Theology at sea

Last week, we have been sail­ing on the Dutch IJs­selmeer and the Wad­den Sea. We enjoyed the panoram­ic views with beau­ti­ful cloud for­ma­tions. Birds could be seen every­where, look­ing for fish or busy keep­ing an eye on their chil­dren. The moon rose full and bright orange when we anchored at the Lorenz locks. The weather …

About elves

I am tak­ing part in a study group about Lauda­to Si, the encycli­cal of pope Fran­cis. We use a study guide from CAFOD, a catholic aid agency. I find the meet­ings very inspir­ing. Here is a short video clip: The movie is a call for action, but  this has a spir­i­tu­al basis. The big theme of …

Christians and animals

Any­one who takes up the task of explain­ing the ethics behind veg­an­ism, draws their main argu­ments from the book Ani­mal Lib­er­a­tion by Peter Singer. Time to read this clas­sic from 1975 for myself. Singer is a util­i­tar­i­an, which means his ulti­mate goal is to min­i­mize the amount of suf­fer­ing in the world. Oth­er moral signposts, …

New energy in Paris

The pro­tag­o­nist of the book Flight Behav­iour by Bar­bara King­solver is look­ing for change. Since she became preg­nant at sev­en­teen years old, the course of her life has been deter­mined by oth­er peo­ple. The arrival of thou­sands of Monarch but­ter­flies in the moun­tains around the lit­tle vil­lage turns her life upside down. She becomes involved …