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November 2020

November 08, 2020

Fixers and Healers

My doctor says that I am his most boring patient, because there is never anything...

November 01, 2020

Being a Person Rather than a Saint

Today is “All Saints Day. I come from a hardcore Protestant world, a world in which...

October 2020

October 29, 2020

Exorcising the Ghosts of Jesus Past

One Sunday, toward the end of a particularly lively and deep seminar with my “Living...

October 22, 2020

“Political Jesus”: Yes, those words belong together

In a recent interview, Union Theological Seminary president Serene Jones said that "If you really...

October 18, 2020

When God Gives Us the Bird

I get myself in trouble on this blog occasionally, often deliberately. I know that most...

October 06, 2020

On Earth, as it is in Heaven: Why Faith is Always Political

Last Sunday, it was my turn to be lector at church. The reading from the...

October 04, 2020

It’s Blessing of the Animals Sunday . . . but who is really getting the blessing?

Today is Blessing of the Animals Sunday, which this year is bittersweet for me. My...

October 01, 2020

Take a Deep Breath

Jeanne and I did not watch the presidential "debate" on Tuesday evening, choosing instead to...

September 2020

September 27, 2020

“It has been done in your name”: When Christians do un-Christian things

One of my teaching teammates this semester in the interdisciplinary course I regularly participate in...

September 24, 2020

Karl Marx and the Parable of the Vineyard Owner

My college campus is in the middle of a (hopefully) temporary lockdown, due to a...

September 20, 2020

WTF Is This??–A story about change

Organized religion often is a source of packaged answers and comfortable solutions to important questions...

September 10, 2020

Silence: The Best Answer to Prayer

I, as many people of faith, have often wondered why the divine is so apparently...

September 06, 2020

What it Truly Means to be Free

Iris Murdoch is one of my favorite philosophers and novelists, but I seldom get to...

September 03, 2020

Love is the Discovery of Reality: A Story About Learning to See Things Differently

Iris Murdoch was one of the philosophers whose work was front and center in my...

August 2020

August 27, 2020

Speaking the Truth in a Culture of Lies

Just short of a year ago, I spent a Saturday morning listening to a lecture...

August 23, 2020

The Connection between Faith and Politics? It’s a Secret

Today's reading from Matthew's gospel is both famous and infamous. Jesus asks his disciples "Who...

August 19, 2020

When the Bible is Not the Word of God

This month marks the eighth anniversary of this blog. It started on Wordpress as an...

August 16, 2020

What if my “Best Self” isn’t that Good?

My first teaching position was at a small university in Memphis. My department was the...

August 13, 2020

Leaving Jesusland . . . for good

I make no secret, on this blog or in person, of my love for Canada....

August 08, 2020

Jesus Goes for a Walk–on a lake

The Sunday gospel readings this summer have recently provided us with some of Jesus’ greatest...

August 04, 2020

What if God Doesn’t Want to be Found?

Summer is a time for catching up on my non-philosophy reading and finding new authors....

August 02, 2020

How Would YOU Feed a Party of Five Thousand?

My youngest son was always the inquisitive sort, the kind of kid who, from the...

July 2020

July 26, 2020

Why are Christians So Angry and Fearful?

I am currently working my way through Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s brand new book Jesus...

July 23, 2020

I’ll See It When I Believe It

When we first moved to Rhode Island in the middle 1990s for my new teaching...

July 21, 2020

Roofs, Vineyards, and the Kingdom of Heaven

Last Wednesday, after three delays (one our fault, two their fault), our house got a...

July 19, 2020

How is Your Optimism Doing These Days?

How is your optimism doing these days? I am an optimist by nature, not inclined...

July 14, 2020

“Give unto Caesar”: It’s the Christian Thing to Do

A recent edition of The New Yorker had a timely cartoon on the back page. Two mourners...

July 12, 2020

The Christian Faith in One Sentence

This morning I have the privilege of giving the sermon at Trinity Episcopal Church in...

July 09, 2020

Pandemics and Professors

I’m in the early stages this summer of working on my next book project—a memoirish...

July 05, 2020

Is Your Burden Light?

Teaching for twenty-five years in an interdisciplinary program with colleagues from a multitude of disciplines...

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