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Progressive Christian

2025-10-25T15:23:29-04:00

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.

Be Merciful to Me, A Sinner . . .

Last updated on: October 25, 2025 at 3:23 pm By Vance Morgan

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Today’s gospel reading reminds me of an August day several years ago when the small Episcopal church that I occasionally attend moved its morning services out of the sanctuary out “into all the world” on a beautiful summer morning, heading a half mile down the road to a town park on Narragansett Bay. A small table in the gazebo served as the altar, as twenty-five or so 8:00 service regulars enjoyed a modest version of taking the gospel into the... Read more

2025-10-23T08:46:01-04:00

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 Teachers Can Learn From Jesus

Last updated on: October 23, 2025 at 8:46 am By Vance Morgan

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One week from today is the official book launch of my new book A Year of Faith and Philosophy: Exploring Spiritual Growth Through the Liturgical Cycle on campus. As I prepare my remarks, I’m deciding what from more than thirty-five years of teaching is important enough to be squeezed into a half-hour talk. In an early, first-season episode of The West Wing, presidential speech writer Sam Seaborn is attracted to Mallory O’Brien, a fifth-grade teacher who is also the daughter of... Read more

2025-10-19T07:11:19-04:00

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.

“Hello, God!”

Last updated on: October 19, 2025 at 7:11 am By Vance Morgan

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You can either think of the creeds of the great traditions . . . as telling you what you ought to think. Or you can say they are in some sense comparable to the theories of science. Lindon Eaves In The Night of the Confessor, Czech Catholic priest (and philosopher/ theologian/ psychologist) Tomáš Halík mentions a friend who is “a physicist, a Catholic, and a nice man” who occasionally meetings of the clergy and gives talks about contemporary developments in physics.... Read more

2025-10-15T09:18:03-04:00

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.

Happy #73, Big Brother!

Last updated on: October 15, 2025 at 9:18 am By Vance Morgan

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My big brother is celebrating his birthday today. In the 1946 classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Angel Second Class Clarence Oddbody is assigned as George Bailey’s guardian angel. It’s a challenging assignment; George has been driven to the brink of suicide by a series of unfortunate choices and circumstances. More than George’s life rides on Clarence’s success since Clarence, who has been a wingless angel for over a century, is guaranteed by his managing angel Joseph that if Clarence turns George... Read more

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2025-10-11T11:14:38-04:00

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.

Hatred Disguised as Love

Last updated on: October 11, 2025 at 11:14 am By Vance Morgan

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As I reported last Thursday, I am headed for Theology Beer Camp in a few days. A few of my colleagues smiled (smirked) during our Friday afternoon gathering for a beer or two when I mentioned this. Accordingly, today I’m reposting an essay from fourteen months ago that describes how I first found out about Theology Beer camp. It also explores the dynamic of Christians disguising hate in the language of love. A few days ago Jeanne said “I’ve got... Read more

2025-10-08T12:44:49-04:00

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.

I’m Headed to Beer Camp!

Last updated on: October 8, 2025 at 12:44 pm By Vance Morgan

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I am an unabashed beer snob. I am also a single-malt scotch snob, but that’s a conversation for another day. My preferences are for craft beer, dark (porter or stout), with an alcohol percentage of at least 9%. I will wander from this in a pinch, but those are my strongest preferences. There are some iconic beer related stories in my family, beginning with my sons’ introduction to beer more than three decades ago. My sons learned early on that... Read more

2025-10-05T09:12:27-04:00

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.

He Who Increases Knowledge Increases Sorrow

Last updated on: October 5, 2025 at 9:12 am By Vance Morgan

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Last week I posted an essay called “In Much Wisdom There is Much Grief,” inspired by a reading from the book of Proverbs that was part of the Sunday lectionary offerings that I read in church as lector recently. In Much Wisdom There Is Much Grief The focus of much of Proverbs is Wisdom, presented as a woman who stands at the gates and has a lot to say. Much of what she has to say in Proverbs is an... Read more

2025-10-01T09:36:07-04:00

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.

In Much Wisdom There Is Much Grief

Last updated on: October 1, 2025 at 9:36 am By Vance Morgan

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In much wisdom there is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1:18 One of the last times I was lector at church, the reading from the Jewish scriptures was a very cool passage from the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is introduced at the beginning of the reading from chapter 8: “At the crossroads she takes her stand . . . at the entrance of the portals she cries out.” Who is Wisdom, and what does she... Read more

2025-09-27T10:20:32-04:00

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.

Do Moral Absolutes Exist?

Last updated on: September 27, 2025 at 10:20 am By Vance Morgan

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Do moral absolutes exist? Is human engagement with moral principles more like a treasure hunt, where we search for something that is already there but perhaps is deeply hidden, or are moral principles something that we creatively construct from various pieces of our individual and collective experiences as well as from the world around us? These are the sorts of questions that I always spend the first few weeks of any ethics course exploring with my students. On the first... Read more

2025-09-25T06:26:21-04:00

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.

Jesus the Magnet

Last updated on: September 25, 2025 at 6:26 am By Vance Morgan

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In one of the many recent books written by an atheist about Christianity (I forget which one), the author suggests that one should look with suspicion on any religion whose dominant and most recognizable symbol signifies violence, torture, and oppression. The importance of the cross to all Christians, regardless of their many important differences, is indeed worthy of attention. One of my early childhood memories involves waiting for a cross to arrive in the mail, selected from a list of... Read more

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