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January 2026

January 08, 2026

Faith that is Close to the Bone

Christian Wiman is a poet, essayist, memoirist, editor, and critic whose work has simultaneously challenged...

June 2025

June 25, 2025

The Most Important and Influential Literary Character

Some time ago I read the first few pages of Greg Epstein’s Good without God....

March 2025

March 14, 2025

A Return to the Problem of Evil–Part One

This week is Spring Break at my college--a week I am using to catch up...

January 2025

January 20, 2025

The God of History is an Atheist: Thoughts on MLK Jr. Day

It is an ironic quirk of the calendar that January 20th--the consitutionally designated date for...

December 2024

December 06, 2024

Conversations with God

I was raised by a father who claimed to have regular conversations with God. My...

September 2024

September 17, 2024

Jesus and a Four-Letter Word

Next week will be one of my favorite teaching weeks of the semester as I...

September 08, 2024

What Does a Mature Faith Look Like?

I detect that a rebellion against all things “religious” is growing on me. Often it...

February 2024

February 08, 2024

Doing Good for the Sake of Goodness

Last Monday's text in my sophomore Honors seminar, a course that spans literature, history, theology...

November 2023

November 16, 2023

Is Confirmation Bias a Bad Thing?

Commenting on a new blog essay that I wrote while on retreat last summer, a...

November 12, 2023

The Cost of Doing Evolutionary Business–God and Darwin have a conversation

Regular readers of this blog know that I am currently thinking through an old issue--the...

October 2023

October 31, 2023

What Atheists and Theists Can Agree On

If God is both all-good and all-powerful, why is there so much evil in the...

September 2023

September 06, 2023

What Does the Bible Say About . . . ?

In an interview with CNN a few years ago, Barbara Brown Taylor said something that...

March 2023

March 14, 2023

There is a God, But I Do Not Believe In Him

Starting thise week I am the up front person in both of my team-taught courses...

February 2023

February 26, 2023

To Whom Shall I Bow Down?

Today is the first Sunday of Lent; the gospel reading is Matthew's account of Jesus’...

February 04, 2023

What Can We Do Now That There Is No God?

One of the matters I am paying close attention to this semester, as I prepare...

November 2022

November 25, 2022

Get Thee Behind Me, Santa!

Today is Black Friday, on my shortlist of candidates for the stupidest day of the...

November 12, 2022

“The Heart Has Its Reasons . . .”: My Evidence Against Atheism

Although I estimate that at least 80-90 percent of the negative comments and pushback I...

October 2022

October 29, 2022

How to Make Certain Christians Very Angry

In the ten-plus years of this blog’s existence, I have made any number of Christians...

October 25, 2022

Karl Marx and Jesus Walk into a Bar . . .

We should read the New Testament as saying that how we treat each other on...

September 2022

September 18, 2022

How Many of Your Gods are Dead?

One of my greatest joys as a philosophy professor is that I get to be...

September 13, 2022

When Atheism Turns Evangelical

An evangelical Christian and an atheist got into an argument recently on this blog's Facebook...

September 07, 2022

What Does the Bible Say about _____________?

In an interview with CNN a few years ago, Barbara Brown Taylor said something that...

August 2022

August 22, 2022

Anniversary Week for “Freelance Christianity”: Here’s the #2 post in the past decade

This week marks the tenth anniversary of this blog--hard to believe! It has been on...

August 20, 2022

Something More Powerful than Our Virtues

One of the habits that having a puppy in the house for the past ten...

July 2022

July 20, 2022

The Webb Telescope Images and Confirmation Bias

I had an unexpected and very interesting exchange concerning science and faith on Facebook the...

June 2022

June 03, 2022

Faith Needs Many Things, But It Doesn’t Need a Creed

One Sunday I decided to pay close attention to the words of the Nicene Creed...

May 2022

May 11, 2022

God is Not a Vending Machine

My most recent blog post included some reflections from a recent student on what she...

April 2022

April 16, 2022

Taking Death for a Walk: A Holy Saturday Reflection

A thing about dying is that you can't consult anyone who has done it. Peter...

March 2022

March 15, 2022

The God Who is With Us and Forsakes Us

This week in my "Faith and Doubt" seminar we are encountering Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of...

February 2022

February 24, 2022

The Cruelest Thing a Person Can Say

I detect that a rebellion against all things “religious” is growing on me. Often it...

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