Spirituality
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The Immediate Life and the Formation of Authenticity
A child is suffering. A relationship fractures. A conversation suddenly turns tense. Fear, anger, exhaustion, embarrassment, or grief emerges before thought has time to organize itself. We speak quickly. We defend ourselves instinctively. We search for relief before we search for meaning. Continue reading
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Secular and Sacred Social Imaginaries
Most of us live between these two imaginaries. We have inherited a secular way of thinking, but we have not lost the sense that meaning might be given rather than made. Continue reading
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A Preview of “The Architecture of Authenticity”
What follows is a preview of the book I am writing. I will be spending much of the summer of 2026. Sooo… a request: I am dying to hear if you would like to read a book like this. Would you? Continue reading
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Value Beyond Money: 5 Places to Find It
The question is not whether we believe in value beyond money. It is whether we are willing to take it seriously. Continue reading
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A Changing Feminist Question
“How are you living with your partner that empowers the freedom of the woman in your relationship?” This was the question of the boomer age, and my boomer siblings had put this question to my parents. But now, I feel no need to address this question. What I have come to realize is that this… Continue reading
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The Innocence That Kills: American Exceptionalism as Spiritual Pathology
The pattern is not incidental. It is structural. Each act of civilizational harm is metabolized by the myth of exceptionalism and converted into evidence of American seriousness, American resolve, American willingness to bear the weight of world-historical responsibility. The victims become, at best, unfortunate costs. The perpetrators remain, in their own self-understanding, the good guys. Continue reading
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Freedom Under Constraint: Middle Age, Wartime Imaginaries, and the Meaning of Easter
I had a plan for my retirement. Once the kids moved out, I thought my spouse and I were going to teach in the Middle East for a few years before we put our feet up on the beach in Thailand. The Middle East is the gateway to the rest of the world. Wars have… Continue reading
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The Nuclear Option: Who needs Bombs?
“Closing the Strait of Hormuz would be Iran’s ‘nuclear option.’ The phrase is meant metaphorically. And yet, like many metaphors, it reveals more than it intends. Continue reading
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How Governments Frame Wars to Control the Moral Question
The first battle in many wars is therefore a battle over framing. Leaders attempt to shape the moral question the public believes it must answer. If they succeed, they gain a powerful advantage. People do not simply react to events. They react to the story that explains those events. Continue reading
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The QuestionS of Wars: Why Every War Asks the World Different Moral Questions
When a war begins, people often hear the same moral demand. You cannot remain neutral. You must choose a side. The statement sounds principled and urgent, and in moments of violence it can feel persuasive. Yet it is also misleading. Having lived in Saudi Arabia, and being exposed to both their value for increased wealth… Continue reading
About me: I am a career educator and traveler at heart. My written work includes academic writing in philosophy and linguistics, English acquisition, and most intently in the areas of spiritual engagement with reality and what that means for our public lives.
My education is a mixture of formal study in philosophy, political theory, Biblical studies, and history, along with professional teaching certification in TESOL and in cognitive testing, and international teaching.
My travel experiences include a range of countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. I have lived in Canada, the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand. From those places I have traveled to many others besides.
I am a child of the 70’s and a “family man.” That means I have two wonderful kids who have been round the world with me.
Lastly, I am married to a wonderful woman since 2004. She is my partner, my friend, and my muse.
Thanks again for stopping by,
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 