Creatively Advancing into Novelty
“In Paul Ryan’s formulation, society is divided between the “makers” and the “takers.” The “takers” are those who benefit from public social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, college-tuition assistance, and so on. In Ryan’s world, these people are a drag on the “makers” who are taxed to pay for the programs. Our…
“…neoliberalism brings with it a theory of how political institutions and laws should be set up, a program that it has been remarkably effective in carrying out. What is perhaps less noticed is its theology, its profound and—to many people, at least among business and political elites—deeply compelling account of how the world works and…
“The God of “coercive agency” is anthropomorphic and is considerably easier to believe in for the masses because there is little room for ambiguity: God is king (perhaps angry, perhaps strong-willed); human beings are His weak and pitiful subjects; this God is to be obeyed, feared; this God is somehow the “answer” to (surely not…
I’m pretty pumped about these theological/philosophical trading cards my friend Tripp and I have been collaborating on. They’ll probably be for sale sometime soon at Homebrewed Christianity, so collecting them all will obviously be the thing to do (if nothing else they’ll make badass, nerdy bookmarks!). In the future we plan to feature other schools of thought like, Masters of Suspicion, Mystics, Heretics, Early Church Thinkers, Radical Theology, and Queer Theology, for instance, as well as release additional thinkers for Team Process, Team Idealism, and Team Liberation.
“The soul is nothing else than the succession of my occasions of experience, extending from birth to the present moment.” —Whitehead Talking about the soul is confusing. I believe my earliest understanding of the soul was instilled in me by my mother at a fairly young age. Hers was a very Jewish understanding of the…
“During the French Revolution, France developed a much more aggressive approach to church/state separation than other European countries. Instead of merely keeping religion out of state affairs, French secularism condemned religion’s influence on political culture in general as pernicious. Formal separation of church and state isn’t enough; you need to exclude religion from national identity…
God did not cram Godself into a human body the way Ralphie crammed himself into that pink bunny suit. Christmas is not my favorite holiday. As a kid it certainly used to be, obviously, because presents…but as I’ve aged, getting gifts has become less of thing to look forward to (mainly because the only things…
Humans are infinitely concerned about the infinity to which they belong, from which they are separated, and for which they are longing. –Paul Tillich (Paraphrase) I recently listened to Ryan Bell’s enjoyable interview with LeRon Shults. I really like listening to both Ryan and LeRon converse; they’re both super smart and interesting people and I’m…
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. – 1 John 1:8 Sin. I have to be honest, I don’t think about it much anymore. I know a lot of Christians do, though. I used to be one of them. I used to think sin was…
“People say that marriage is broken, or that marriage is up-for-grabs. Neither is true. Actually, there are two marriages in America.” –Tony Jones Earlier today, in an online conversation about the possibility of clergy being forced to marry same sex couples against their will due to the recent SCOTUS ruling legalizing same sex marriage (SSM),…