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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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September 2021

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 2015

August 24, 2015

Examining the Call of Women to Christian Leadership

If we accept N.T. Wright’s description of the gospel in Simply Good News—as good news...

October 2014

October 31, 2014

How to Be a (Better) Protestant in Five Easy Steps

Reformation Day doesn’t make me giddy, but it does afford me the opportunity to think...

August 2014

August 18, 2014

The Green Isle Community (Friends of God 5)

The Friends of God were committed to community. While their associations with each other were...

August 10, 2014

The Atmosphere of God (Friends of God 3)

Imagine running a large organization—a multinational organization—with thousands of employees, complicated networks of incomes and...

March 2014

March 04, 2014

Neo-Christian Myth #5: The Velocity of Holiness

There’s a delicious irony in the fact that one of evangelical Christianity’s favorite phrases—“a long...

February 2014

February 27, 2014

Neo-Christian Myth #4: The Sweet Tooth of American Christianity

When we study church history, the prevailing tension is one between continuity and ingenuity—between...

February 12, 2014

Neo-Christian Myth #2: the Preaching Pickle

Poor Donald Miller has been web-torched for his post. It has, at this writing, 479...

February 05, 2014

Six Neo-Christian Myths: Exiting the Arc of Christian History

Today I ran across a post by Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz fame and...

July 2013

July 01, 2013

Mean St. Francis

I’ve never seen a St. Francis statue like the one that sits in our back...

April 2013

April 09, 2013

Making Room for the In-Laws

Marriage is the ultimate melting pot. Unless you’re one of those whose families knew each...

January 2013

January 29, 2013

Becoming Neo-Pascalian: The Augustinian Problem

In pursuing Pascal, it is not long before we come face-to-face with a conundrum. It’s...

November 2012

November 20, 2012

Tales from My Father: On Prayer and Two Old Women, One with Blue Hair

As pastor’s kids, we enjoyed a certain amount of both notoriety and adulation, depending on...

October 2012

October 18, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 27: The End?

We’ve come to Anatolios’ conclusion, a chapter rich with ideas and summaries. I could...

October 10, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 26: True Love

Last week we addressed Augustine’s “psychological model” of the Trinitarian...

October 01, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 25: Source Code

Our friend Augustine, trying to understand the Three-in-One God whom we worship, resorted to Source...

September 2012

September 24, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 24: A Julian Diversion

Augustine is going to take us on a deep, inner journey to the center...

September 17, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 23: A Christ Sighting

“We want to see Jesus,” they said (Jn. 12.21). This request, from a group of...

September 10, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 22: Christodrama and the Human Journey

Our last great voice of this series is St. Augustine, the great Western...

September 03, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 21: The Trinity Is the Gospel

This picture is a famous depiction of Christ as Pantocrator, i.e., Christ in Majesty, Ruler...

August 2012

August 23, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 19: An Ephesian Interlude

My apologies for missing a few posts while I sailed the deep blue...

July 2012

July 31, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 18: Believing in the Right Direction

If Athanasius was too big for words—too grand, too dominating, too heroic—Gregory of Nyssa...

July 24, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 17: Luminosity

Thus far, our conversation about the Three-in-One God we worship has been pretty much...

July 17, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 16: On the Incarnation, a New Kind of Christmas Story

We’ve earlier identified Athanasius as the bulldog of orthodoxy, the one who simply would not...

July 10, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 15: God from the Inside Out

Last week we left ourselves with a strange God and a God who is a...

June 2012

June 26, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 14: Putting Jesus on the “Outside” of God

Is the Son “inside” of God or “outside” of God? This seems to be the...

June 20, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 13: How Close Is Jesus to the Heart of God?

It all comes back to Jesus. All the goodness, all the blessing, all the wonder...

June 12, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 12: Creation Spirituality, Human Souls, and the Need for Systems

If I were writing a Harry Potter novel, at this point I think I’d post...

June 07, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 11: Riding the Rapids, or the Stream of Orthodox Christianity

If you’ve stuck with this exploration thus far, you’re doing well. I know we’re wrestling...

May 2012

May 31, 2012

Trinitarian Spirituality, 10: Suspicions and Semantics

In our last post, we met some actual characters in the dialogue. Let’s all step...