Neuschwanstein walk
Last Sunday we headed west of Munich for the Alps – that is, the more moderate mountains of the Allgaeu. I picked an easy mountain hike – The Great Tegelberg Circle – for the family, including our Labrador, who climbs like a mountain goat. The route offers lots of views, but requires a bit of...
Glai Hamas – Mountain Biking in the Baverian Alps
By fallen Angel “Glai Hamas” – “we are almost there”, said the fellow biker while Mountain Biking in the Bavarian Alps when he passed me with a soft Munich dialect. The remark was meant and taken as encouragement, while I struggled up the mountain on a very hot summer day around Walchensee in the Bavarian...
Richard Wagner from Scene to Scene utilizing C.G. Jung
“Wagner’s Ring and Its Symbols” originally published 1984. (Engish and German article). I wanted to learn more about Wagner and bought therfore recently a used copy of the English musicologist Robert Donington. He provides an allegorical interpretation of the Wagners Ring Cycle according to the criteria music, drama and the psychological analysis of C.G. Jung. I have...
Rainy Götterdämmerung in Munich.
This is a very personal take on the opera cycle by Richard Wagner’s “Ring” from a Jungian perspective, how the themes of the Ring, though universal, specifically apply to our lives today. Kent Nagano The Munich Opera Festival draws for over 130 years opera fans to Munich, and as one of the oldest international festival...
Gods tiny particles
The physics world and the German press were exited with early reports that the elusive “God particle” had been detected at CERN’s during their LHC experiments. Accidentally CERNs technician put an internal video in youtube without GEMA permission. I may believe CERN cannot control Gods tiny HIGGS particles, but their own web? Long live wikileaks. The so-called Higgs Boson was predicted 40 years ago by British physicist...
Taking a stand for Christianity
“Truth is not determined by a majority vote.” ― Pope Benedict XVI What we are seeing in our time is a generation, where truth is relative to what people wish to believe. Those with this mindset have now infiltrated and are actively taking over our Christian institutions. It is influenced by a Science of Religion that was...
Catholic Church – Bells and Smells and proud of it
Catholic Church – Bells and Smells and proud of it . Herr Mattussek hat in jedem Argument Substanz gezeigt und in kurzen Sätzen immer den Punkt getroffen. Die süffisanten Einwürfe von Claudius Seidl waren immerhin unterhaltsam. Selbst da punktet der Interviewer nicht: “Bells and smells” sagte ein Benediktinerpriester kürzlich zu mir selbstironisch. Die katholische Kirche ist sich ihrer Vorteile bewusst....
My Chinese horoscope sign of Serpent
Everywhere the symbol of the serpent and dragon ist connected with the (d)evil. That does hurt me a little bit, as I am Serpent in the Chinese Zodiac – which is the least favored sign. The snake has a bad rap not only according to my wife, but certainly within Christianity. In defense of myself...
Conversion from the Top – A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552-1610
Das Buch ist eine vollständige, zuweilen recht wissenschaftliche und sehr detaillierte Biographie , dessen Kapitel hauptsächlich nach Wirkungsorten und in den letzten zwei Kapiteln nach sein Hauptwerken angeordnet sind. Der Autor ist Chinese-American, der daher auch chinesische Quellen berücksichtigten kann. Das Buch wird vom Kapitel Beijing an ausserordentlich lebendig, und brilliant, geradezu einzigarig wenn es Riccis Argumentation beschreibt....
The Jesuits – Ricci, Schall, Verbiest and the ancient observatory in Beijing China.
The ancient observatory in Beijing China, once part of the city walls, is mounted on the battlements of a ten-meter watchtower close to the “Second Ring Road”. As one of the oldest and famous observatories in the world, it covers an area of 10,000 square meters. Actually Beijing’s first (innermost) ring road, the 2nd Ring...
The observatory at Maragha
In 1971 and 1972 I traveled parts of the Silk Road on my way from Europe to Syria and later to Afghanistan. The road stretched for thousands kilometers leading caravans across scorching deserts, picturesque oases, and mountain passes but obviously travelling through the USSR was not possible at this time. Many of cities and entire...
Christentum und Wissenschaft entlang der Seidenstrasse. Christentum in Asien.
Die verlorene Einheit – Verstossung des Nestorianismus Der Nestorianismus der Antiochenischen Schule nahm die gegensätzliche Position zum Monophysitismus Alexandriens (Ägypten) ein. Die Antiocher gingen den “Zweinaturenweg”, die Alexandriner dagegen lehrten, dass die menschliche und die Logosnatur immer eins seien. Letztlich war das der Unterschied zwischen Stoa (Dyophysiten) und Platonikern (Monophysititen). Durch bewusst verfälschende Darstellung des...