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- September 13
September 13
Albert Tessier, John Chrysostom, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Robin Wall Kimmerer
David Barnhart
September 13, 2025
2023. Own photo.
Today marks the death, in 1976, of Albert Tessier, a Canadian Roman Catholic priest whose documentaries about local people influenced nonfiction filmmaking. He expressed his love of God and people through film.
Today is the Feast Day, in the Roman Catholic Church, of John Chrysostom, though the date of his death is September 14, 407 and is celebrated tomorrow in the Eastern Church. He became archbishop of Constantinople. He was one of the influential early Church Fathers and Mothers whose writing, even then, warned against the abuses of power and wealth. He made all the right people angry, and was exiled shortly before his death.
Today also marks the death, in 1916, of Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher and critic of Christianity. I’m sharing him not as a saint, but because any thinking Christian must struggle with his analysis of religion or be false to themselves.
Today is the birthday, in 1953, of Robin Wall Kimmerer, Potawatomi author and botanist. Her naturalist philosophy of bringing together indigenous wisdom and modern science is a form of decolonizing wisdom.
Reflection:
John Chrysostom wrote:
“…I beg that, chiefest of all, you will remember constantly that not to share our own riches with the poor is a robbery of the poor, and a depriving them of their livelihood; and that that which we possess is not only our own, but also theirs. If our minds are disposed in accordance with this truth, we shall freely use all our possessions; we shall feed Christ while hungering here, and we shall lay up great treasures there…”
Ludwig Feuerbach wrote:
“Christianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life, by teaching him to trust in God’s help it took away his trust in his own powers; by giving him faith in a better life in heaven, it destroyed his faith in a better life on earth and his striving to attain such a life. Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he really and truly desires.”
and
“Though I myself am an atheist, I openly profess religion in the sense just mentioned, that is, a nature religion. I hate the idealism that wrenches man out of nature; I am not ashamed of my dependency on nature; I openly confess that the workings of nature affect not only my surface, my skin, my body, but also my core, my innermost being, that the air I breathe in bright weather has a salutary effect not only on my lungs but also on my mind, that the light of the sun illumines not only my eyes but also my spirit and my heart. And I do not, like a Christian, believe that such dependency is contrary to my true being or hope to be delivered from it. I know further that I am a finite moral being, that I shall one day cease to be. But I find this very natural and am therefore perfectly reconciled to the thought.”
I keep my copy of Braiding Sweetgrass on a shelf with my Bibles and the Bhagavad Gita because I think, if humanity makes it another 200 years, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing will have the force of sacred scripture that helped us survive climate change. She writes:
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”
Prayer: Great Spirit, may we listen to both internal and external critiques of our faith, so that we can more fully participate in the divine life that is all around us. Amen.