Thursday, April 28, 2011

Greg Smith, Interview #133

Name: Greg Smith

Where you live:  Naples, FL

What you do as a vocation or avocation? Research, speak and write about education, especially relating to technology and faith.  Currently, I work in the Distance Education Department of a private university, serve as the Director of Adult Education in a progressive Protestant church, and write a daily blog about matters of faith that matter.

Your two favorite books: The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others (2004) by Scot McKnight and To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter (2010)

Your two favorite songsSomos Uno en Cristo (We’re United in Jesus) and Third Day’s Offering

Why you are interested in spirituality? I understand spiritually as a means of experiencing what it means to be human.  In the words of Dr. James Fowler, “ The human calling – which we take to be universal – is to undergo and participate in the widening inclusiveness of the circle of those who count as neighbor, from the narrowness of our familial beginnings toward real solidarity with a commonwealth of being.  This calling means movement from the limiting love of those who love us and on whom we are dependent toward the limitless love that comes from genuine identification with the source and center of all being (Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, rev. 1999, p. 60).

Your favorite quote: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."  (Mark 12: 28-31, NIV)

Your favorite web sites: to read: www.patheos.com/Religion-Portals.html and www.pewforum.org/ // to interact: Facebook and Twitter

Your hero? Jesus, the one who taught and lived the way of love

A spiritual lesson you hope to learn? contentment

A place in the world where you feel spiritually "connected?" online

My daily blog about matters of faith that matter: www.sowhatfaith.com

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