This is a paper I did in university in 2003. I presented it at the University of Lethbridge at the Religious Studies Conference. The Violent Vehicle: Fight Club as a Buddhist Path to Enlightenment 4/1/2003 Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk . The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton , Brad Pitt , and Helena Bonham Carter . [1] Besides painfully obvious utterances by Edward Norton’s character, such as “I was the Zen master” [i] and his haiku writing, the movie Fight Club has many Buddhist parallels. Edward Norton’s character is unnamed (hinting at Anatman ) and will be referred to as ‘Jack’. His life loosely parallels the Life of the Buddha, as he begins to realize that there is something oddly not right about existence ( Dukkha ), he sets forth on a journey to learn how to quench his discomfort. On this journ...
Lust and Chastity 2 Sam 11:1-27 1 Cor 6:12-20 Matt 5:27-30 Hear the sermon here A couple years after I became a Christian I spent a month at a retreat center- actually at Kingsfold, which is where we are going this week for our parish retreat. I spent three weeks in a fasting cabin there. It was one of the most important times in my life. That amount of time separated from television, radio, magazines and the general culture provided time for me to think about who I was and who God is. The solitude and silence allowed me to hear deeply into my own soul. It was a time when I heard God and my own thoughts very clearly. There was a lot that came out of that experience for me. One particular experience happened when I left the retreat center to go back home. I stopped at a gas station and I remember looking at the magazine rack and being shocked at the blatant sexuality. There were some images ...
1Kings 3:16-28; Gal5:16-26; Luke12:13-34 Today we are continuing our series on the Seven Deadly Sins- the seven major diseases of the soul and the graces that cure them. Today we are dealing with 2 of the Seven Sins- Envy and Greed. These two can seem somewhat related, and they are sometimes confused, so it might be helpful if we define them alongside each other. Envy is the pain or sadness we feel when someone possesses some object, quality, or status that we don’t possess. Related to this, we will also feel a kind of pleasure when we see something bad happen to the person we envy. Envy doesn’t necessarily want the thing, they just don’t want the other person to have it. Envy is different than admiration. I can admire a saint and be drawn deeper into relationship with God. Admiration can motivate me to be better than I am. The Catholic theologian Peter Kreeft says, "Aspiration looks up and says, 'I aspire to be up there too.' ...Envy, on the other ha...
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