APOLOGIAreport

> trac ki n g s p i r i t u a l t r e n d s i n t h e 2 1s t ce n t u r y
v o l u m e 2 1 : 3 0 ( 1,3 0 3 ) / A u g u s t 2 4 , 2 0 1 6

In this issue:
HOMOSEXUALITY is queer a clue
to where the movement is headed?
KING, KAREN an update on her
Gospel of Jesuss Wife fiasco
SCIENCE rejecting God, but
finding faith through the lens of
neuroscience?
YOGA finally, a definitive answer
to the vexing question: Is it religious
or not?
Publisher: Apologia www.apologia.org
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Copyright 2016 by Apologia. All rights
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HOMOSEXUALITY
Out of the Box: Queer has gone from a
slur to a radically inclusive term but if
anyone can be queer, does the word lose
its potency? by Jenna Wortham helps
answer the question: Where is the gay
rights movement going?
The speed with which modern society
has adapted to accommodate the worlds
vast spectrum of gender and sexual identities may be the most important cultural
metamorphosis of our time. Facebook,
which can be seen as a kind of social census, now offers nearly 60 different gender
options, including questioning and bigender or no gender at all. In a new commercial for Calvin Klein, Young Thug, a
slender rapper prone to wearing dresses,
states that he feels theres no such thing
as gender. The Oxford English Dictionary
recently added Mx, a neutral replacement
for titles like Mr. and Mrs. ... And queer has
come to serve as a linguistic catchall for this
broadening spectrum of identities, so much
so that people who consider themselves
straight, but reject heteronormativity, might
even call themselves queer. But when everyone can be queer, is anyone?
The word queer has always contained
the shimmer of multitudes; even etymologists cant settle on one origin story. ...
This halo of negativity began to dim
somewhat in the 1970s, when the word was
reclaimed by activists and academics. Not
only did its deliberate looseness make it a
welcome alternative to the rigidity of gay and
lesbian, it also turned the alienating force of
the slur into a point of pride. (Though it is
still considered offensive by some.)
In 1990, Queer Nation, a prominent and
controversial gay-rights group, put it this
way ... Using queer is a way of reminding
us how we are perceived by the rest of the
world. ...
Increased acceptance of queerness has
only led to increased commodification. ...
Someday, maybe well recognize that
queer is actually the norm, and the notion of
static sexual identities will be seen as austere
and reductive. New York Times Magazine,
Jul 17 16, pp13-15. <www.goo.gl/PYHgGz>

KING, KAREN
The Atlantic issued an update (Sep 16, p13)
to its story The Unbelievable Tale of Jesuss
Wife by Ariel Sabar (AR 21:28, <www.
goo.gl/OLcMDO>), which concludes: The
Harvard Theological Review, according
to The Boston Globe, is not retracting the
paper King published about the papyrus.
The mission of Harvard Divinity School,
its faculty, and higher education more generally is to pursue truth through scholarship, investigation, and vigorous debate, the
schools dean, David N. Hempton, said in
a statement <www.goo.gl/xo0cLE>. HDS
is therefore grateful to the many scholars,
scientists, technicians, and journalists who
have devoted their expertise to understanding the background and meaning of the
papyrus fragment. HDS welcomes these
contributions and will continue to treat the
questions raised by them with all the seriousness they deserve.
Sabar, however, notes that the eminent Harvard historian of early Christianity Karen L. King declined to reveal who
owned the papyrus, and eventually told
Sabar that she hadnt engaged the provenance questions at all. Right. <www.goo.
gl/tJZie4> (mid-page)
SCIENCE
Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My
Faith and Found It Again Through Science,
by Mike McHargue1 <mikemchargue.com>
the publisher explains that McHargue
draws on his personal experience to tell the
unlikely story of how science led him back
to faith. Among other revelations, we learn
what brain scans reveal about what happens when we pray; how fundamentalism
affects the psyche; and how God is revealed
not only in scripture, but in the night sky, in
subatomic particles, and in us.
Publishers Weekly (Jul 16 #2) adds:
This book chronicles his personal journey
through a period of atheist rejection of religion, followed by a return to a very different type of Christian practice. Through the
lens of neuroscience, McHargue makes his
(continued on next page)

science (continued)

case for valuing religion not for its factual

explanatory power but rather for its ability
to give meaning to human existence. Like
many personal narratives, this memoir will
be most appreciated by readers who share
the authors struggle to square a rational,
material understanding of the universe with
an irrational yearning for the transcendent.
PW concludes that for those who fear science will rob them of both God and Christian community, this work may offer muchneeded hope that Christianity and science
can coexist.3
What odds for stability can be given
when faith finds its origin in something so
constantly subject to revision as science?
YOGA
Heres an ironic solution to the Yoga: Religious or Not? controversy. It sure took long
enough for someone to apply the obvious
conclusion: Yoga, as it happens, isnt religious ... its SPIRITUAL.
The Path of Modern Yoga: The History of
an Embodied Spiritual Practice, by Elliott
Goldberg2 Fitness trainer Goldberg presents a richly detailed examination of modern yoga, beginning on the opening pages

APOLOGIAreport

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with Shri Yogendra and his experience of

meeting his guru in 1916 at the age of 18.
Goldberg divides the book into three major
parts: Divesting Yoga of the Sacred, Making
Yoga Dynamic, and Making Yoga Sacred
Again. In each section he explores some
of the major players (11 in all) who shaped
the development of modern yoga, including Yogendra, who eventually stripped hatha
yoga of what he called its mysticism and
inertia and ushered its conversion from intimate devotion to a single guru into the modern-day class session with a yoga instructor
and fellow students. Other luminaries profiled here are Swami Kuvalayananda (who
lived with a pet deer), T. Krishnamacharya
(a bullying yet brilliant innovator), and the
Russian-born Indra Devi (who used yoga to
combat anxiety and exchanged her Western
garments for a trademark sari). As Goldberg traces yogas path from sacred ritual to
physical exercise to embodied spiritual practice, yoga practitioners and scholars alike
will be fascinated by these yogin pioneers

and their colorful stories. Goldberg offers a

vibrant and accessible study of yogas history,
growth, and transformation. 3 Publishers
Weekly, Jul 16 #1
SOURCES: Monographs

1 Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost

My Faith and Found It Again Through
Science, by Mike McHargue (Convergent,
2016, hardcover, 288 pages) <www.goo.gl/
bcxmWH>
2 The Path of Modern Yoga: The History
of an Embodied Spiritual Practice, by Elliott
Goldberg (Inner Traditions, 2016, hardcover, 512 pages) <www.goo.gl/djmwFR>
SOURCES: Periodicals

3 Publishers Weekly, <www.ow.ly/

lBcRE>

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