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Progressive Christian

2020-12-08T03:40:24-04:00

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.

It Isn’t True Just Because You Believe It. There Is No Immaculate Perception

Last updated on: December 8, 2020 at 3:40 am By Vance Morgan

I have taught philosophy in Catholic higher education for thirty 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

2023-01-09T15:03:41-04:00

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.

Are You the One Who Is to Come?

Last updated on: January 9, 2023 at 3:03 pm By Vance Morgan

The great but incredibly difficult German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in a rare moment of clarity, wrote that all important human questions can be boiled down to these three: WHAT CAN I KNOW? WHAT OUGHT I TO DO? and WHAT MAY I HOPE FOR? The Advent and Christmas seasons focus on the last of these three questions. A major figure in the season’s stories is John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin who is front and center both in this Sunday’s and next Sunday’s gospel. John once sent his... Read more

2020-12-03T07:24:45-04:00

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.

Will Goodness Become Cool?

Last updated on: December 3, 2020 at 7:24 am By Vance Morgan

As President-elect Biden rolls out his National Security choices, his economic strategy team, his communications staff, and various Cabinet picks, I can feel the heart rates of millions of my fellow American lowering as we also remember what deep breaths feel like. Competence. Experience. Lifelong commitment to service. On Facebook, I posted With Biden’s first reported cabinet picks, we are moving from “so much winning” to “so much competence.” I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle it. I’ll be... Read more

2020-12-02T08:21:43-04:00

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.

To Pardon is Human, but to Forgive is Divine

Last updated on: December 2, 2020 at 8:21 am By Vance Morgan

Michael Flynn got one. Rudy Giuliani is fishing for one. Donald Trump may grant them to his children, his son-in-law, and even try to grant one to himself before the Pardonpalooza is over. Last July, shortly after Trump pardoned Roger Stone, I posted an essay here exploring the relationship between pardoning and forgiveness. It seemse appropriate to repost it today. With Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s prison sentence last week, we are reminded once again that this President uses... Read more

2020-11-25T12:51:47-04:00

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 Don’t Know. I was Wrong. I’m Sorry. I Need Help.

Last updated on: November 25, 2020 at 12:51 pm By Vance Morgan

A popular Christian writer got herself in trouble a while ago by suggesting on Twitter that most Christians have a hard time with texts in the Gospels that clearly show Jesus to be fully human. The specific passage she had in mind was Mark’s account of Jesus’ interaction with a Syrophoenician woman who asks Jesus to cast an “unclean spirit” out of her daughter. Jesus first refuses, saying that he does not intend to give his children’s (Jews’) bread to... Read more

2020-11-28T12:57:18-04:00

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 Message of Advent: Stay Awake!

Last updated on: November 28, 2020 at 12:57 pm By Vance Morgan

I have the privilege of giving the sermon for the First Sunday of Advent, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawtuxet, RI. The dozen or so people who facilitate the service being sent out on Facebook Live will be masked and socially distanced, of course. Here’s what I’ll say. Happy New Year! Today is the First Sunday of Advent, the first day of the new liturgical year. That’s Year One in the Book of Common Prayer daily readings, and Year B... Read more

2020-11-26T09:32:52-04:00

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.

A Covid-19 Thanksgiving

Last updated on: November 26, 2020 at 9:32 am By Vance Morgan

For a number of reasons, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Because my sons (ages 8 and 6) and I met Jeanne at my parents’ condo on Thanksgiving Eve thirty-three years ago, we have always treated Thanksgiving as “our” holiday. Once the boys became adults and scattered to the four winds, until just a few years ago we would all gather here in Providence for Thanksgiving, always joined by friends with nowhere else to go for the holiday, my sons’ current... Read more

2020-11-21T16:39:21-04:00

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.

Christianity Does Not Solve the Problem of Evil

Last updated on: November 21, 2020 at 4:39 pm By Vance Morgan

In the eight-plus years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve occasionally been asked what a “Freelance Christian” is. I call myself a freelance Christian because I don’t believe that any particular doctrinal formulation of the Christian faith is satisfactory. This is not because I’m still looking for the doctrinal package for Christianity that fits my own eclectic faith most closely; it’s because I don’t believe Christianity can be packaged in a doctrinal statement at all. Jesus did not come... Read more

2020-11-18T10:26:36-04:00

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.

Cathedrals and Physics Labs: Saying “Hello” to God

Last updated on: November 18, 2020 at 10:26 am By Vance Morgan

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 Two or three years ago, Harvard political philosopher and professor of government Danielle Allen gave a talk on campus as part of my college’s year-long centennial celebration. I was fortunate enough to be invited to join ten or so faculty and... Read more

2020-11-18T10:45:34-04:00

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.

God is Bigger than Religion

Last updated on: November 18, 2020 at 10:45 am By Vance Morgan

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks died on November 7, after a brief bout with cancer. Sacks was the Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth of Nations from 1991-2013, the author of many insightful and well-received books, and gave some of the most interesting interviews I have ever heard. I wrote about Sacks, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and our feeble human attempts to harness God a couple of years ago . . . A Jewish friend of mine told me a number of years... Read more

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