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
Progressive Christian
A Report from Theology Beer Camp

A Report from Theology Beer Camp

Last updated on: October 22, 2024 at 6:00 am by Vance Morgan

0 Comments

A Report from Theology Beer Camp 2024-10-21T14:54:52-04:00 Vance Morgan

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.

This past weekend I was at a conference in Denver called “Theology Beer Camp.” If academics committed themselves more often to crafting such creative titles for their annual get-togethers, more people would want to go. Theology Beer Camp was a gathering of several hundred progressive/deconstructing theologians from across the country; as I’ve often said, although I’m not a theologian, I could play one on television. Several aspects of the conference were themed to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy; at the registration table attendees were asked to fill out an identification card on a lanyard that indicated (1) your name, (2) where you were from, and (3) your favorite Lord of the Rings character. Mine (obviously) was Treebeard.

In all they do, they prosper

The official name of the event was “The Return of the God-Pods”; the various sessions were hosted by different progressive theology podcast personalities who interviewed one or two important progressive theology figures (thirty podcasts were represented). Jeanne and I both listen to some of these podcasts regularly; she was the one who first identified this event and told me that she thought I should attend. The middle of October is the worst possible time for to attend an academic conference, given that I am swamped with grading and that the deadline for midterm grades is only a little over a week away. But I usually trust Jeanne’s intuitions, so I registered and off I went. I got to meet several people in person (Diana Butler Bass, Tom Oord, James McGrath, Pete Enns, Jared Byas) whose podcasts or books I have admired for years. Very cool.

In addition to the conference itself, a major reason to attend is that my younger son Justin lives and works in western Colorado, located on the other side of the Rockies just a four hour drive from Denver. He was able to get the days off and joined me for the festivities. In addition to attending two major sessions of the conference each day, Justin and I explored the south Denver area, finding an excellent restaurant called “2 Penguins” (really!) as well as Lone Tree brewery which we visited twice. By the way, although the idea of craft beer at the conference site was a draw, it turned out to be a bit of a bust–no dark beer available on either day. But I’ve never been one who considered myself morally bound to stay locked in at any conference, so finding a local brewery with beer more to our liking was as much of a spiritual experience as any of the sessions we attended.

The very first session we attended at the conference on Friday morning was a panel discussion called “The New Evangelicals” in which the two hosts of a podcast by the same name interviewed Diana Butler Bass and Brian McClaren, two of the older (they are a bit younger than me) rock stars of the progressive Christian movment. Both Brian McClaren

Okay, fine. I’m a heretic.

and Diana Butler Bass

Jesus the Teacher

have appeared over the past several weeks in essays on this blog, so it was great to hear them both in the flesh for the first time.

The session was brilliant–when and if recordings of the sessions from the conference are made available, this event will be the centerpiece of a new post. For today, I just want to relate a story Brian McLaren told that focused on what he described as an important turning point in his own development as a person of faith. At the time he was a thirty-something pastor of a large evangelical Christian church, experiencing not only the usual problems any leader of a faith community might encounter but also evolving, serious questions about his own faith journey.

Brian used to get one day per week off (probably Monday), a day that usually involved going out by himself into nature and doing a lot of complaining, often laced with profanity, both about his congregation and the God who presumably put him in this ministry in the first place. On this particular day, a familar verse from Proverbs 3 popped into his consciousness.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.

And McClaren had one of those “AHA!’ Big Bird moments that changed his life as he saw this well-worn text in a new way that focused his attention like a laser on the “lean not on your understanding” part. “It had never occurred to me,” McClaren said, “that who God might be and my own understanding of God had become the same thing.” In another session someone referred to human beings as “idol-making factories”; in this case, McClaren’s belief concerning who or what God is had become in his mind and faith identical to God itself.

What was the takeaway the Brian McClaren wanted to convey to the hundreds of people in that session? Here’s what he said, guaranteed to be accurate because I copied it from Justin’s notes that he wrote furiously as McClaren spoke:

Doubt your understanding of God and realize that there might be a God outside that understanding. Give yourself permission to not lean on your own understanding of God.

Have the courage, in other words, to imagine that you don’t have God figured out, to realize that insisting that your current understanding of God cannot be expanded or improved is idolatry, and to accept that (to quote a speaker from yet another session) “what we call “God” is usually just a louder version of “human” or even “me.”

Not bad for a Friday morning at Theology Beer Camp. More reports from the conference to come.

Previous Post

October 15, 2024

Living an Autumn Life

Next Post

October 25, 2024 Is it Strange that I Love God?

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Mary did have a choice. And she was able to make it before the Holy ..."

madalyn baumstark

Mary Got To Choose

"i cannot read beyond your recommendations for the books since i like to have a ..."

madalyn baumstark

A Doubting Faith

"AI will never be able to utter with honesty, feeling, or humility, the greeting: "Namaste".It ..."

madalyn baumstark

AI and Human Dignity

"They do. I'm sure you could find discussions of the same topic from any of ..."

Vance Morgan

AI and the Life of Faith

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Advent AI Angels Artificial intelligence atheism attention baptism Baptists beauty belief Benedictines Bible bicycling Big Bird books Bovina Camaldoli hermitage Canada Catholicism cats certainty change Christianity Christmas Collegeville Covid-19 creativity Development of Western Civilization dogs doubt Easter Enneagram Epiphany Episcopal ethics Eucharist evil extroverts Facebook faith family fear flowers forgiveness freedom friends God goodness grace happiness heaven hell history Holy Spirit Holy Week hope human nature humility humor idolatry incarnation introverts irreverence Islam Jeanne Jesus Joe Biden joy Judaism justice Kamala Harris knowledge Lent listen literature liturgy love Marsue Memorial Day miracles movies music mystery mythology NPR Old Testament optimism paradox peace Penguins philosophy piano podcast politics power prayer Protestantism Providence College Religion Rhode Island sabbatical sacrament science seeing silence Simone Weil Socrates soul sports St. John's College stories suffering tattoo teaching technology television theology thinking time tolerance transcendence travel trees trust truth Uncategorized Vermont wisdom wonder writing

Select a Month May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 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

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz