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
Catholic

2019-02-05T21:15:04-06:00

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 Creed, a Story that I Tell, Embellished a Bit

Last updated on: February 5, 2019 at 9:15 pm By Jack Hartjes

When I say the Creed, make my Profession of Faith at Mass, I’m not reciting a list of things I believe. I am confessing whom I believe in. To believe in someone is to commit oneself to be part of that one’s story. So the Creed isn’t much like an essay on the topic “Things I Believe.” It’s a story and it’s dramatic. Here I tell the story, filling in some details as they strike me. I don’t imagine it... Read more

The Creed

2019-04-29T08:14:28-06:00

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.

Christmas Proclamation Puts Whole World into Jesus’ Story

Last updated on: April 29, 2019 at 8:14 am By Jack Hartjes

Tonight many parishes will hear the Christmas Proclamation before Mass on the Eve of Christmas. This ancient practice reminds me of an exercise I would have my Confirmation students do. I gave them a series events from the Bible and secular and Church history from the creation of the world to their own birth. The events were in random order, and they were to arrange them chronologically. It was a way of getting the students to think of their involvement in the... Read more

Advent Christmas

2019-04-29T08:14:11-06:00

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’s So Fum About Christmas? Answers to the Christmas Carol Quiz

Last updated on: April 29, 2019 at 8:14 am By Jack Hartjes

Christmas is a serious as well as a joyful season. You can find both feelings in Christmas carols. Today I’m focusing more on the joy, although there is a serious effort to understand as well. For instance, I’ve heard a choir director say that the word “fum” in the Christmas carol is just a nonsense word. The first answer clears up that misunderstanding. I hope you enjoy the Christmas carol quiz and also all the blessings of Christmas. 1. What’s... Read more

Advent Christmas

2019-04-29T08:13:58-06:00

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’s So Fum about December 5 and 20 and What does ‘Fum’ Mean? A Christmas Carol Quiz

Last updated on: April 29, 2019 at 8:13 am By Jack Hartjes

It’s the third week in Advent. Christmas is getting closer. A favorite Christmas carol awakens in my brain. It’s time to brighten the Advent atmosphere of the home, consisting so far of wreathe and Christmas creche. We’ll put some ornaments on the Christmas tree this week. Actually it’s three small fake trees that we call our Christmas forest. It’s “Gaudete” week, the week of the rose candle. Gaudete, the Latin word for “rejoice,” comes from the traditional Introit for the... Read more

Advent Christmas

2019-07-23T18:41:25-06:00

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.

COP24 Metaphors: Children Playing Hide and Seek and King’s College Boys Choir

Last updated on: July 23, 2019 at 6:41 pm By Jack Hartjes

Advent is a season of waiting, and I have been awaiting the conclusion of the COP24 meetings in Poland as I haven’t waited for anything since the 2015 Paris climate meetings. Then, while waiting, I rewrote the lyrics of an old song. Today, with the meetings dragging on and my posting a day later than usual, a couple metaphors describe the various participants for me. COP24 is the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on... Read more

Ecology

2019-01-02T09:03:21-06:00

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 Impossible Becoming Possible and Stories of the Christ Child

Last updated on: January 2, 2019 at 9:03 am By Jack Hartjes

Recently the category of the impossible has become a theme for some theologians. If there’s going to be anything truly new in this world, it has to be something impossible becoming possible. If grace is effective in this world, it’s by making an impossible thing possible. Sometimes I’m convinced that only the impossible becoming possible will get me through a day or this country through a political season. That’s why I need Matthew and Luke’s infancy stories. Sixth in a... Read more

Stories of Jesus

2019-01-02T09:02:17-06:00

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 Story of the Magi and Biblical Historical Criticism

Last updated on: January 2, 2019 at 9:02 am By Jack Hartjes

Christmas carols tell the story of Jesus that I first loved. Singing about manger, angels, “peace on earth,” shepherds and magi made the meaning of Jesus come alive. I can understand if Christians feel they lose something when a new story that scholars tell takes many of the incidents and characters in the traditional stories of the baby Jesus out of history and places them into another category that is more like fiction. Still, it can hardly be wrong to... Read more

Stories of Jesus

2019-04-29T08:13:44-06:00

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.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Christmas Carol

Last updated on: April 29, 2019 at 8:13 am By Jack Hartjes

Since I believe the humanity of Jesus is our best path toward understanding divinity, I am interested when I see atheists and agnostics who are sympathetic to Jesus. Kurt Vonnegut is one of these. The radical 1960’s loved him for his quirky wit and questioning of accepted wisdom. But the label of countercultural hero didn’t fit very will according to this article by Dan Wakefield. Vonnegut was in love with Jesus. (Quotations below are from the Wakefield article.) Vonnegut’s religious... Read more

Advent Christmas

2019-01-02T09:00:06-06:00

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.

Infancy Stories in Matthew and Luke: Credible History?

Last updated on: January 2, 2019 at 9:00 am By Jack Hartjes

The infancy stories that we find in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke pose two problems. One is for the historian, who wants to distinguish the historical Jesus from the evangelists’ theological interpretations. The more important problem is for the theologian who wants from Jesus a way into some understanding of God and world. The stories tell of a very human and very divine Jesus. It may just be that the humanity of Jesus, as historians can discern it, is... Read more

Stories of Jesus

2019-01-02T08:58:37-06:00

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 Quest of the Historical Jesus

Last updated on: January 2, 2019 at 8:58 am By Jack Hartjes

Christianity finds ultimate meaning in a snippet of history with Jesus of Nazareth at its center. Knowing Jesus in his historical existence is important to Christians because that’s our key to knowing God. The “quest of the historical Jesus,” as Albert Schweitzer named it, got off to a shaky start, however. Schweitzer concluded that all the “biographies” of Jesus up to his time told more about their authors than about the real Jesus. Their “Jesus” looked like an enlightened 19th... Read more

Stories of Jesus

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book follows Psalms in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Job Proverbs Song of Solomon Ecclesiastes

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Christmas Amazon Synod Angels Being Consumed Bible Catholic Modern Creed Ecology Economics Elizabeth Johnson Eucharist Fragments and Filaments Gender and Sex Gospel of Mark Herzog Historical Jesus Liturgy Luke Opening Scriptures on Way to Emmaus Ordinary radicals Parables Pro-Life Reincarnation Rosary Sacraments science Social Justice Souls Stories of Jesus The Creed Torture and Eucharist Tracy Uncategorized War and Peace

Select a Month October 2026 June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 November 2024 July 2024 March 2024 December 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 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 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 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

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Catholic