Jaroslav Pelikan

This morning, American Public Media’s “Speaking of Faith” replayed an interview with the late, great Jaroslav Pelikan on creeds and how they function within religious belief. Excellent stuff. One of Pelikan’s last big projects before his death resulted in the book Credo.

Pelikan once came up with one of the all-time great quotes on this subject: “Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”

Two things strike me about creeds. One, they contain a sparkling minimalism. When you think of all the volumes of Christian theology written over the centuries, the Christian creeds are exceptionally short summaries of belief. That minimalism is even more true of the Jewish shema or Islam’s shahadah.

Two, their spoken power has a poetic resonance. When I listen and speak the Apostles Creed, I hear a unique poetic rhythm at work. Creeds are meant to be sung.

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Jakarta, Indonesia (Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images)

Ramadan, the month of fasting, is a time of great joy throughout the Muslim world. At the end I have put some pictures of scenes from around the globe. The pictures are from a collection on the Boston Globe website.

Krista Tippett also did a very nice program this Sunday on her wonderful NPR radioshow called Speaking of Faith, where each week some faith group is highlighted. In this Sunday’s program, titled Revealing Ramadan, a number of Muslims from all over USA (and some from elsewhere) shared their stories. The stories were about Ramadan and also about their journey to Islam or, for some, back to Islam.

Alee Ramadhan Sr. 65 years ago speakingoffaith.publicradio.org

There are stories of also sharing their experience with non-Muslims. Steven Longden in Manchester UK talks about his journey to becoming a Muslim and then later discovering that his great, great, great grandfather converted…

“Easter is a journey.”  This welcome reminder was central to an Easter message from Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.  In a literal sense, it reminds us that Easter is a whole season, not just a single day.  Eastertide, or the Easter season, lasts until Pentecost, which this year falls on May 31.  That gives Christians 50 days to celebrate the Resurrection in a particular and intentional way.  But one might ask, if we’re supposed to celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday, as we are, what need is there for an Easter season?

I think of it this way.  Resurrection, like conversion, is a process as much as a destination.  New life often comes in a form that we don’t recognize, such as an encounter with a person we don’t much like, or having to take a job that we don’t think suits our talents very well, or moving to a new place…