[April 1999 journal entry]
Among the variables that contribute to an accounting for my break/withdrawal from the ‘religious’ sphere/paradigm are:
Among the variables that contribute to an accounting for my break/withdrawal from the ‘religious’ sphere/paradigm are:
- not being deeply (i.e., to the point of being unable to resist or to break free) marked/stamped by my fundamentalist upbringing in the ‘religious’ sphere,
- having an early defining life experience with the depth/breadth of human suffering – for me, my first wife’s illness/death – that came before prolonged investment in the ‘religious’ sphere and that did not come after my undergraduate and graduate education,
- having doctoral training in historical methodology, philosophy, antiquities, 17th century history, 19th century history, 20th century history,
- having graduate teaching experience in spirituality, ethics, history, systematic theology, philosophy of religion.