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

2025-08-19T16:53:37-04:00

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.

The Art of Persuasion

Last updated on: August 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

I was asked a few days ago to participate in an ongoing project on campus related to our required core interdiciplinary, team-taught progem, a project that seeks to create various videos that emphasize the numerous skills and techniques that should be developed during a student’s four-semester experience in this program. My assigned topic is “Persuasion.” Here is my first draft. What does it take to be persuasive? Passion? Facts? Logic? Authority? Status? We live in a polarized world in which... Read more

books

Covid-19

Development of Western Civilization

2025-08-16T12:58:36-04:00

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.

Facts and Words

Last updated on: August 16, 2025 at 12:58 pm By Vance Morgan

It’s always interesting to see where my thoughts and writing take me when a new academic year is approaching. Classes begin two weeks from Tuesday–I find myself thinking about the power of words, both written and spoken. The day after Christmas a number of years ago I went with my son to see Peter Jackson’s movie version of “The Hobbit,” Part One. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I knew I would. I have been a Tolkienphile since my early teens,... Read more

2025-08-15T06:40:40-04:00

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.

Owls, Penguins, and Joy

Last updated on: August 15, 2025 at 6:40 am By Vance Morgan

Just about fifteen years ago, on a beautiful summer morning very similar to the ones we are experiencing in Providence these days, I was just finishing a post-morning prayer walk around beautiful Lake Sagatagan behind St. John’s Abbey on the campus of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. I had been in Collegeville for the first four-and-a-half months of 2009 on sabbatical and was now back for a week of writing and relaxation while Jeanne participated in a workshop at... Read more

2025-08-11T11:55:04-04:00

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.

Playing a Bad Hand Well

Last updated on: August 11, 2025 at 11:55 am By Vance Morgan

Bein’ born is craps. How we live is poker. Doc Holliday Of the dozens of novelists whose books I have read over the years, Mary Doria Russell is one of my least likely favorites. I’m not a big science fiction fan (I much prefer mysteries), but her debut novels The Sparrow and Children of God, about a Jesuit missionary expedition in outer space (you can’t beat Catholics in space!) are both beautifully written and thought-provoking. Dreamers of the Day, set... Read more

2025-08-09T12:56:24-04:00

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.

That Sounds Like Prayer

Last updated on: August 9, 2025 at 12:56 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

We are all going to die! That’s just so awful. I didn’t agree to this. How do we live in the face of this? Anne Lamott It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since my four-year tenure as the director of the large team-taught interdisciplinary program required for four semesters of all freshmen and sophomores on my campus ended. I’ve been reminded of many stories from those years as I work on finding an agent and/or publisher for... Read more

Covid-19

Development of Western Civilization

2025-08-07T13:51:00-04:00

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.

Peeking into the Mind of God

Last updated on: August 7, 2025 at 1:51 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

I once led a seminar with a number of colleagues from the Honors Program as part of a two-day end-of-the-semester workshop. Our text was several essays from Michel de Montaigne, a sixteenth-century diplomat, philosopher, and introvert who has become one of my favorite authors over the years. My general tendency, both as a philosopher and as a normal human being, is toward the details rather than grand, sweeping schemes, and toward skepticism rather than certainty. Montaigne speaks directly to both... Read more

2025-07-30T12:55:38-04:00

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.

Do My Masculine and Feminine Side Like Each Other?

Last updated on: July 30, 2025 at 12:55 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

The Fall 2025 semester begins five weeks from last Tuesday. I guarantee that if you asked any faculty member at my college any day between now and the day after Labor Day how long it is before classes start, they would give you as precise an answer as I provided in the first sentence. The beginning of August is when teachers ask questions like “Where the hell did June and July go?” “I wonder if my teammates in the upcoming... Read more

books

Covid-19

Development of Western Civilization

Development of Western Civilization

2025-07-28T16:19:35-04:00

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.

God is Non-Binary

Last updated on: July 28, 2025 at 4:19 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

My baseline criterion for whether a particular class has gone well is to answer the question “Did I learn something new today?” in the affirmative. By that standard I had a number of excellent classes in my Montaigne honors colloquium a year ago. Michel de Montaigne frequently writes about how much hubris and pride it requires for mere human beings to claim anything with certainty about the personality traits and preferences of God, as in this passage from one of... Read more

2025-07-26T12:47:12-04:00

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.

We Are Not Special

Last updated on: July 26, 2025 at 12:47 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

A regular occurrence at home Providence Friars basketball games is when, during one of the first media timeouts in the first half, the crowd is introduced to an armed forces veteran with local roots. As the veteran’s accomplishments in the military are read over the public address system, he or she is brought onto the court along with family to the increasing cheers of the thousands of fans in the crowd. By the time it’s over virtually everyone is on... Read more

2025-07-25T06:12:08-04:00

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.

Let It Be

Last updated on: July 25, 2025 at 6:12 am By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Every time I tell our Alexa to “play the Beatles,” I stop what I’m doing and sing along when “Let It Be” shows up in the playlist. It was the centerpiece of the last sermon I gave three years or so ago–enjoy! Many of you folks in the pews today are old enough to understand what I mean when I say that I grew up with the Beatles. They were an important part of the soundtrack of my youth. Now,... Read more

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who interpreted Pharaoh's dreams in Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Aaron Moses David Joseph

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