busy monk  

 

June Newsletter Update

 

 

 

 Dear Friends,

 

It is almost summer time and instead of slowing down the pace of life at the Cornerstone Forum is definitely picking up. Gil is on the road, currently in Italy at the Colloquium on Violence and Religion conference. And my wife and I are trying to get ready for the wedding of our daughter later this summer.

 

The latest  CD/MP3 from the Famished Craving series, The Democratization of Fame, is now available on our webstore. In this 7th part of the series Gil Bailie follows the cultural effects of the Western world's increasing secularism as it moves away from its Judeo-Christian roots; learning what it truly means to be "cut off from revelation". Comparing a late 20th century example of post-modern nihilism in an outlier rock band with the 4th century BC story of Alexander of Macedonia who became the world's 'first famous man', Mr. Bailie asks the question, "What happens when there are too many 'Alexanders'?" Andy Warhol's quip that in our culture everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame is a foil from which modernity's increasingly democratized fame fetish is explored.

 

Complimentary CDs & MP3 for our donors 

 

Just as a reminder, our Sustaining donors (those contributing $300/yr or $25/mo) receive these CDs & MP3s for free each month. Regular donors at the $10/mo or $120/yr level receive emailed links to a complimentary downloadable MP3 version of these monthly audio files. And for just $5/mo or $60/yr all donors receive access to our members only Scriptorium web site where Gil is posting draft installments in his manuscript project. (More about that below) We encourage all those who find our work of value to consider becoming a regular supporter of our work.

 

The theme of this year's COV&R conference is "Disorder/Order - in History and Politics", and Gil is presenting a paper entitled "Building Bridges of Truth" and subtitled "The Church, the Pope and the survival of Europe". This paper is an abbreviated version of a much longer installment being prepared for the manuscript Gil has been working on since last Fall. Members of the Friends of the Cornerstone Forum - Scriptorium project will be able to read the shorter COV&R version when they log into the members only site. We decided to post the shorter version since it had received the more careful edits and benefits from being less than 20 pages in length.  

 

I continue to post excerpts from the Famished Craving series Gil recorded in the mid-1990's on Gil's weblog Reflections on Faith and Culture every three days or so. I am over 3/4 of the way through this 13 cassette tape series.    

 

We are grateful for your continued interest and support of our efforts. If you find our work of value please let your friends know about our work. In the coming days we will be needing all of the supporters we can find to help us continue this work, and 'word of mouth' recommendations are  most useful in helping those unfamiliar with our work to find us.  

 

Summer Blessings,  

Randy Coleman-Riese 

 

 

The Cornerstone Forum

According to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the coincidence of
theology and anthropology constitutes "the truly most exciting part of Christian faith."

The Cornerstone Forum is a product of that excitement and an effort to communicate it to others.