Reflecting upon ‘The Image of The City’ by Kevin Lynch
Reflecting upon ‘The Image of The City’ by Kevin Lynch

Published in 1959, it was the seminal work of Kevin Lynch, an MIT professor in the school of Architecture and Planning.  His book is about the way cities look, or rather the mental picture that we all form in our heads of cities. His book looks at three American cities: Boston, Jersey City (Part of the New York metropolitan area), and Los Angeles. So, we are surveying the city much like an artist might survey a piece of art, it brings to mind the Goethe quote that architecture is like “frozen music”. It differs however, in that unlike the semi-quaver on the page, or paint on the canvas, cities lack such controlled parameters; they vary, being affected by time, weather, and the interactions of those who populate them…

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Lewis ConnollyComment
The Aesthetic of the Hike
The Aesthetic of the Hike

The obvious question – ‘Why would one want to undertake the Appalachian Trail hike?’

I’ll avoid the trite/clichéd answer, as the George Mallory quote goes, “because it is there!”

Instead, I will lean on my own academic of choice and quote Carl Jung, “people don’t have ideas, ideas have people.”

This quote comes much closer, I think, to how I experienced making the choice to walk the trail. I watched some videos. I watch a lot of videos about a lot of things, but the videos on the trail spoke to me, the idea captured me. This was about five years ago, and ever since then, the question has not been whether I will walk to Appalachian Trail, but when.

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Lewis ConnollyComment
What is the Gospel?
What is the Gospel?

Here is a talk I gave at my church, Watershed Charlotte. The topic was on 'What is the Gospel?' As in, what do I personally understand the Gospel (the good news) to be?

The word ‘Gospel’ first conjures up for me what I consider to be the American evangelical meaning. That being, that the Gospel (the good news) is that Jesus died for you, for your sins, and that if you believe in him, you will have eternal life (which is to say you will earn your heavenly reward). It’s all about that utopia we will reach at the closing of the day - the pie in the sky when you die by and by…

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ChristianityLewis ConnollyCarl Jung, Parable of the Good Samaritan, Kingdom of GodComment
Thoughts on Transcendentalism from a recovering Fundamentalist
Thoughts on Transcendentalism from a recovering Fundamentalist

I did my first degree at a conservative Bible college. In my first year I would have assented to ‘The Fundamentals’ (the set of essays written from 1910 to 1915) from which ‘Christian fundamentalists’ derive their label. In my second year I began asking awkward questions; these questions slowly drew me away from fundamentalism (or evangelicalism) down broader avenues of enquiry. A question arises in the mind, an unknowing, an opening, and our initial impulse is to find the answer…

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Lewis ConnollyComment
Not quite a dream, not quite awake
Not quite a dream, not quite awake

I’m driving out along North Graham Street on the Sabbath; I pull into a parking lot in front of a non-descript building. Buildings here in Charlotte, and perhaps in America generally, are coy to reveal what human behavior transpires within; the architecture rarely offers up much of a clue. But there is a sign out front, a truly hideous and slightly pixilated sign…

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Misc.Lewis ConnollyComment
Water into Wine
Water into Wine

Water into Wine

In this article I am going to discuss Jesus’ water into wine miracle. By way of introduction however, I’m going to discuss the following quote by C. S. Lewis: “Either this man (Jesus) was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse” (Mere Christianity, pg. 56). In this exceedingly reductive argument, Lewis gives us three options, and compels us to choose one. This argument is evidently fallacious as there are not three options, there are many many more…

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ChristianityLewis ConnollyComment
The Bookman: Walt Whitman 1919
The Bookman: Walt Whitman 1919

I am publishing on my website this Walt Whitman centenary edition of The Bookman (May 1919) as a PDF, as I believe it is not otherwise available in the public domain. The Bookman was a literary monthly magazine based in London.

“A still quickening pulse beats in his writings, and the mystic charge he gave – “this is not book; who touches this, touches a man” – serves to point to an occult and present survival in his pages of what a Sufist might teach us to call “the liberated essence” of himself.”

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Lewis ConnollyComment
Thoughts on Grief
Thoughts on Grief

On Halloween Day, October 31st 1998, my mother died. I was ten years old. There can be no doubt that this event shaped me unlike any other, in ways which are entirely evident to me, and in ways that remain unknowable. The death of a parent has a peculiar effect on a child; it creates an unresolvable question, an inability to know oneself apart from the grief suffered. Because of course, no ten-year-old knows who they are, they don’t know where life will take them, and they don’t know who they will become. All of which is to say…

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ChristianityLewis ConnollyComment
Empathy, Pity, and Compassion
Empathy, Pity, and Compassion

Part of what I identified in my previous post was our need to discover common ground, or perhaps to put it in a better way to simply understand, or, as it were ‘put on’ the other. In this post I’m going to run with this idea and see where it takes me.

It feels like compassion closely relates to this. The desire to not just reach across the divide into the lonely lives of the other, but also to bring healing. I think this is a strong motivator for me…

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ChristianityLewis ConnollyComment
Inclusive to a Fault?
Inclusive to a Fault?

Just finished watching ‘American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel’, a very interesting and inspiring documentary, which focused ostensibly on the ministries of two social action churches, namely, the Mayflower Congregational UCC Church and All Souls Unitarian Church, both in the state of Oklahoma.

Although I find the ministries of both churches to be courageous within their context, I found the liberal and inclusive approaches…

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ChristianityLewis ConnollyComment
“Totemic Nounals”: a retrospective
“Totemic Nounals”: a retrospective

For lack of a better term, I fall into the “anti-woke” camp, an easy space to occupy if I were some reactionary conservative - that would make things so much easier - but I’m not. For good or ill, I’m a card-carrying liberal. For some time I have wanted to write something that explored “wokeism”, but given the weightiness of the subject, I have struggled to find the right words and a suitable approach, but perhaps this will suffice…

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ChristianityLewis ConnollyComment
The Judas Defence
The Judas Defence

In my previous post, I referred to what I called the Judas Defence, that propensity amongst many Christian thinkers to argue Judas’ case. Why are so many compelled to make this case? What underlies this impulse? I undertake this study on Judas to further explore these questions using a Jungian approach.

In the Biblical text, Judas Iscariot is one of the twelve disciples, the carrier of the money bag. He is ultimately the betrayer of Jesus, whom he gives up for thirty pieces of silver…

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Jungian Studies, ChristianityLewis ConnollyComment
Mass (2021) A Review
Mass (2021) A Review

Sat down the other night to watch the 2021 American drama Mass. I went in expecting it to be an emotionally intense experience, and it certainly was. My wife and I have a healthy film appetite; we probably get through a few a week, and although we see many good movies together, they rarely prompt in me a desire to write, to respond. But this one did.


First for the necessary provisos. I am going to be responding broadly to the film…

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Christianity, Film ReviewLewis ConnollyComment
Musings on Non-Duality & Pluralism
Musings on Non-Duality & Pluralism

It is my sense that a belief in non-duality, (which is to say a fundamental belief in the oneness of all), leads naturally to pluralism. It makes perfect sense that it would, if all is one, then irrespective of your role on the world’s stage, you are never-the-less part of the whole, part of the one. Or rather, one should probably say, you are the ONE, as to say ‘part’ suggests you can in some sense be broken off…

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Non-DualityLewis Connollynon-duality, pluralismComment
Rejecting Advent
Rejecting Advent

I come to writing this essay in a melancholic mood, and as ever, I come in search of that elusive something. It is Advent 2021. Advent is the season for waiting and expectation, and I, at this moment in my life find myself waiting. Waiting somewhat against my will. Waiting for the next chapter of my life to begin.

In Christian terms, Advent is when we performatively await the birth of Christ, and eschatologically wait for his second coming…

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Christianity, Non-DualityLewis ConnollyRalph Waldo Emerson, AdventComment