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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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June 2023

June 20, 2023

From Virtue Signaling to Virtue

Ludolph’s commentary* on the Sermon on the Mount moves into touchy ground when he begins...

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...

August 2022

August 12, 2022

Coming to Jesus: Lessons from Ludolph

“This is a blessed, well-irrigated way of life. … To live like this is sweet...

July 2022

July 26, 2022

Should We Be Called Jesusians?: Lessons from Ludolph

Ludolph of Saxony, a 14th-century Carthusian monk, wrote a beautiful Life of Christ, telling the...

April 2022

April 05, 2022

Johannes Vermeer and His Allegory of Faith: a Lenten Tableaux

Many who know about 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer think first of his “The Girl...

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,...

June 2019

June 19, 2019

Trinity Sunday and Event Horizons

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

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...

August 2018

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...

April 2018

April 05, 2018

Jesus as an Anglican?: Articles of Religion, the Three Ways, and Scripture

In his exploration of English spirituality, Thornton is not shy about applauding the tradition....

May 2017

May 01, 2017

Reading a List of the Names of People Who Lived a Long, Long Time Ago and Being Inspired By It

Today I read 1 Chronicles 2, which is nothing more than a list of names...

January 2016

January 17, 2016

Martin Luther King, Jr.: Toughness of Mind, Tenderness of Heart

Today is the only federal holiday designated and observed nationwide specifically for the honoring of...

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...

September 2014

September 15, 2014

The Lovely, Lovely Thing (Friends of God 6)

Some of our Friends of God shine like the sun, and their names are...

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 15, 2014

Honesty or Heroism? (Friends of God 4)

When we think of the Middle Ages, and we try to imagine the ordeals people...

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...

April 2014

April 18, 2014

Golgotha as Tabor (Friends of God 2)

In light of today's solemnities, and the desire to keep our eyes on the Christ,...

April 11, 2014

Friends of God

Every generation, as it ages, seems to feel that things have gone awry, that the...

March 2014

March 15, 2014

Neo-Christian Myth #6: The Guest-on-Oprah Complex

It’s tempting to cut this last post out of the series, stop while I’m ahead...

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 18, 2014

Neo-Christian Myth #3: Muddling Music

Lest I offended preachers everywhere by my last post, I’ll take a moment here to...

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...