October 22

Mary Salomé, Jim Arthur, and Paul Tillich

Author

David Barnhart
October 22, 2025

Alligator, Bolivia, 2009. Own photo.

On this day in 451, the Council of Chalcedon adopted the Chalcedonian creed, which was about Jesus’s divine and human natures. 

Today is also the traditional feast day of Mary Salomé, who is mentioned as one of the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus in Mark. Traditions vary, but she is sometimes identified as the mother of James and John, and sometimes as Jesus’s aunt. In the non-canonical book The Gospel of Thomas, she identifies herself as a disciple of Jesus. 

Today marks the death of Jim Arthur, in 2013. Jim was the spouse of James Obergefell, who sued to have their marriage legally recognized, and which the Supreme Court decided in 2015. It is important to recognize the human cost of such bigotry since today the new authoritarian-dominated Supreme Court is trying to roll back hard-won rights of many Americans. 

Today also marks the death, in 1965, of Paul Tillich, a giant of a theologian in the modern era, whose birthday we noted on August 20. 

Reflection:

Part of the Chalcedonian creed states the following about Jesus: that he was…

“…before the ages begotten of the Father as to the Godhead, but in the last days, the Self-same, for us and for our salvation (born) of Mary the Virgin…”

and also that the church acknowledges him “…in Two Natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably… not as though He was parted or divided into Two Persons, but One and the Self-same Son and Only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ;”

Paul Tillich wrote: 

“A theological system is supposed to satisfy two basic needs: the statement of the truth of the Christian message and the interpretation of this truth for every new generation. Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal truth of its foundation and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received. Not many theological systems have been able to balance these two demands perfectly.”

and

“He who loves God is also able to accept life and to love it. This is not the same as to love God. For many pious people in all generations the love of God is the other side of the hatred for life. And there is much hostility towards life in all of us, even in those who have completely surrendered to life. Our hostility towards life is manifested in cynicism and disgust, in bitterness and continuous accusations against life. We feel rejected by life, not so much because of its objective darkness and threats and horrors, but because of our estrangement from its power and meaning. He who is reunited with God, the creative Ground of life, the power of life in everything that lives, is reunited with life. He feels accepted by it and he can love it. He understands that the greater love is, the greater the estrangement which is conquered by it. In metaphorical language I should like to say to those who feel deeply their hostility towards life: Life accepts you; life loves you as a separated part of itself; life wants to reunite you with itself, even when it seems to destroy you.”

Prayer: God of Life, let us come fully alive in you. Amen.