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

Mercy Not Sacrifice

Home
About
My Book
Archives
More
- Theology
- Culture
- Politics
- Sermons
- Bible
- Devotions
- Daily Office
- Podcast

Home
Progressive Christian

God

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 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 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 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 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

February 2015

February 02, 2015

Is God offended by our sin?

What is God's attitude toward our sin? How you answer this question says a lot...

January 2015

January 24, 2015

Radical Jesus 101: Is humanity good or evil?

Is humanity good or evil? Some conservative evangelicals would say that the answer to this...

January 05, 2015

Make us comfortable with being uncomfortable

Yesterday in church, our pastor prayed, "Make us comfortable with being uncomfortable." I'd been looking...

December 2014

December 29, 2014

A hopefully friendly Christian response to the atheist ten non-commandments

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine shared a set of ten "non-commandments"...

December 08, 2014

Did God or Satan tell David to take a census? Progressive revelation & Derek Flood’s Disarming Scripture

If God tells you to sin, is it still a sin? What if God tells...

November 2014

November 07, 2014

Can God improvise outside the boundaries of Christian orthodoxy?

Generally there are two extreme positions that Christians can take when talking about where other...

November 06, 2014

Love is not our choice, but God’s gift (featuring Simone Weil)

One of the most problematic axioms in the popular evangelical culture that raised me is...

October 2014

October 29, 2014

Wisdom from Thomas a Kempis #1: esoteric words vs. virtuous life

Thomas a Kempis was a 15th century German monk who wrote The Imitation of Christ,...

October 23, 2014

Why I like Pope Francis’ “God of surprises”

It's little secret that progressive evangelicals like me have a huge crush on Pope Francis...

October 13, 2014

Is God arbitrary? (my point of contention with conservative evangelicals)

Is there anything that God asks us to do for no other reason than because...

September 2014

September 17, 2014

Do you deserve to be crucified for your sin?

This past week, Brian Zahnd and Michael Brown held a debate on the penal substitution...

September 06, 2014

How Andrew W.K. messed with my prayer life

The Village Voice in New York City has a weekly advice column by a guy...

September 02, 2014

How I would say what Victoria Osteen said differently

In a video clip that has been making the rounds on social media, prosperity gospel...

July 2014

July 07, 2014

God’s triune sovereignty as provider, victim, and rebel

I've been dragging my heels on writing this post because referring to God as a...

June 2014

June 26, 2014

Can Christianity work with a Mr. Rogers God? (Wrestling with “moralistic therapeutic deism”)

There's a wonky term that gets thrown around a lot among Christian educators called "moralistic...

June 12, 2014

What does a safe and fruitful church conversation about sexuality look like?

The Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church will be meeting next weekend in Hampton,...

June 07, 2014

Pentecost: when God rebels against her handlers

Yes, I said her. But on Pentecost you can do that. Jesus calls the one...

May 2014

May 07, 2014

“Everything created by God is good” (1 Timothy 4:4)

I stumbled across a beautiful passage in my scripture reading today: 1 Timothy 4:4-5. Paul...

April 2014

April 22, 2014

Six ways that capitalism fails the church

The religion blog forum Patheos is hosting a Public Square conversation called "Has Capitalism Failed?"...

February 2014

February 23, 2014

Wrestling with heaven and hell (last weekend’s #sermon #podcast)

I keep on getting busy and forgetting to post my sermon podcasts. Last weekend, for...

February 11, 2014

What makes God mad? My hard heart.

This weekend, I had the perfect setup for a stereotypical social justice Christian sermon. I...

February 05, 2014

Did we crucify Jesus or did God? (Using @ScotMcKnight to bludgeon bad atonement theory)

Scot McKnight had a very interesting post last week concerning a recently popular"scapegoat" atonement theory...

January 2014

January 31, 2014

Is God’s love more holy than his holiness is loving?

It may seem like a nonsensical distinction but I think it makes all the difference...

January 27, 2014

Church, I think we’re gonna be okay

The past several years of my life have been building up to a three and...

January 24, 2014

A response to @BillMaher’s recent comments about God

I've been reading an interview with outspoken atheist comedian Bill Maher in the Atlantic. The...

January 21, 2014

Some Henri Nouwen thoughts on prayer

A woman from my church gave me a bunch of spiritual books because she was...

January 20, 2014

Salvation from “whiteness”: a subversive reading of Job

For Martin Luther King Day, I wanted to consider a very challenging quote from black...

January 17, 2014

Is the Old Testament a debate between priests and prophets?

I've been reading two books recently that have me really wondering what to do with...

January 13, 2014

Three different conceptions of Biblical authority

Thanks very much for your responses to my last post on Biblical inerrancy. Though some...

January 11, 2014

The two verses that torpedo Biblical inerrancy

This weekend, we will be wrestling with what it means for the Bible to be...