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

certainty

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

May 2019

May 14, 2019

Are Evangelical Christians Discriminated Against? The Dangers of Tribal Christianity

Last week, a Christianity Today article reported that "Half of Americans Say Evangelicals are Discriminated Against." www.christianitytoday.com

May 02, 2019

Does Everything Happen for a Reason? I don’t think so

During the last seminar of the semester in one of my classes this week, my...

April 2019

April 27, 2019

Why Doubt Is My Favorite Virtue

The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty Anne Lamott In the lectionary, the Second...

March 2019

March 17, 2019

Why I Am Done Trying to Prove the Existence of God

If you think you understand it, it is not God. Soren Kierkegaard In Marilynne Robinson’s...

March 05, 2019

Partnering with God (even when one isn’t sure who or what God is)

A Jewish friend of mine told me a number of years ago that Judaism is...

February 2019

February 02, 2019

The Super Bowl and the F-Word

The Super Bowl is upon us! As an avid Patriots fan, I feel perfectly comfortable...

November 2018

November 27, 2018

This is Why I am Not an Atheist

Despite my consistent self-description as a “person of faith,” I have been accused occasionally over...

November 25, 2018

Does Christianity Solve the Problem of Evil? (spoiler alert: no, it doesn’t)

In the six-plus years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve occasionally been asked what...

October 2018

October 18, 2018

Does a Christian Have to be Certain About Anything?

If we remembered that water takes its color from the vessel containing it, we would...

September 2018

September 23, 2018

When an Atheist Finds Out That There is More Than One Kind of Christian

One of the many things that make teaching a rewarding vocation is receiving unsolicited testimonials...

September 16, 2018

The Unexamined Faith Is Not Worth Having

He lived over two millennia ago, and as far as we know he never wrote...

August 2018

August 19, 2018

Wrestling With the Story

In Lies We Believe Abut God, Wm. Paul Young (author of The Shack) tells the...

August 16, 2018

Get Up, Kill, and Eat

I grew up in hunting country where at the appropriate times each year the males...

July 2018

July 29, 2018

Like this God Stuff is Real

In her wonderful memoir Take This Bread, Sara Miles tells us of a conversation she...

July 22, 2018

Don’t Be Afraid

I had the opportunity to spend two hours with a young man named Hayden Bruce...

June 2018

June 19, 2018

Be Careful What You Vote For

An annual musical fixture of my Baptist upbringing was the Easter Cantata. Each year on...

May 2018

May 10, 2018

The Crooked Timber of Faith

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Immanuel Kant...

April 2018

April 17, 2018

The Best Story Ever

In the aftermath of Easter, Christians often enjoy retelling various stories about Jesus from the...

April 15, 2018

“Give Unto Caesar”: It’s an Expression of Love

A recent edition of The New Yorker had a timely cartoon on the back page....

March 2018

March 22, 2018

Morality By The Skin Of Your Teeth

Any caring human being asks the question What is the right thing to do? on...

March 20, 2018

What is it Like to be You?

During the last third of the semester in my General Ethics class this semester, we...

March 18, 2018

There Is A God, But I Do Not Believe In HIm

God would have us know that we must live as people who manage our lives...

March 08, 2018

How Atheists and Theists Can Get Along

This coming week I will be starting a unit with my General Ethics students called...

March 06, 2018

A Few Things That I Know To Be True

Today is my birthday, so I ask for your indulgence. Our culture tends to assume...

March 01, 2018

A More Plausible God

In a couple of weeks, we will be starting a unit in my General Ethics...

February 2018

February 08, 2018

Tolerance on Steroids

What happens when a perfectly good virtue gets turned into not only the most important virtue,...

February 06, 2018

Two Plus Two Makes Four

In J. M. Coetzee’s strange and fascinating novel The Childhood of Jesus, the precocious child...

January 2018

January 30, 2018

Insufficient Evidence

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and...

January 25, 2018

The Divine Uncertainty Principle

Fifteen or more years ago my professional writing and research interests were largely focused on...

January 23, 2018

Fact or Opinion?

So moral relativism makes us more corrupt, but it also keeps us open-minded; moral objectivism...

Related posts from Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

The Lonely Pawn: On Faith, Doubt, and Meaning

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Agency

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Love: When a Chatbot Becomes a...

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Transcendence

Freelance Christianity

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos