spontaneous studies in theology

Social workers, teachers, pastors and me - subtitler and queen of denim - gather twice a month this winter/spring to discuss a book. 

We meet in a drafty church attic and keep safety distances. Most of us didn't know each other before and have never seen each other without a face mask.

In the book, a Swedish theologian analyzes how shopping, cults, nationalism and the new technologies (among other things) try to fill the void that appeared when we abolished God and everything supernatural. When we demystified the world and lost the magic. Because human beings long for something beyond a mechanical, dull universe.

I haven't discussed anything like this since my university days. The group was spontaneously formed and I joined by mistake. But my favourite topic for study is cultural movements, the paradigms that form our society, the major developmental arcs throughout history and especially now. 

We discuss why ultranationalism attracts people, how Google's algorithms affect our minds, the religious fanatics that messed up our youth. Someone cried already in our first meeting, someone else shared a very painful story during the second.

I feel my understanding and knowledge expanding. I discover new aspects of myself, such as the fact that I sometimes feel embarrassed by my own opinions and threatened by criticism of the environment I grew up in, even when I freely criticize it myself.

There is so much to learn.