This guest post is part one of a three part imaginative reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ last week. Jan Coates is a married mother of two adult sons (and two cats). She lives in an outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia and is currently completing a Master of Arts (Theology) and beginning a Master of Theological Studies at Whitley College in Melbourne. She considers herself to be a Universalist with Baptist leanings. Jan adores animals, supports animal rescue organizations, and... Read more
Remember the famous last words of the church? “But we’ve never done it that way!” This guest post suggests that those dying words are conservative, and thus not at all traditional. Jonathan Sauder currently resides in Fort Worth, Texas, where he is completing a Master of Theological Studies degree at Brite Divinity School. He focuses his theological research on excavating and exposing the empire-friendly habits of theologies past and present. He is teaching an upcoming online course for The School... Read more
From Greg Vadala, Director of The School of Peace Theology: “A number of though-provoking classes have already begun at The School of Peace Theology. The next course to begin (Apr 1, 2017) is Universal Salvation and Christian Theology, with Dr. Robin Parry. (Some may remember Robin from his part in the movie Hellbound? by filmmaker Kevin Miller—who is also teaching a course here soon!) Many of the courses have required reading associated with them, and for this course... Read more
This is a guest post from Matt Distefano. Matthew J. Distefano is the author of All Set Free and From the Blood of Abel. He is a regular contributor for the Unfundamentalist Christians blog on Patheos. Dear Religion, You entered my life at such an early age that I cannot recall. Your doctrines, your orthodoxies, your “correct beliefs,” forced upon me before I even knew how to think. And as such, you were always a given. Everything you said was a given... Read more
This is the final installment in a series by guest blogger Brennan T. Hughes Brennan T. (“Bren”) Hughes, a former minister, is a musician, licensed attorney and criminal-law scholar. He lives with his family in Kentucky Coal Country. The author of the spiritual empowerment book, Heaven’s Muscle, Bren shares his writings, videos, and music at BrenHughes.com. He holds a master’s degree in biblical languages from Freed-Hardeman University, a master of divinity from Lipscomb University, and a law degree from Vanderbilt... Read more
This is part two of a three part series by guest blogger Brennan T. Hughes. Brennan T. (“Bren”) Hughes, a former minister, is a musician, licensed attorney and criminal-law scholar. He lives with his family in Kentucky Coal Country. The author of the spiritual empowerment book, Heaven’s Muscle, Bren shares his writings, videos, and music at BrenHughes.com. He holds a master’s degree in biblical languages from Freed-Hardeman University, a master of divinity from Lipscomb University, and a law degree from Vanderbilt... Read more
The way we read the Bible says more about us than it does about God. As a mimetic theorist I read the Bible with a certain dose of skepticism, a healthy ‘hermeneutics of suspicion.’ No, I do not take the Bible at face value as the ‘Word of God’ because if I did I would be forced to say that God is genocidal, maniacal, angry without cause, arbitrary and cold hearted. This is certainly not the description of God... Read more
This is a guest post by Brennan T. Hughes Brennan T. (“Bren”) Hughes, a former minister, is a musician, licensed attorney and criminal-law scholar. He lives with his family in Kentucky Coal Country. The author of the spiritual empowerment book, Heaven’s Muscle, Bren shares his writings, videos, and music at BrenHughes.com. He holds a master’s degree in biblical languages from Freed-Hardeman University, a master of divinity from Lipscomb University, and a law degree from Vanderbilt University. The Lord Is... Read more
As though the Right does not have its playbooks. Of course it does. The entire Religious Right has its home schooling, hate worldly culture, live righteous and holy lives and dominate everyone else handbooks and social programming, as does every single Evangelical and Fundamentalist church out there. This is bulls**t for the writer to criticize activists on the Left who seek to raise a consistent message. Even if you don’t care for the message, to criticize mobilization or strategizing... Read more
I truly, truly apologize for the length of today’s post but inasmuch as it is THE key question plaguing contemporary Christianity, it cannot have a short, sweet and simple answer but deserves to be considered fully. Once on my Facebook Page a poster commented to another poster, “I see that you are sensing a contradiction between the two testaments as far as God’s nature. This goes way back. Have you ever read anything about Marcionism? I’m not equated Michael’s... Read more
Christianity is Changing
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