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General Christian

2026-10-10T10:28:59-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Spiritual Growth Looks Like Losing Ground

Last updated on: October 10, 2026 at 10:28 am By Kathleen Mulhern

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Four Passive Spiritual Disciplines: An Introduction When I was a college freshman, our class had a theme: “Not Somehow but Triumphantly.” This has stuck in my head for, well, ahem, many decades now. It seized the day, you know, in ways that launched us into evangelicalism’s confident, capable leadership mode and drew on all the victorious language of the spiritual life. This language is biblical and hopeful, encouraging and inspiring. Paul writes, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us... Read more

2024-07-08T17:44:13-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Come On, God, This Isn’t Working

Last updated on: July 8, 2024 at 5:44 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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Increasing complexity seems to be a part of aging. Certain things might become simpler, especially after retirement (can’t speak to that yet), but the external streamlining inevitably masks growing internal complications. I suspect these complications begin much earlier than we imagine, but the busyness of child-rearing and career-building, the distractions of success and ambition, and the sheer pleasures of being young, strong, and able cloud the growing whirlwind. Live long enough, and things stop working, and I’m not talking about... Read more

Relationships and Religion

2024-06-27T16:42:34-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Measure of a Life

Last updated on: June 27, 2024 at 4:42 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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Yesterday I spent some time with my Dad going through old files. We sifted through a wide assortment of papers that included: 1) memorabilia around his first pastorate in Loomis, Nebraska—annual reports, Sunday bulletins, newspaper clippings about the fire that destroyed the church, groundbreaking on a new church, correspondence including the church’s call and his acceptance, letters of welcome from other Nebraska pastors, pictures of assorted church groups. The Women’s Missionary Society looked as I had always imagined them—hatted, handbagged,... Read more

Family, Parenting and Religion

2024-01-02T11:38:36-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

From Blue Christmases to Blue New Years

Last updated on: January 2, 2024 at 11:38 am By Kathleen Mulhern

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Those who suffer experience a deep relief when the holidays are finally over. At least they can stop pretending jolliness, if they even had that much energy. The blues, however, are not banished by the New Year. For some, they can actually intensify as the sense of a “new start” with all its promises seems to elude them. What is a new start when you are missing that one? when you are facing a terminal diagnosis? when you are still... Read more

Relationships and Religion

2023-12-26T13:47:33-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father

Last updated on: December 26, 2023 at 1:47 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

Ludolph now moves into the specific petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The “address” causes him to reflect deeply on the mysteries of that introductory phrase. Whom are we addressing when we call on “Our Father in heaven”? He focuses on three components in that opening petition: 1) Father, “whose children we are by faith.” This, Ludolph insists, is not the generic Fatherhood of God that everyone can claim by virtue of creation. Rather, this is the Fatherhood that is ours... Read more

History and Religion

2023-08-17T16:38:51-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What Is the Prayer of Salvation?

Last updated on: August 17, 2023 at 4:38 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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In his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, my medieval friend, Ludolph of Saxony, brings to our attention the Lord’s Prayer, beginning by commending it to us as the prayer that “excels all other prayers” and that which “enshrines an immense number of mysteries.” I’m not sure that opinion is widely shared in the evangelical world today. Protestantism’s dread of written prayers—rote, droned over, mechanical, and magical recitations of ancient formulae—has led to its widespread abandonment of the Lord’s... Read more

History and Religion

2023-07-30T15:15:37-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Goodness Conundrum

Last updated on: July 30, 2023 at 3:15 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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Jesus sums up his counsel about relationships with this command: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5.48). This perfection, Ludolph explains, is “the perfection of grace,” and it enables us to “be perfect in the way we can be” (not in the way we can’t be, thankfully). It’s a perfection of charity, a perfection of courage and humility, a perfection of patience and blessing. But Jesus is wise, so so wise, and he knows that those... Read more

Careers, Workplace and Religion

History and Religion

2023-07-26T14:38:59-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Generosity, from the Inside Out

Last updated on: July 26, 2023 at 2:38 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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At this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gets very irksome. Until now, we can see the value of his counsel—control your anger, be faithful to your spouse, stay honest. Okay. All good points. But now he’s telling us, apparently, to do things that will really mess with the system: don’t resist an evil person, give to anyone who asks, love your enemies. None of these bits of advice settles well in this age of rights, hostilities, and... Read more

History and Religion

2023-07-11T12:09:26-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Sermon, Hair Color, and Swearing

Last updated on: July 11, 2023 at 12:09 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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Of course I don’t cuss. Well, not much. So that takes care of the Sermon’s verses about oaths, right? (You potty-mouthed people might want to spend more time with them though.) Ludolph, my medieval guide to the life of Jesus (see below), writes eight chapters on the Sermon on the Mount, concluding this one (Part One, Volume 1, Chapter 34) with several pages on Jesus’ words about oaths. Seems like overkill. We want to rush on to the guy... Read more

Evangelical

History and Religion

2023-07-01T16:09:12-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Author of Purity

Last updated on: July 1, 2023 at 4:09 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

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“Purity” is a term reserved today for the properties of vitamins or the quality of drinking water or specialty treatments at spas. It has long sense lost much moral weight with people, and “purity culture” actually now has deeply objectionable connotations and a sad track record. Ludolph, however, sees Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount about adultery and lust as words of purity spoken by the Author of purity. Self-indulgence in deed is condemned by the law,... Read more

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