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

2025-09-20T15:58:15-04:00

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 If I’m Wrong?

Last updated on: September 20, 2025 at 3:58 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Starting college at age eighteen, three thousand miles away from home, might have been daunting under other circumstances. But as I watched my father drive away from the Santa Fe campus of St. John’s College in August of 1974 after our week-long drive from northern Vermont delivering me to my freshman year at a school with a Great Books curriculum designed for pointy-headed geeks like me, the only college I ever even applied to, I was inwardly rejoicing. “I’ll be... Read more

2025-09-16T10:48:08-04:00

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.

Happy Birthday, Bovina!

Last updated on: September 16, 2025 at 10:48 am By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Bovina’s fourth birthday was two days ago. On the one hand it’s impossible to believe that four years minus six weeks have passed since my son and I picked her up at Red Elephant Farms (specializing in breeding Welsh Pembroke Corgis in the Atlanta area); on the other hand, it’s just as hard to remember any time when Bovina was not the central element in and the CEO of Jeanne’s and my lives. Although I have written about and mentioned... Read more

2025-09-13T08:36:40-04:00

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.

Remembering a Good and Faithful Servant

Last updated on: September 13, 2025 at 8:36 am By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Father Kilian McDonnell OSB died last week at the age of 103. His funeral this Tuesday will fall on what would have been his 104th birthday. Kilian was a very important part of a transformational sabbatical semester sixteen years ago that changed my life. I will always remember his smile, his great sense of humor, his leprechaun-like looks, his insights, and his deep faith. Here is an essay I wrote in January of 2022 that describes some of the reasons... Read more

2025-09-10T09:26:52-04:00

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.

When Will We Get Tired of Hating People? A 9/11 reflection

Last updated on: September 10, 2025 at 9:26 am By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing twenty-four years ago when they heard the news. I was in my college’s main cafeteria getting coffee and noticed something weird happening on the Today Show broadcast on a television hanging from the ceiling in the corner. At that point all they knew was that one of the Twin Towers was on fire, apparently because an airplane had crashed into it. I had scheduled office hours that morning,... Read more

2025-09-05T15:05:23-04:00

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.

Roots and Fruit

Last updated on: September 5, 2025 at 3:05 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

My new book, A Year of Faith and Philosophy: Exploring Spiritual Growth Through the Liturgical Cycle, will be published one month from today! Here’s a link from the publisher–you can also pre-order it on Amazon. A Year of Faith and Philosophy As a sample, here’s the entry for today (Proper 18) from the book: In Psalm 1, the appointed psalm for Proper 18 Year C, the righteous are described as being “like trees planted by streams of water . . .... Read more

2025-08-31T13:00:53-04:00

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 Pursuit of Being Fit: The Facts and My Story

Last updated on: August 31, 2025 at 1:00 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

I started reading a new book this past week: A Liberation Theology of the Brain: Neuroscience, Theology, and Decolonizing Emotions by Carmelo Santos-Rolón. A daunting title, for sure, but it touches base with many of my interests both personal and professional, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Probably a bad idea the week before the new semester starts. After a compelling introduction, here is the book’s first paragraph: The mind is a storyteller, a creator of worlds, not... Read more

2025-09-01T20:27:15-04:00

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 Labor Day Reflection on Jesus and Capitalism

Last updated on: September 1, 2025 at 8:27 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

There are a couple of sayings attributed to Jesus that Christians often use when attempting to show that following Jesus and a commitment to capitalism are compatible with each other. In a recent Facebook thread, a person noted that since Jesus said that “God helps those who helps themselves,” clearly he would endorse the capitalist work ethic of competition and self-promotion. lter, on Twitter/X, someone quoted Jesus as saying that “If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” both an endorsement... Read more

2025-08-26T16:14:34-04:00

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.

Thirteen Years of Blogging, and remembering a friend

Last updated on: August 26, 2025 at 4:14 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

This week marks thirteen years since I, with trepidation, misgivings and a certain amount of reluctance, started this blog (I’ve been blogging on Patheos for eight of those years). My third book rooted in this blog will be released by Church Publishing on October 7; the first two were published in 2017 and 2019. I’m most grateful for those who regularly read my musings three times a week, for those who comment (even when you don’t like what you are... Read more

Uncategorized

2025-08-21T14:34:28-04:00

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.

When We Say What We Don’t Believe

Last updated on: August 21, 2025 at 2:34 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Today’s appointed lectionary Psalm is one of my two or three favorites of all of the psalms–#103. One of the many reasons I love this psalm is because of its musical setting in Godspell, one of my all time favorite musicals, a setting that captures an exuberance and joyfulness that can be easily missed if one just reads the text. A few years ago, Jeanne and I had the opportunity to see a local community theater’s production of Godspell. We went... Read more

2025-08-21T13:37:35-04:00

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 Punctuation of the Spirit

Last updated on: August 21, 2025 at 1:37 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

In my life-long spiritual journey, the decade of my twenties was the charismatic decade. No, that was not when I began to develop my current charismatic personality—that’s when I first encountered the Christian charismatic movement. For the uninitiated, the charismatic movement was (and is) marked positively by an infusion of divine energy into churches and denominations that had for too long lived out the negative side of Paul’s observation that “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” For those whose whole... Read more

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the ____ and the End,” says the Lord God.

Select your answer to see how you score.

Light Eternal Beginning Truth

Books by This Author Books by Vance G. Morgan

See All Titles »

Browse Our Archives

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

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Progressive Christian