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Select a Category Advent Ascetical Theology Book Reviews Children and Parenting Easter Epiphany Friends of God Lent Life in the Spirit Ludolph Pascalian Spirituality: a series Politics Prayers Six Neo-Christian Myths Spiritual Formation Tales from My Father Trinitarian Spirituality: a series Uncategorized

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December 2023

December 31, 2023

From Blue Christmases to Blue New Years

Those who suffer experience a deep relief when the holidays are finally over. At least...

December 26, 2023

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father

Ludolph now moves into the specific petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The “address” causes him...

January 2023

January 16, 2023

The Three Gifts and Their Meaning: a Ludolph commentary

As we celebrate the season of Epiphany--of revelation, of universality, of adoration--we follow in the...

January 11, 2023

The Sermon on the Mount for the New Year: Lessons from Ludolph

If you want to follow Jesus into a new year in new ways with...

November 2021

November 02, 2021

The Immeasurable Value of Ruins: Three Lessons in Appreciation

In my last post, I acknowledged the “falling apart” of our present version of American...

October 2021

October 26, 2021

The Ruins of Formation

Things fall apart, we’re told. Trained as a historian, I’ve had to study many, many...

September 2021

September 22, 2021

Macarius, Tersteegen, and Me: Myriad Ways of the Way

What can we really say about the diversity of believers, the myriad ways we all...

September 13, 2021

Abandoning the Gospel for Shiny Things

Recently, I read the online reflections of a fellow (former?) Christian who has wandered far...

August 2021

August 09, 2021

Jesus (and Only Jesus) Is the Christ

I never want to disagree too loudly with Richard Rohr, Bono, Oprah, or Brian McLaren,...

July 2021

July 27, 2021

Book Review | Take a Larger Way: Reflections of a Dementia Caregiver

Book Review: Take a Larger Way: Reflections of a Dementia Caregiver by Jay Brenneman ...

July 12, 2021

Who Cares About Jesus?

Photo by Vidangel Studios In The Atlantic’s June 2021 article, “Christian America’s Must-See TV Show,”...

July 08, 2021

Evangelicalism and the Neglect of the Heart

We all recognize that the pandemic has peeled back our self-sufficiencies and exposed our weaknesses...

June 2020

June 15, 2020

Dear White Friend … Again

I spent a couple of hours reading the Sunday paper yesterday. The prevailing tone of...

November 2019

November 27, 2019

Up the Sunbeam to the Sun: from Gratitude to Adoration

The Gospel of John doesn't really deal in miracles, per se, but rather signs. The...

November 15, 2019

Dear Rev. MacArthur, do you think I am just dazzled and muddled?

Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, c. 200-400 Today I listened to Rev. John MacArthur double down...

November 12, 2019

Dark Faith

It seems to me at this stage of my life that one of the harder...

October 2019

October 13, 2019

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it

"Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have...

October 06, 2019

To You Who Are Suffering

Today I offer you this guest entry, with thanks for permission to post. I have...

September 2019

September 17, 2019

God’s Failure to Act

As I work my way through Exodus again, I come to this verse: "Keep far...

June 2019

June 24, 2019

Selfie Spirituality, or the Dubitable Power of Telling My Story

In last Sunday’s gospel (Lk 8.26-39), Jesus tells the man delivered from demons to “return...

June 19, 2019

Trinity Sunday and Event Horizons

On Trinity Sunday, many preachers across the country gently and respectfully work their way around...

May 2019

May 21, 2019

How many books must I write to feel special enough?

Okay, apparently my last post was not tongueish-in-cheekish enough, and some of my readers considered...

May 14, 2019

I want to write a book and be special

I’m reading a book I would never have personally picked up, in a thousand...

April 2019

April 30, 2019

Unmoored Christianity: 12 “Anchor” Questions

There is some weird comfort in the fact that most heresies are old ones. For...

April 24, 2019

Silent Harps, Shredded Vitas, and Spilled Chanel: A Sunday Sermon on the Spiritual Journey

This semester I’ve been teaching a class called the Spiritual Journey and Human Development. We...

October 2018

October 26, 2018

On Discouragement and Trusting in God: Readings from a Puritan

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted...

August 2018

August 28, 2018

An Immensely Formidable Unity

So, I’ve tried to listen well to the comments provoked by my last post. Some...

August 14, 2018

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other: Real Christianity?

I begin with the best of intentions, but rabbit holes multiply like bunnies, and are...

July 2018

July 31, 2018

Relics, Renovations, Wretchedness, and Grace: a Personal Reflection

We have recently done something I really couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago....

June 2018

June 21, 2018

Take a Larger Way: Spiritual Counsel from a Place of Darkness

Janene looked at me with now uncharacteristic clarity in those big blue eyes and said… “The...