My Initial Patheos Post

Last updated on: September 3, 2014 at 2:52 pm by Michael Hardin

My Initial Patheos Post 2014-09-03T14:52:55-04:00 Michael Hardin

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Greetings Earthlings.

I come in peace.

Sort of.

For the past twelve years I have run a website called Preaching Peace. The site was originally developed as a place to write lectionary commentary for pastors from a peace perspective using René Girard’s mimetic theory as a hermeneutic lens. In 2007 Preaching Peace became a non-profit dedicated to ‘Educating the Church in Jesus’ Vision of Peace.’

Like many bloggers on the Patheos Progressive Christian channel, I too write from a post-modern worldview. However, I have been told that I am too orthodox to be truly postmodern, too Protestant to be Catholic, too Anabaptist to be Protestant, too charismatic to be Calvinist, too intellectual to be charismatic, too Catholic to be Anabaptist, well, you get the picture.

I was raised Roman Catholic so I have deep appreciation for the history of Christianity, a fondness for the saints, a love of all things pertaining to the Nicene Creed, and in spite of all her warts, flaws, errors and pain, a strong love for the church, A.K.A., Christian community.

Born again at 18 into a fundamentalist Baptist tradition, I gained a powerful love for Holy Scripture. I truly do think of the Bible as the most important collection of literature I know. I started learning Greek and Hebrew at 19 and Latin at 20 so I could read the Bible and the early church fathers. Those who were my pedagogical mentors in those days really drilled into my head the need to pay close attention to sources; little did I know they were drumming the ‘ad fontes’ of the Renaissance into my head.

My earliest and longest lasting theological loves have been Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but also Jurgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jacques Ellul, Simone Weil, Thomas Torrance, Paul Ricoeur, Helmut Thielicke, Hans Küng, William Stringfellow as well as St. Francis and St Clare, Martin Luther, John Calvin and others. Back in my youth I read a book a day for fifteen years.

I discovered the work of René Girard in October 1987 and took the red pill. I have never turned back.

I am a failed pastor. Had a terrible crash and burn experience in ministry in 1994.

I am a recovering alcoholic.

I am a father of three daughters and two granddaughters.

If you ever get a chance to meet my wife Lorri, she is the one who deserves the thanks for who I have become as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a minister and a human being. She is for me, a model of love, compassion and forgiveness to the nth degree.

I have just published my autobiography of sorts (Walking with Grandfather). In it I narrate how sharing in a program of wilderness survival and shamanic training has helped me on my own road to personal awareness and healing.

Welcome to my Patheos page.

I tend to write theology. I am not witty or a brilliant social critic. I am snarky at times though and I call it as I see it.

For the past eighteen months I have been using Facebook as a ‘teaching’ platform. Several of the Progressive Christian Patheos bloggers recommended me to Patheos. So here I am. I am going to continue doing what I have done on Facebook here.

If you are a troll, go find a bridge and go to sleep, you just aren’t welcome here.

If you get mean and nasty in your comments don’t be surprised if you find yourself blocked. I do not tolerate bullshit.

I have not come to bring peace but a sword, a word that divides. If you don’t like it go run and cry to your mama.

My main interest is not in debunking Christianity or criticizing the church. My main interest is in seeing the gospel liberated from its Empire shackles. I am interested in the healing of Christianity, in the proclamation of good news, in the restoration of Jesus, the Jewish itinerant preacher of the reign of God to the center, margins and fullness of our theology.

As Morpheus said to Neo, here are two pills….

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