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April 6
Albrecht Dürer, Wilma Mankiller, and Ram Dass
David Barnhart
April 06, 2025
Entrance to the Lucas Cranach Haus, Wittenberg, 2022. Own photo.
Today marks the death of artist Albrecht Dürer, in 1528. He was a painter and printmaker and influential in the German renaissance. His woodcuts and copper engravings of biblical stories have influenced the way generations of people read and interpret the Bible. Today the Lutheran church honors him with a special day and also includes other artists, including Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose art during the Reformation helped advance Protestantism.
Today also marks the death, in 2010, of Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Her activism for tribal sovereignty and community development led to her posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Today is also the birthday, in 1931, of Ram Dass, or Richard Alpert, who was a psychologist and popularizer of Eastern spirituality. His involvement in the psychedelic counterculture with Timothy Leary led to his being fired from Harvard, and he went on to become an important figure in New Age spirituality, though he considered himself a Hindu with Jewish heritage.
Today also marks the death of Hans Küng in 2021, an important modern theologian whose birthday we celebrated on March 19.
Reflection:
Ram Dass was very quotable. One of my favorites is this one:
“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”
Describing the human experience of life and mortality, he said
We're all just walking each other home.
There are a lot of Christians who react with knee-jerk hostility to “Eastern” or “New Age” philosophy and beliefs. But as I’ve said before, I have more in common with a Buddhist or Muslim or Jew who are seeking peace and justice than I have with a Christian who is not seeking those things.
(I put “Eastern” and “New Age” in quotes because there are a lot of distinct belief systems and a history of both conflict and syncretism in those broad categories, just like there is in “Chrisitan,” which covers everyone from Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. to Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps.)
Prayer: God, all truth belongs to you, regardless of who finds it first. Help us to honor everything that is good, true, and lovely as a gift from you. Amen.