic when the sacraments can’t be celebrated
Screenshot from Pastor Nadia's FB post. Click HERE for permalink. Click HERE for text. Sometimes you find exactly what you need at exactly the right moment, and you don't know why. Serendipity? Coincidence? The Holy Spirit at work? In 12-step recovery meetings, sometimes you'll hear the old-timers say a coincidence is what you call it … Continue reading Of outward signs, inward grace and Pastor Nadia’s prayer for a time of pandemic when the sacraments can’t be celebrated
Mindfulness: Notes on a Zen breakout session at an ELCA synod meeting
I like the way this guy operates. He's Travis Fitzgold, a Lutheran pastor and director of the Zen Learning Project (ZLP), a spiritual practice community in Austin. Texas, and he helped me figure out what this blog is about (even though I've never met him and I'm sure he's never read it). You might even … Continue reading Mindfulness: Notes on a Zen breakout session at an ELCA synod meeting
Ordinary Time 