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

religion

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

February 2019

February 26, 2019

Forgiveness with No Boundaries

As we drove home from a lovely two-day celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary several years...

February 19, 2019

God’s Works are as Good as We Make Them

The gospel reading for last Sunday was Luke's abbreviated version of the Beatitudes. It is a...

February 10, 2019

What Can We Do Now That There Is No God?

Several weeks into the new year, I am for the first time getting to teach...

November 2018

November 15, 2018

Mary, Martha, and Time Management

The stereotype of the Type A personality has become an entrenched part of cultural lore....

November 09, 2018

Am I My Neighbor’s Keeper?

Thanks to the caravan of refugees moving north, President Trump's choice to stoke up fears...

November 02, 2018

Spreading the Good News of Atheism

Last week, my blog post about what atheists and persons of faith can agree on...

October 2018

October 31, 2018

Halloween Jesus or Fire-Insurance Policy Jesus?

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

October 16, 2018

Why Rich People Can’t Get Into the Kingdom of Heaven, and other inconvenient truths

Dear Dr. Morgan: I’m writing to let you know that I won’t be in class...

September 2018

September 25, 2018

Obsessed with the Apocalypse

Last spring I taught a colloquium called "Apocalypse" with a colleague from the English department....

September 20, 2018

Calling God Back to the Mountain

What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both...

September 11, 2018

Seventeen Years Ago Today

Two years ago, the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11 fell on a Sunday. The priest of...

September 09, 2018

Right-Brain Faith in a Left-Brain World

At age thirty-seven, Harvard trained brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor woke up one morning with...

September 06, 2018

What the Author Meant May Not Matter

At the beginning of a seminar on the books of Exodus and Job from the...

August 2018

August 19, 2018

Wrestling With the Story

In Lies We Believe Abut God, Wm. Paul Young (author of The Shack) tells the...

August 09, 2018

To Live In Safety and Without Fear

Every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall...

August 05, 2018

Faith Without Creed

One Sunday, not too many months ago, I decided to pay close attention to the...

July 2018

July 24, 2018

What I Learned About My Faith When I Visited Cuba

Fifteen years ago, I was part of a group of a dozen or so academics...

July 15, 2018

What If God and Morality Have Nothing to Do with Each Other?

Is there any true transcendence, or is this idea always a consoling dream projected by...

July 08, 2018

God is Just a Story (and so are we)

Although the name of this blog is “Freelance Christianity,” and it is published on Patheos’...

June 2018

June 05, 2018

Jesus Has a Bad Day

A conversation heard behind the scenes: Dude! Did you see what just happened?? How could...

June 01, 2018

Getting Out of the Spiritual Nursery

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

May 2018

May 30, 2018

“America First” is a Theological Heresy

Memorial Day week is a time for solemn remembrance. It also tends to be a...

May 24, 2018

Ruining the Christian Brand

In “Slander,” from her latest collection of essays, What Are We Doing Here?, Marilynne Robinson...

May 06, 2018

What Christians Get Wrong About Jesus

Historical Christianity has fallen into the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion ....

March 2018

March 25, 2018

The Feather of Grace, or How To Keep Donald Trump and Evangelical Christians From Corrupting Your Faith

At its best, faith is the overflow of gratitude, the attempt to live as if...

March 22, 2018

Morality By The Skin Of Your Teeth

Any caring human being asks the question What is the right thing to do? on...

March 08, 2018

How Atheists and Theists Can Get Along

This coming week I will be starting a unit with my General Ethics students called...

February 2018

February 24, 2018

What I Can Do About Gun Violence

The year anniversary of the horrific massacre at The Pulse in Orlando a week ago,...

January 2018

January 30, 2018

Insufficient Evidence

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and...

December 2017

December 17, 2017

Despite the Best Efforts of Evangelical Christians, Roy Moore Lost

Last Monday I posted on Facebook that although I had deliberately stayed away from politics...

Related posts from Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

The Lonely Pawn: On Faith, Doubt, and Meaning

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Agency

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Love: When a Chatbot Becomes a...

Freelance Christianity

Progressive Christian

AI and Transcendence

Freelance Christianity

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos