Sometimes I feel there is great misunderstanding as to what my Facebook Page (and now on Patheos) is all about or why I do what I do on Facebook. First, what I do on Facebook is quite different from that which I do in my writing or in public talks. In the latter I seek to explore the Bible (for the most part) as it pertains to the message of the good news. When I am speaking I am usually... Read more

One of two things prohibits the average Christian from engaging in intelligent rational discourse: laziness and/or an inability to resource themselves. Some Christians, pastors and ministry figures are downright lazy. How much easier is it to treat the Bible like a Ouija board where one can confuse one’s own internal voices with divinity. How much easier is it to say people should stay away from “the opinions of man [sic]”, to claim to have God alone as a teacher than... Read more

We do not live in a perfect world. Life is a crapshoot. Circumstances have nothing at all to do with God. Being wealthy is not God’s blessing, poverty is not God’s curse. The best of relationships don’t always make it to the end. People want transparency from others, but they exempt themselves. You cannot, no matter how hard you try, force a person to see from your perspective. People want others around them to change while they themselves remain static.... Read more

A few days ago I posted my “God Can Go To Hell” blog. What has been interesting are not the comments on my Facebook page (although on Patheos there were a few weird ones), but what was fascinating and depressing, at the same time, was when people shared the link to the blog on their Facebook pages and their friends commented. There seem to be an awful lot of people for whom the genres satire, irony and sarcasm are anathema.... Read more

I have been attempting to do theology in the public domain, on my Facebook page for two years, and now here on Patheos for five months. After all that is what being a public theologian is about (and you can now earn advanced degrees in ‘public theology’). From time to time someone comes on and says that we, who proclaim a Loving God, are going to bear the unforgivable burden of knowing that people went to hell because they listened... Read more

Experiences in the Spirit are beautiful, valuable and can be extraordinarily transformative. However, they are like mountaintops, and we are tempted to stay there. Like the True Human, we are called to come down and walk our valleys and deserts, our via dolorosa, even as He did. We trust that our God does bring life from death, and we can accept the ‘death’ world of space, time and history we now live in, and even though it is perishing, we... Read more

The gospel has been an intellectual movement for 2,000 years. When the second century Greek speaking philosophers and apologists heard and received the gospel, they immediately sought to understand it in terms of their cultures. In one way they sought about embedding the gospel in their culture by comparing it to the great Greek tradition of philosophy and mythology. Like yeast being placed in a ball of dough, these Christian intellectuals inserted the good news of God right into the... Read more

“God is not to be found ‘on high’ in some super-exalted vision or experience that is no earthly good. God is found in the lowest, the dirtiest, the most execrable places, for our God is found hanging, suffering and in anguish and pain. When you stand on Calvary all you can see is the justice system at work; a justice system that was completely controlled by the mimesis of the mob. You see a legally prosecuted and executed criminal, ratified... Read more

I am sometimes asked why the penal substitution theory of the atonement is so popular. Advocates of this position are justly proud of the fact that it is the default position in Protestantism (although as of late that is being challenged). The answer is simple really. Penal substitution is popular because it is a theory of how the gods are placated that is and has been part of social-theological DNA from the dawn of time. Rene Girard and advocates of... Read more

I am currently mentoring a group of 30 people who are reading together in three different books for six months and interacting with myself and each other. I thought that sharing this might be of interest as we are reading daily together (all over the world) in Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. It was written for the group but highlights my take on spirituality. ***** Our journey in this group has a component for spirituality. The reason for... Read more