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Progressive Christian

2022-08-02T06:20:24-04:00

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.

A Trip to the Zoo Reminds Me of My Mother

Last updated on: August 2, 2022 at 6:20 am By Vance Morgan

Jeanne and I hosted our grand-nephews last week–I forgot what it is like to have a 14 and an 11 year old in the house. We survived. We went to the zoo on of the days they were visiting. Roger Williams Park Zoo has no penguins, but they do have my second-favorite animal–giraffes. I once learned something interesting about giraffes from one of my colleagues. He was lecturing on Roman art and architecture; when discussing the Coliseum, he mentioned that... Read more

2022-07-30T11:23:08-04:00

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.

Some Crooked Things Don’t Need to be Made Straight

Last updated on: July 30, 2022 at 11:23 am By Vance Morgan

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Immanuel Kant I love many kinds of music, but classical music is my first love. I was classically trained on the piano from age four through high school; my first piano teacher, a Julliard graduate who somehow ended up in northern Vermont teaching piano, was also the organist for the North Country Chorus, a volunteer choral group that was, in the estimation of Vermonters at the time,... Read more

2022-07-27T18:22:44-04:00

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.

The Shy Deer-Soul Inside of You

Last updated on: July 27, 2022 at 6:22 pm By Vance Morgan

As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God Psalm 42:1 I met a deer the other morning, the first deer I’ve met in a long time. I was on my usual early morning bike ride (the closest thing I have to a spiritual practice these days), came down an unfamiliar hill in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and there he was standing in the middle of the road. I stopped far enough away to... Read more

2022-07-19T14:33:14-04:00

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.

This Book Changed My Life: Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”

Last updated on: July 19, 2022 at 2:33 pm By Vance Morgan

We wake, if we ever wake at all, to mystery, rumors of death, beauty, violence. . . . “Seem like we’re just set down here,” a woman said to me recently, “and don’t nobody know why.” Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek A few weeks ago I posted the following on Facebook: What books have changed your life? I don’t mean which books do you think are “greatest” or at the top of the “Great Books” canon, but which books... Read more

2022-07-23T09:02:17-04:00

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.

Negotiating with God

Last updated on: July 23, 2022 at 9:02 am By Vance Morgan

I have the privilege of giving the sermon today at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawtuxet, RI. The lectionary texts I’ll be using are Genesis 18:20-32 and Luke 11:1-13. Here’s what I’ll be saying . . . Today’s lectionary readings raise an important question that any serious person of faith asks on a regular basis, even though we know that we aren’t supposed to ask it. That question is: What is the best way to negotiate with God? “God said it.... Read more

2022-07-20T14:16:25-04:00

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.

The Webb Telescope Images and Confirmation Bias

Last updated on: July 20, 2022 at 2:16 pm By Vance Morgan

I had an unexpected and very interesting exchange concerning science and faith on Facebook the other day. I know that “interesting exchange on Facebook” might sound oxymoronic, but it actually happened. Commenting on a new blog essay that I wrote while on retreat a couple of weeks ago, a Facebook acquaintance who is a fellow graduate of the Great Books program at St. John’s College wrote the following. Him: I don’t believe in your God nor in the notion that... Read more

2022-07-18T13:37:33-04:00

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.

Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream

Last updated on: July 18, 2022 at 1:37 pm By Vance Morgan

I’ve been thinking a lot about end of life issues lately. Really. They seem to be showing up everywhere–on the television show we are currently binge-watching, in my readings in the Psalms, in Montaigne’s Essais that I taught last year, in a lead article in the Atlantic that just came in the mail, in a novel I am rereading that will be the first assignment in my ethics class in the fall. It may also have to do with a significant... Read more

2022-07-13T18:52:48-04:00

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.

Mercifully Grant that We May Grow Old Together: An anniversary reflection

Last updated on: July 13, 2022 at 6:52 pm By Vance Morgan

Thirty-four years ago today, two early thirty-somethings stood in front of their four parents and exchanged promises; the groom’s father was an ordained minister, so the promises exchanged were official. It was a quickly organized, impromptu event because the groom’s mother was dying of cancer and might not live to experience the real, full-blown wedding planned for a year or so down the road. That wedding never happened. The groom’s mother died less than three months later, followed unexpectedly by... Read more

2022-07-13T21:21:37-04:00

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.

Some Things Repair Themselves, and Some Things Do Not

Last updated on: July 13, 2022 at 9:21 pm By Vance Morgan

My recently concluded crappy month of June ended with a minor fender-bender, the result of a guy deciding that it was a good idea to come to a complete stop in the middle of a busy on-ramp onto I-95 North when there was a perfectly good merging lane for everyone once you get onto the interstate. I ran into the rear of his car. It wasn’t my fault. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. So now our 2011... Read more

2022-07-11T17:13:26-04:00

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 Neighbor May Not Be the Person I Think It Is

Last updated on: July 11, 2022 at 5:13 pm By Vance Morgan

I recently found myself in the midst of a Facebook discussion, the sort of online discussion that I should try to avoid at all costs. The topic was same-sex marriage; in the middle of some testy back and forth between persons of vastly different beliefs and commitments, a former student with whom I am friends on Facebook, a young Muslim woman, posted this: I honestly wonder – why are some religious folks so quick to condemn and oppose the legalization... Read more

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