Spiritual Interests

My background is in Evangelical Christianity and traditional Judaism.

I spent a good few years at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studying the Hebrew Bible and Jewish Thought.

Eventually I left Evangelical Christianity and moved into a pluralistic and "aspiring" Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Messianism became the field of research for me personally, as an independent religious thinker, during and after graduate school.

However, what personally interests me more than messianism, is modern Jewish theology and spiritualism.

We will see if and how messianism relates to Jewish spirituality, for traditional adherents and for post-modern religious...

Picking Up Concepts

This humble platform is meant to clarify - what is messianism, and how it came about. It is also meant to provide knowledge that could be useful.

Messianism developed, it came into being. Along the way, a variety of new concepts grew with it, and other existing concepts grew into this developing concept.

In other words, this is a learning adventure not just to understand the past but to collect a variety of insights, concepts and knowledge that will be useful!

Theology can be seen as developing and clarifying religious concepts so that religious people may be empowered and positioned better to move beyond the intellectual tasks of critical thinking, and engage in the spiritual things.

Theology means to me religious concepts, not doctrine or creed. Such concepts lead us to spiritual things, and are somewhat the spiritual thing itself, where we meditate and are mindful of a spiritual truth.

Post-Modern Space

In this day and age, I do not believe that historically conflicting religions are still a threat to each other. Religions used to compete, like a sum-zero game. Most of that attitude came from strife, ignorance, and fundamentalism.

First of all, there is a greater enemy to all religions, and that is the rejection of religion and religious values and religious meaning, mostly from secularlism and materialism, anti-theism, or anti- faith in G-d, and indifference to the spiritual.

Additionally, that attitude is outdated and immature: One can be confident and rooted in their religion, while learning about another particular religion, and learning about religion in general - all in a safe, calm, open-minded manner.

One can be less fundamentalistic, and not necessarily less religious. You can be open to other ideas from other religions, and even make space in the mind that some of those other religions have something. One can even learn a thing or two from other religions.

Not About Judaism and Christianity

Christianity and Judaism have much to learn from each other, like the theologian Michael Wyschogrod explains, for Judaism, Christianity is the ultimate other religion, and this will never change. And because of this, dialogue is invaluable - to learn about yourself, your own religion, by dialogue with the other religion.

I do not possess capacity at this point, to think beyond Judaism and Christianity to other religions, namely Islam and Buddhism. Judaism and Christianity is where I know a thing or two.

But this series is not essentially about Judaism and Christianity. I don't really think in such terms. I am here inquiring in the history of messianism freely, totally disregarding religious separatism.

Christianity is directly relevant only to the first half of the series. The second half touches at mystical Judaism concepts of the middle ages up until modernity, and then there are only minor points of contact with Christianity.

What is more relevant later within this series is that messianism becomes a spiritual practice and religious experience. Messianism thus enters the realm of Jewish spirituality and has potential for people today.

Spiritual Potential?!

Spirituality today often is more into the meaningfulness that we find deep inside our souls, and in religion, without capacity to explain, nor feeling compelled to explain. These are intuitive spiritual feelings.

That is where it begins, it is a personal existential process, finding yourself, connecting to meaningful things, things with a feeling of something beyond the normative material existence of this world.

But that is not where it is supposed to end. That meaning is the the brink of deeper greater things, interaction within your psychological medium with the spiritual realm, the spiritual reality, the spiritual manifestations of G-d...

This is for me one aspect of why public popular discourse is so frustrating. It is worlds apart from the deep meaning of messianism and spirituality. It reduces such rich meaningful concepts into cheap social-political jabbing.

It is also why traditional debate between religions is not interesting. It is political and not relevant. It is not exploring the spiritual reality. It is not appreciating religious traditions with much power, meaning, wisdom, and truth within.

When one shifts the mind from critical rational objective thinking into openness, desire for truth, intuitive meaning... there is potential for the spiritual and mystical.

Religious traditions are a resource for spiritual insights and practices. It is like a cycle or triangle of religious tradition, existential meaning, and spiritual things.