Goats on a Hillside in Crete

As a younger man, whenever I thought of Crete, I thought of an idyllic scene with goats on a hillside. Like the picture above.

When I got to Crete, I found those kinds of goat scenes...but also these...

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And these... .

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Unless you look closely, it seems like the goats are flying in those two pictures. They're actually stepping from hoof-hold to hoof-hold, because they've learned over thousands of years how to scamper up a cliff that would make a veteran rock-climbing human with all the right mountaineering equipment pause and reconconsider.

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That cliff is too steep to climb! But nobody told the goats that, so they go ahead and climb them every day. There must be a healing lesson in that, or maybe something about prosperity. I don't know. But I liked the little goats, standing up there on little ledges so small you felt like they were wearing hovergear. Those hooves must be jetpacks! They just wagged their little tails and went , "Baaa, baaaa.." And then went back to foraging for lunch well out of reach of any predator, which is probably why they started climbing the rock walls thousands of years ago.

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Got a problem that seems impossible, a hill too steep to climb? Look at those little goats.

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Deadline for Lyceum Papers Extended to Aug 15

It's not too late. The Lyceum 2008 deadline for abstracts has been extended to August 15, 2008!

Professional scholars, graduate students, faculty, ministers, teachers, Friends in High Places (or wherever): You are invited to submit an abstract of a paper to present at the 1st Annual Meeting of the Lyceum at Unity Institute, November 3-6, 2008 at Unity Village, Missouri. The general theme is “Culturally Christian, Spiritually Unlimited,” however submissions are encouraged on any topic relevant to the study of spirituality, theology, pastoral studies, theological ethics, world religions, Church history, religion in contemporary society, ministry, and metaphysical Christianity.

We are looking for your best work: Original, cutting-edge scholarship that is well composed, well researched, and mechanically/technically competent. (Turabian or Chicago Style attribution preferred.)

E-mail a one-page abstract plus your CV and bio (especially teaching/publishing experience you may have had), to Victoria Cromwell, Lyceum coordinator, via e-mail / MS Word attachment:

cromwellvj@unityonline.org

Lyceum 2008 - November 3-6, Unity Village, Missouri

Beginning in November 2008, Unity Institute will host “The Lyceum at Unity Village,” an annual educational symposium open to teachers, writers and students of spiritual and theological studies around the globe. Guest speakers, visiting scholars, UI faculty members and selected students will present scholarly papers and participate in panel discussions of ground-breaking, sometimes provocative topics in religious studies.

The response has been amazing--over 100 scholars have inquired about presenting papers at the first Lyceum.

The Lyceum 2008 program includes lectures by biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, feminist theologian Nancy Howell, and Bishop John Shelby Spong, plus break-out sessions featuring academic papers and group discussions on a wide variety of significant topics by an assortment of scholars, teachers and students of religious studies.

Come and hear Bishop Spong as he critiques “The Future of Western Christianity and the American Dream” on election night. Wednesday afternoon Dr. Nancy Howell looks at human spirituality from the study of primate behavior in her lecture on "Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and the Future of Theological Reflection." Wednesday evening biblical scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman speaks on “From God the Problem to God the Solution: Different Biblical Responses to Human Suffering.” (We’re hoping Dr. Ehrman is not being clairvoyant about the election results!)

Other presenters include UI faculty, selected students and visiting scholars.

Registration information: http://www.unityonline.org/education/lyceumCulturallyChristianSpirituallyUnlimited.html