Author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. Click below to see her Feburary 2008 talk at the annual TED conference. The talk is about 20 minutes long.

If you thought of colleges as places where young people go to lose their faith, you might be heartened by a recent poll, reported on in USA Today:

From the pollsters come recent data showing that religion and spirituality are alive and well at colleges and universities. A recent study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA finds that more than half of college juniors say "integrating spirituality" into their lives is very important. Today's juniors also tend to pray (67%, according to the UCLA study) and 41% believe it's important, even essential, to "follow religious teachings" in everyday life.

To read more about the faith lives of today's college students, click here.

Joan Chittester, OSB, gathered in Jaipur, India, with many women leaders of different religious traditions to raise awareness of the potential for change through women and religion. Chicago Tribune correspondent, Laurie Goering writes, “Participants called the conference itself an example of what women with a talent for compassion, forgiveness and building trust might accomplish in resolving conflict. 

‘The moment people are in dialogue they no longer demonize each other: I'm not the occupier, and you're no longer the terrorist,’ said Rabbi Naamah Kelman, dean of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. She at one point shared the stage with Iran's Zarif, a moment she called "a start" to better relations between the two rival nations. 

"We have to take steps into territory where we are uncomfortable, where we are afraid, and establish some connection," urged Donna Markham, a Dominican nun from Toronto.”

Click here to read the entire story.

The Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction fourth annual poetry contest will be judged by a three-person panel. One of the panel members is Roger Midgett.

Roger has written poetry, novels, and screenplays. His poetry has been published in Exhibition, Pontoon, kaleidowhirl, Presence, and The Dupage Review. One of his poems, "Passage," was set to music by Paul Lewis as part of The Last Poem On Earth: A Jazz Oratorio that had its world premiere in April of 2007. Roger works as a mMental health professional and lives with his family on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, USA. He tinkers at odd hours in his laboratory of applied metaphysics.

If you would like to submit a poem, click here for the contest guidelines.

If you haven't yet gotten around to reading the survey on the religious landscape in the United States conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, there is a good summary of the data here.

And for a cool interactive map of the United States that interprets the Pew data visually, click here. (You need to have Flash installed on your computer to see it.)

The March 2008 issue of Presence is mailing now. Depending you where you live, some of you have your copies already and the rest will be arriving over the next six weeks. The editors would really like to know what you think of this issue.

Click Here to take a 5-minute survey about the March issue.

The University of Oxford's Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion is planning a three-year to figure out if belief in a divine being is naturally human.

"We are interested in exploring exactly in what sense belief in God is natural," said Justin Barrett, a psychologist and leading member of the research team, according to the Church of England Newspaper. "We think there is more on the nature side than a lot of people suppose."

You can read more about the details of the study here.

The Spiritual Directors International Web site is now multilingual. Sort of. Go to the home page, and then scroll all the way to the bottom. On the bottom tool bar, click on "Choose your language." A small Google Translate box will appear, and you can choose the language you'd like to read the Web site in. The translation isn't always perfect, but take a look at see what you think.

Because of Islamic teaching's discouragement of the representation of humans, particularly Muhammad, Wikipedia's entry about the Prophet has generated a storm of controversy because it includes representations of Muhammad taken from medieval manuscripts. The New York Times reports that in addition to numerous e-mails, the article has generated on online petition with more than 80,000 signatures (although it is not clear that all the signatures are unique).

Read the entire NYT story here.

[Via DallasNews Relgion Blog]

The Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction fourth annual poetry contest will be judged by a three-person panel. One of the panel members is Julie Leavitt.

Julie is a spiritual director, psychotherapist, and mom. Her love for dance has led her step by step on quite a journey of the soul (and sole). Her article, "God Danced the Day You Were Born" was published in the anthology, Jewish Spiritual Direction, by Barbara Breitman and Rabbi Avruhm Addison. She is on the core faculty of Lev Shomea, a Jewish spiritual direction training program in residence at Elat Chayyim retreat center in Connecticut.

If you would like to submit a poem, click here for the contest guidelines.

In the January 18 issue of Commonweal, Rita Ferrone writes about "A Common Word between Us and You"—an open letter originally signed by a group of 138 Muslim scholars, religious leaders, and intellectuals and written to all Christian churches, denominations, and individuals. She writes:

The “common word,” as the authors have discerned it, is found in the divine command to love God and to love one’s neighbor, imperatives found in the Qur’an, the Book of Deuteronomy, and the New Testament. Because of the centrality of these commandments to Christians and Muslims alike, the statement carries great weight and urgency. As the authors point out, obedience to God’s commands is a matter on which rest not only our earthly prospects for peace, but also the eternal fate of human souls. The statement concludes with an affirmation from the Qur’an that God made the world in such a way that there is a variety of religious communities, and that those communities should “vie with one another in good works.”

Ferrone notes that the letter could be a tool to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians in settings where one or the other group is in the minority. However, the response to the letter in the West has been mixed and hasn't yet generated enough attention. Click here to read her entire article.

The Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction fourth annual poetry contest will be judged by a three-person panel. The leader is Presence poetry editor Jinks Hoffmann.

Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann was born in 1943 and was raised in South Africa. She and her husband Alan immigrated to Canada in 1966, where they have lived since. She is a psychotherapist and a spiritual director in private practice in Toronto. From 2001-2003 Jinks trained to become a spiritual guide in a program called Lev Shomea, which means “listening heart” in Hebrew. 

If you would like to submit a poem, click here for the contest guidelines. 

Stay tuned for info about the other judges. 

G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes in a recent issue of USA Today about the quest of more and more people in the United States to discover an inner life. Many are seeking to develop spiritual practices. He writes:

Choosing a spiritual practice shouldn't be an arbitrary process, says Christopher Beeley, an Episcopal priest and assistant professor of early Christian theology at Yale Divinity School....

Community connections to support the inner life can take various forms. A person might share experiences in a faith community, in a support group, in psychotherapy or in spiritual direction, which involves working with a trained guide in matters of the spirit, Beeley says. He says the process of reflecting with partners should help clarify the ultimate values that guide an individual's life.

Read the entire article here.

Buddhist monk Ashin Nyanissara is standing up to the military crackdown in Myanmar by telling stories. 

Shielding himself with allegory, he crisscrosses the country giving lectures that draw on history and legend to remind people that rotten regimes have fallen before. As the generals try to crush the last remnants of resistance, he is cautiously keeping the fire alive.

The story appears in the January 14 issue of the Los Angeles Times. Click here to read why spitting on a hermit is not a good idea.

Spiritual Directors International expresses condolences to the family and global friends of Irish poet and anam cara [soulfriend] John O’Donohue. To learn more about John and write a tribute to John O’Donohue, letting the community know how John’s teachings and writings inspired your spiritual direction, please submit your reflections here, sdiworld.org/tributes-in-memoriam/johnodonohue.html.