I am at an interesting place right now in regard to thinking about the subject of sin. After hearing sermon after sermon on the subject, reading book after book, having conversation after conversation, I’m convinced of pretty much one thing: For me, the biggest problem that human beings have with sin, is that we try…
Category
Christianity
Why I’m A Hypocrite
This is a developing thought that has influences which are vast. It’s the kind of idea that rattles around with no place to go. So I thought I’d share it, no matter how incoherent it may be. The idea is simple: I’m not afraid to be a hypocrite. It’s true that traditionally, being hypocritical is…
What theology needs is more copulation.
What theology needs is more copulation. And postmodern theopoetics may well provide it. The word copulation, of course, denotes coupling: the bringing together and/or union of two things. The related words “copula” and “copulative” are grammatical terms, used to describe the linking of elements in a sentence. How unfortunate, then, that the fertile term copulation…
Anabaptism leads to disorder.
“Papists”, wrote English Protestant Nicholas Lesse in 1550, “although they were right nought for the soul, yet were they good and profitable for the body for civil commonwealths, for the maintenance of civil justice, and all good politic orders. But as for these [Anabaptists] they are neither good for the body nor for the soul:…
My Beloved Waits
My beloved waits. She fills her days with humble tasks. When I look at her I see myself–my eyes, my thoughts, my cry, my laugh. Before I knew her I was but half, yet convinced that I was whole. “Now that I know you, I realize it’s you I’ve longed to hold.” Together we will…
Truth, Lost in Translation
“Truth and trust are closely related words, as displayed in the archaic form of the word for truth, “troth,” as in “to pledge your troth.” “Truth” at its root signifies a covenant of trustworthiness, in a marriage contract. To be true to another means to be trusty! This root meaning is not peculiar to European…
You be lovers, in my image.
Greg Boyd is the pastor of Woodland Hills Church in Minnesota. I’ve been listening to his series on Divine love and was so delighted by one of his teachings about contracts vs. covenants that I transcribed a bunch of the sermon to post here. Here is Boyd speaking about the difference between contracts and covenants….
Who you think God is, God isn’t.
Richard Rohr writes: Our usual definitions of God depict him as omnipotent, infinite, perfect in every way. Yet if the suffering Jesus is the image and revelation of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), this is totally at odds with all the other philosophical and theological definitions of a supreme being. Jesus doesn’t fit. Even after…
Cultivating Communities of Peacemakers
I’m really excited about this special event coming up at Valley Mosaic next weekend. We will be hosting Tracy and Seth Wispelwey for a weekend of conversation, music and creativity. Tracy and Seth are peace activists working toward their earnest desire for reconciliation and transformation through conversations and active engagement in issues of social justice….
HADEWIJCH: 13th Century Female Theologian, Visonary and Poet
My distress is great and unknown to men. They are cruel to me, for they wish to dissuade me From all that the forces of Love urge me to. They do not understand it, and I cannot explain it to them. I must then live out what I am; What Love counsels my spirit, In…