Sunday, September 2, 2018 – How Conventional Is Wisdom?

Sunday, September 2, at 11:00 a.m. – How Conventional Is Wisdom? – The familiar expression “conventional wisdom” has become so commonplace that few people remember, if they ever knew, that it only entered the lexicon sixty years ago, following its appearance in John Kenneth Galbraith’s book, The Affluent Society, in 1958. While Galbraith used the term to describe “the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability,” often uncritically but not necessarily without merit, many people have come to think of conventional wisdom as something to be debunked, for it is often disproven upon closer examination. This leads me to wonder whether Galbraith was really talking about wisdom in the first place – or if wisdom is really all that conventional. Rev. Stefan Jonasson 

Services are in the Gimli Unitarian Church's landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!

Prof. Orlando Ferguson's flat earth map of 1893.

Sunday, August 19, 2018 – Progressive Revelation and Insatiable Desire

Sunday, August 19, at 11:00 a.m. – Progressive Revelation and Insatiable Desire – “When you live for the cause that progressively unfolds and reveals itself, your desires are under progressive transformation,” said Henry Nelson Wieman, “but when you live for satisfaction of them they are fixated.” I think I’ve just discovered why I remain hopeful and even optimistic despite my chronic malaise, why I am insatiably curious even about subjects I’m presumptuous enough to believe I’ve already mastered, and why I’ve never seemed to be fully satisfied when I’ve accomplished (or helped to accomplish) anything. Wieman’s insight helps to explain why we always seem to be on a quest for something more. Rev. Stefan Jonasson

Services are in the Gimli Unitarian Church's landmark building at 76 Second Avenue, near Centre Street. Dress is casual — after all, it's summer!