I just published some resources for Rudolf Otto and "The Idea of the Holy."

You can download it here.

Could there be an interfaith hymnal?

You can view the Hymnal post.

Medium Members Link – https://medium.com/@tomsims/interfaith-hymnal-90198cb82291

Free Friends Link – https://medium.com/@tomsims/interfaith-hymnal-90198cb82291?sk=e23f80d4ab262eb3ea83c70ed86d8481

Can we sing together some songs of the heart that point us toward Ultimate longings and reality?

Rudolf Otto coined the phrase, "Wholly Other" as he explored religious experience. He saw the intellectual world as having gone too far in leaning toward only rational thinking and emphasized the experience of the Other as something beyond that.

"Interfaith" is a tricky word in a world where many say, "I am not religious, but I am spiritual."

From my faith perspective, we are all spiritual in the sense that there is a spiritual essence to who we are.

There could never be an absolutely inclusive interfaith hymnal. We have different belief about important things.

Uniqueness always excludes, through self-exclusion at the intersection of beliefs.

However, inclusiveness of appreciation can be a wide embrace, and music is a common denominator expressing our common longings,

A criterion for a common hymnal might be a piece that points us inward, upward, or outward.

If I were to attempt such a hymnal, I might start with Harry Chapin's classic, "Circle", and the various covers that are covered by it.

Circle points in all three directions. Perhaps, 360 of them and infinitely more.

Could we sometimes sing from a common hymnal without abandoning our unique beliefs?