Arlene Goldbard

My relationship to the idea of God is in constant flux. My one certainty is that literalist, fundamentalist views can’t possibly encompass whatever could be true. The irony is that literalists come from two camps, both of which were evidently established sometime before the invention of metaphor or symbolism. Some literalists are doctrinaire believers, certain [...]

I have a dear friend who is struggling with the residue of a nightmare childhood. When one has been betrayed by those closest, those who should have been the keepers of trust and love, it is easy to fall into a default setting of fear and defense. Ordinary interactions become minefields, as the person adopts [...]

This is the text of a talk I gave on September 12th, the first night of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, at the Aquarian Minyan in Berkeley.
When Rabbi Diane Elliot asked me to speak on the Minyan’s High Holy Days theme of love and community, I felt so challenged I knew I had [...]

We’re entering that time of the Jewish new year, the High Holy Days, when each person makes a cheshbon hanefesh—a “soul inventory”—in preparation for a new cycle of the calendar. Sometimes I feel that people are influenced by this period of reflection even if they aren’t aware of it. For instance, this fall, like the [...]

This has been a week of collecting horror stories of behavior by people who seem to utterly lack a moral compass. As a friend of mine said, “Sometimes the world offends me.” But is it true? Are some people entirely lacking, without moral conscience in the way that someone might be born without wisdom teeth, [...]

I’m in the midst of a long-term research project on the topic of love.
It started months ago, when my use of the word in the context of culture and politics evoked discomfort on the part of some academic and philanthropic readers. In the contexts where these questions arose, the word “love” isn’t much used, except [...]

What does it take to heal social trauma?
Like a lot of Jews of her generation, my maternal grandmother (may she rest in peace) was so repelled by all things German that she refused even to ride in a Volkswagen. She’d emigrated to this country long before World War II, but when that war was over, [...]

Life brings me many opportunities to talk with people who are serious about their work in the world, work that almost always involves some form of healing. Their lives are very different, but their dilemmas are often the same. Almost all of the teachers, therapists, community artists and activists I meet torture themselves about whether [...]

One of the best things about the busy, confusing time in which we live is that the more we learn through science, the more the truths of Spirit are revealed. Read on to learn how to join people around the world on Friday, December 22nd, Solstice Day, in celebrating this delightful convergence.
The Global Consciousness Project [...]

This is the text of my keynote address at the annual conference of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. It was delivered on 3 November 2006.
The great evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane once was asked what a study of creation could teach us about the nature of God. His answer? [...]