Harvey Cox

The comic, more than the tragic, because it ignites hope, leads to more, not less, participation in the struggle for read more

The comic, more than the tragic, because it ignites hope, leads to more, not less, participation in the struggle for a just world.

Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.

Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.

Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941 The dual role of personification of the past and read more

Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941 The dual role of personification of the past and preserver of a subcultural ethos, a role clergymen play quite avidly, takes its toll when they speak of God. Because of the role they have been willing to play, when they use the word God it is heard in a certain way. It is heard, often with deference and usually with courtesy, as a word referring to the linchpin of the era of Christendom (past) or as the totem of one of the tribal subcultures (irrelevant). The only way clergy can ever change the way in which the word they use is perceived is to refuse to play the role of antiquarian and medicine man in which the society casts them; but this is difficult, because it is what they are paid for.