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May 2026

May 14, 2026

AI and Transcendence

Two weeks ago, I set the stage for my next several posts by engaging with...

May 13, 2026

AI and Love: When a Chatbot Becomes a Companion

Ten days ago, I set the stage for my next several posts by engaging with...

February 2026

February 15, 2026

The World Can Shine Like Transfiguration

Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent....

February 08, 2026

La Bella Luna: A Lunar Spirituality

Shortly before the 2013 conclave that would elect him as Pope Francis I, then Cardinal...

January 2026

January 18, 2026

Outgrowing the Need to Believe

A number of years ago, at the end of a presentation to fellow resident scholars...

December 2025

December 07, 2025

Are You the One Who Is to Come?

Fifteen years ago, on the Second Sunday of Advent, I was asked to give the...

October 2025

October 19, 2025

“Hello, God!”

You can either think of the creeds of the great traditions . . . as...

September 2025

September 04, 2025

In Pursuit of Being Fit: The Facts and My Story

I started reading a new book this past week: A Liberation Theology of the Brain:...

August 2025

August 22, 2025

The Punctuation of the Spirit

In my life-long spiritual journey, the decade of my twenties was the charismatic decade. No,...

August 07, 2025

Peeking into the Mind of God

I once led a seminar with a number of colleagues from the Honors Program as...

March 2025

March 02, 2025

When God Is Silent: N.T. Wright on Lament and Faith

When the Spirit Groans In a recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts, "Everything...

January 2025

January 22, 2025

Julian of Norwich’s Parable of the Lord and the Servant

Several weeks ago, I posted that because of a number of seemingly random coincidences, I...

January 17, 2025

Why Mysteries are the Best Fictional Genre

I am currently two-thirds of the way through the second installment in Martin Walker's "Bruno,...

December 2024

December 29, 2024

First Sunday after Christmas: In the Beginning was the Word

The gospel reading in all three liturgical years for the First Sunday after Christmas is...

September 2024

September 24, 2024

How to Make God Interesting

It is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for a [non-Christian] to hear a Christian, supposedly...

September 03, 2024

In all they do, they prosper

There are two kinds of living things. They are distinguished by the strategies they have...

August 2024

August 30, 2024

Getting Comfortable with Paradox

It is standard fare for Christians to believe that human beings are made of body...

July 2024

July 22, 2024

When a Word is a Complete Sentence

All of us live in a world filled with words. For academics, words are the...

July 21, 2024

Okay, fine. I’m a heretic.

I've spent significant time over the past fourteen or fifteen months immersed in the Bible....

June 2024

June 13, 2024

The Fruit of the Spirit

A shorter version of this essay from Fall 2021 will be the entry for the...

May 2024

May 21, 2024

Some Random Thoughts As We Enter Summer

Even though summer doesn’t officially begin for another month or so, for a college professor...

May 06, 2024

When Life Feels Like an Afterthought . . .

Today's "golden oldie" was first posted here in early 2013, just a few months after...

April 2024

April 30, 2024

The Word is a Person

In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was made flesh,...

April 14, 2024

Designing God

Voltaire once wrote that if God did not exist, we would have to invent him....

March 2024

March 28, 2024

Could You Not Watch With Me One Hour?

HOly WeekSome people can sleep anywhere. One of those people was a student in one...

March 07, 2024

Let There Be Light (or not)

In the opening lines of Genesis we are told that “In the beginning . ....

February 2024

February 29, 2024

Being a Person of Faith in Challenging Times

This has been a challenging week in class, not because of my students but because...

February 15, 2024

A Terrible Beauty

The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper. I cannot quite make...

January 2024

January 11, 2024

A Theology of the Compost Pile

In his 2014 book The Bible Tells Me So . . .” and The Sin...

January 09, 2024

This I Believe–and that’s not a good thing

A number of years ago, at the end of a presentation to fellow resident scholars...

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