Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
General Christian

2019-06-26T15:13:32-06:00

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.

Trinity Sunday and Event Horizons

Last updated on: June 26, 2019 at 3:13 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

On Trinity Sunday, many preachers across the country gently and respectfully work their way around actual teaching about the Trinity—as though it were some kind of large embarrassing object in the road—and move on to a topic more user-friendly. This may seem to be the better part of wisdom, since we can’t “figure it out”; we believe in one God, yet we talk about Three—Father, Son, Spirit—and 1+1+1=1 just doesn’t compute; it’s hard to talk about; so… let’s just... Read more

Trinitarian Spirituality: a series

2019-05-21T18:33:52-06:00

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.

How many books must I write to feel special enough?

Last updated on: May 21, 2019 at 6:33 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

Okay, apparently my last post was not tongueish-in-cheekish enough, and some of my readers considered it a cry for attention, which is pure irony, when I think about it. Not that I don’t welcome the plaudits, because most people to be noticed. We all want the big ratings, the responses: The question is, how big is the abyss? How much is enough to fill it? Perhaps it depends on what we’re shoveling in. For example, one of my dear friends... Read more

2019-05-13T19:05:06-06:00

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.

I want to write a book and be special

Last updated on: May 13, 2019 at 7:05 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

I’m reading a book I would never have personally picked up, in a thousand years, apart from my son asking me to “read it first and see if it’s any good”; the odds of me finishing it run low. I’ve relegated it to a treadmill book, picked up only to distract me from the dutiful minutes of exercise. It’s (imho) tedious, narcissistic, and profane, bridging that modern limbo between autobiography and fiction. It’s endless narrative without plot or purpose.... Read more

2019-05-07T18:59:44-06:00

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.

Practicing the Presence in Gethsemane

Last updated on: May 7, 2019 at 6:59 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

All the anguished cries for mercy, all the urgent messages to come quickly, all the despairing and forlorn sobs we hear on the lips of different people in the Gospels—lepers, agonized parents, desperately ill, friends of sufferers, frightened fishermen, hopeless beggars, grieving mothers, heartbroken sisters—all of them are echoed in Gethsemane on the lips of Jesus. He becomes the anguished one, the desperate one, the one imploring for mercy. He knows the distress and the pleading for a different outcome... Read more

2019-04-28T14:16:28-06:00

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.

Unmoored Christianity: 12 “Anchor” Questions

Last updated on: April 28, 2019 at 2:16 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

There is some weird comfort in the fact that most heresies are old ones. For the most part, if we arm ourselves with the teachings of scripture and the Church, we’re fairly able to lift up the carnival masks of new strange teachings and find the faces of quite familiar challengers. A weird comfort, perhaps, but no great assurance, for the truth is that most of us are entertained and delighted by the fresh appearances of old heresies, and they... Read more

2019-04-24T17:10:08-06:00

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.

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

Last updated on: April 24, 2019 at 5:10 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

This semester I’ve been teaching a class called the Spiritual Journey and Human Development. We examine the life of faith and how it develops, assuming that it does develop over time; we consider how sometimes we seem to make progress, sometimes we regress, and sometimes we just slow down to a near state of immobility. For example, we examine biblical models of the spiritual journey: How did Joseph’s faith develop through the crises of his life? Can we see Elijah’s... Read more

2018-10-26T12:09:39-06:00

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.

On Discouragement and Trusting in God: Readings from a Puritan

Last updated on: October 26, 2018 at 12:09 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. ~ Psalm 42.11 Peace is Christ’s language and this is his disposition still. Thus he is engaged. You know it is God’s way and manner to deal with the children of men according to their various dispositions, to stoop and condescend unto their infirmities. … So long as... Read more

2018-08-28T16:01:58-06:00

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.

An Immensely Formidable Unity

Last updated on: August 28, 2018 at 4:01 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

So, I’ve tried to listen well to the comments provoked by my last post. Some think that I’ve proved the vacuity of the Christian message. If it can mean anything, it obviously means nothing. Another thinks I’ve uncovered the Rorschach nature of Christian faith. “What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?” So I revisited my palette of Christian voices—rock stars, philosophers, Puritans, and ascetics—to see if indeed there is anything purely and singularly Christian about them. Take off... Read more

Uncategorized

spirituality

unity

2018-08-15T11:48:02-06:00

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.

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

Last updated on: August 15, 2018 at 11:48 am By Kathleen Mulhern

I begin with the best of intentions, but rabbit holes multiply like bunnies, and are nigh on irresistible. I’m teaching a course this fall on Evangelical spirituality, and so it started with Francis Schaeffer’s True Spirituality and some online research around his ideas on propositional truth. But then I got waylaid by one of those click bait articles (yes, we’re all targets) on Lady Gaga’s sartorial evolution (the raw meat gown is a never-ending what? really?), where it mentioned in... Read more

2018-07-31T16:31:25-06:00

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.

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

Last updated on: July 31, 2018 at 4:31 pm By Kathleen Mulhern

We have recently done something I really couldn’t have imagined just a few years ago. We did something we’ve never done before. We did something we ought to have done, with great frequency, over the last 26+ years. And in doing this, we initiated a virtual archaeological dig, an extreme makeover, and a wrenching awakening to a new stage of life. A midlife crisis, perhaps? A reckless adventure in imagining a different future? Such drama. With an introduction like that,... Read more

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many chapters are in the Book of Romans?

Select your answer to see how you score.

16 14 18 12

Browse Our Archives

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

Select a Month October 2026 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 January 2023 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 April 2022 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 November 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 March 2015 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 October 2011 August 2011 July 2011 February 2011 October 2010 September 2010 July 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009

TRENDING AT PATHEOS General Christian