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

stories

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 2024

May 16, 2024

When God Sends Us the Bird

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, a celebration on when the Holy Spirit descended on a...

May 14, 2024

Perfection or Slight Improvement?

As I begin work on the final version of my forthcoming book A Year of...

May 04, 2024

Weaponizing the Bible

The final meeting of my honors colloquium on Michel de Montaigne was last Thursday. It...

April 2024

April 23, 2024

Of Betta Fish and Forgiveness

One day several years ago, Jeanne said “I want a fish.” This was a rather...

April 17, 2024

What are God’s Pronouns?

RMy baseline criterion for whether a particular class has gone well is to answer the...

April 15, 2024

Jesus Wants You to Pay Your Taxes and to Like It

Today is tax day. As the familiar saying goes, just like death taxes are inevitable....

March 2024

March 17, 2024

Saint Patrick? Let Me Introduce you to Saint Bridget!

Today is St. Patrick's Day, not my favorite holiday (as you'll see below). Portions of...

March 10, 2024

Serpents in the Wilderness

Today's gospel gets us back to the basics. Sports fans old enough to remember the...

March 03, 2024

Faith on Three Wheels

Next week is my birthday week, an annual opportunity for me to consider how old...

February 2024

February 27, 2024

God, Your Boss at Applebee’s, and Larry

An alternative title for this essay might be “A Comedian Interprets the Parable of the...

February 13, 2024

Lent and Valentine’s Day

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent (my least favorite liturgical season). As the...

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...

February 04, 2024

Can We Trust Each Other? A Reflection on Human Nature

The other day upon returning from her early morning visit to the gym, the first...

January 2024

January 30, 2024

What Sort of Bubble Do You Live In?

In my last post I wrote about being comfortable in my own skin as an...

January 14, 2024

How Solitude Can Lead to God

The building looked like the love child of a logic problem and a crossword puzzle....

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...

January 07, 2024

When Things Got Real Between John the Baptist and Jesus

The gospel lectionary reading for the First Sunday of Epiphay traditionally is one version of...

December 2023

December 05, 2023

Bagpipes, Cats, and Saint Andrew

Last Thursday was Saint Andrew's Day; I was reminded beause my Scottish friend Craig posted...

November 2023

November 24, 2023

How to Celebrate the Season Like a Real American

Today is Black Friday, the unfortunate beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Apparently in service...

November 22, 2023

I Don’t Think That Parable Means What You Think It Means

Simone Weil once observed in a notebook entry that “the stories of miracles complicate everything.”...

November 19, 2023

Teach Us to Count Our Days

In an interesting confluence, today's lectionary Psalm--Psalm 90--plays an important role in the final section...

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 07, 2023

Disability Theology

One of the speakers at the Evolving Faith 2023 conference that Jeanne and I attended...

October 2023

October 26, 2023

What is the Most Awesome Country, and Why is it Canada?

A number of years ago, during the early years of President Barack Obama's first term,...

October 24, 2023

My Relationship with the Word of God

My two sabbatical book projects have, without my explicitly planning it, turned out to be...

October 22, 2023

Pragmatic Love

Last weekend Jeanne and I made a quick trip to Minneapolis to attend the annual...

October 15, 2023

Why Do We Think that Everything Happens for a Reason?

The last text of the Spring 2021 semester--the last Covid-19 affected semester on my campus--in...

October 10, 2023

In Bed with Krista and Kate

It was just beginning to turn dimly light when I began to wake up. I...

October 05, 2023

Philosophers on the Pitch

For most sports fans, this time of year is exciting. The baseball playoffs just started,...

October 03, 2023

Why October is the Best Month

Today is the third day of October, and that's a very good thing. I took...

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