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Progressive Christian

2019-12-12T09:26:13-04:00

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.

What May We Hope For?

Last updated on: December 12, 2019 at 9:26 am By Vance Morgan

Advent is the liturgical season that is most meaningful to me. I first encountered the Episcopal church during Advent in the middle of the 1980s; the season has continued over the years to embody everything I’ve come to appreciate and embrace both about the Episcopal church and, more importantly, the incremental changes, shifts, and adjustments in my own spiritual journey. Nine years ago, I was asked for the first time to give a sermon at the small Episcopal church that... Read more

2019-12-08T21:44:58-04:00

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.

“It has been done in your name”: A Dickensian Tale of “Good Christians” Doing Harm

Last updated on: December 8, 2019 at 9:44 pm By Vance Morgan

One of my teaching teammates this past semester in the interdisciplinary course I regularly participate in is a Victorian literature scholar. This, of course, includes Charles Dickens. Her choice from Dickens for the syllabus was the über-familiar A Christmas Carol (even though it was only October when we read it). This novella is so iconic and is such a staple of our cultural heritage that I did not suppose I would find much that was new in the text. I... Read more

2021-10-14T17:30:44-04:00

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.

Living in a Minor Key

Last updated on: October 14, 2021 at 5:30 pm By Vance Morgan

At some point early in their musical training, all serious musicians are introduced to the “circle of fifths,” a handy chart that maps out the complicated but fascinating relationships among the twelve tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, as well as the associations between the major and minor keys. I was fortunate to have Katrina Munn, a graduate of Julliard, as my piano teacher from age four to eleven—she was a stickler for theory and precision and... Read more

2019-11-29T16:26:25-04:00

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.

There Is No Immaculate Perception

Last updated on: November 29, 2019 at 4:26 pm By Vance Morgan

I have taught philosophy in Catholic higher education for twenty-eight years as a non-Catholic. Although I have become accustomed to any number of Catholic commitments and beliefs that are far outside the parameters of the Protestant Christianity in which I was raised, few of these beliefs are more “out there” than the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. I have found that many—perhaps most—of my predominantly Catholic students believe, incorrectly, that the doctrine applies to virgin birth of Jesus. Even I... Read more

2019-12-06T10:37:00-04:00

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.

How to tell the difference between elitism and knowing WTF you are talking about

Last updated on: December 6, 2019 at 10:37 am By Vance Morgan

I haven’t posted anything political here in a while; it’s Advent, and I’m trying to stay in the “Advent Zone” that I described in last Sunday’s post. But in the aftermath of Wednesday’s first impeachment hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee, I’m choosing to briefly step out of the zone for a few observations. The witnesses at the hearing were four academic, legal experts on all matters concerning impeachment. One of them, Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan, has... Read more

2019-12-04T20:36:31-04:00

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.

Preserving Hope when Things Turn Dark

Last updated on: December 4, 2019 at 8:36 pm By Vance Morgan

For the past several years, I have had the privilege of giving a sermon at the Episcopal church I attend during Advent season. Four years ago, I gave this sermon; I called it “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.” Over the past several weeks I have been working through the second draft of my current sabbatical book project; as I completed each chapter draft I had Jeanne, who is my “go to” reader for everything, to give me her impressions. After finishing... Read more

2019-12-03T05:11:17-04:00

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.

The Incarnation in a Post-Truth World

Last updated on: December 3, 2019 at 5:11 am By Vance Morgan

Almost three years ago, the Oxford Dictionary named “post-truth” as its 2016 word of the year, an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” But those of us who pine for the good old Comedy Central days of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” followed by “The Colbert Report” know that the Oxford Dictionary is a decade behind the dictionary times. The... Read more

2019-11-29T09:03:57-04:00

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.

Living in the Advent Zone

Last updated on: November 29, 2019 at 9:03 am By Vance Morgan

In Philosophical Fragments, 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard tells a lovely story about a powerful king who falls in love with a lowly maiden. The maiden is unaware of the king’s love, and the king is worried. Knowing that love is built on equality, how is the gap between his royal greatness and her humble maidenhood to be crossed? He does not want to coerce her into loving him by revealing his love in all of its splendor, nor would elevating her... Read more

2019-11-27T08:20:27-04:00

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.

Black Friday and the War on Christmas, or How to Celebrate Christmas Like a Real American

Last updated on: November 27, 2019 at 8:20 am By Vance Morgan

Today is Black Friday, the unfortunate beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Apparently in service to the holiday spirit of capitalism, some stores opened in yesterday’s evening hours, forcing their employees to interrupt their Thanksgivings in pursuit of increased sales. It is also the beginning of this year’s skirmish in the much-hyped “War on Christmas.” This is a “war” allegedly being waged by all sorts of non-Christians in this country, a war whose continuing battlefields include the apparent prohibition against... Read more

2019-11-29T08:30:20-04:00

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.

My Advent Wish: Peace Be To You

Last updated on: November 29, 2019 at 8:30 am By Vance Morgan

Advent begins this coming Sunday. I was raised in a version of Christianity that had no sense of the liturgical year. I have often described the landmarks of my Baptist youth as Christmas, Easter, and everything else. I knew nothing of Advent until my twenties, and loved its energy, its carols, its texts–it still is my favorite liturgical season decades later. Inwardness, reflection, anticipation, and patience–Advent is for introverts. Many of my best Advent memories are related to music. Charles... Read more

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