Prometheus, Genesis and the Purpose of Creation

Last updated on: June 14, 2012 at 9:00 am By Kyle Roberts

Hollywood has had an eschatology fetish lately: exploring the final days, coming demise of the cosmos, or post-apocalyptic scenarios of the human race. Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, a prequel to his Alien movies, takes us back the other direction–to humanity’s origin. It’s science fiction, of course; I stress the fiction here, because while it’s an enjoyable movie–alternatively mysterious, gripping, and laughably absurd–it has little interest in actual science. To me, the best science fiction tries to trick you by slipping in... Read more

Art and Grace

Last updated on: August 26, 2012 at 2:36 pm By Daniel A. Siedell

Andrei Tarkovsky, The Passion of Andrei Rublev (1966) Grace and Sacrament Grace is known through experience, not through description, analysis, definition. Grace is heard, seen, and felt. It is aesthetic, opening and expanding our experience of the world, which becomes, as Lutheran theologian Oswald Bayer describes it, “breadth, breath and liberation.” It is the pastor reminding you of God’s promises, which he made for you; it is the pastor announcing to you that Christ’s body was broken and blood spilt for you;... Read more

Liar, Liar Robes on Fire

Last updated on: June 14, 2012 at 8:58 am By Daniel Harrell

As the economy continues its gyrations on the backside of the housing bust, a company called Digital Risk works to prevent another toxic mortgage collapse. As The Atlantic magazine reports this month, Digital Risk does its preventative work by treating the mortgage collapse like a crime scene, “reconstructing circumstances that led to so many Americans to buy houses they couldn’t afford,” and then making sure such scenarios aren’t repeated. Digital Risk’s objective is to give lenders “actionable intelligence” to help... Read more

Summer Has Arrived

Last updated on: June 8, 2012 at 12:38 pm By Wyndy Corbin Reuschling

Summer has arrived in Northeast Ohio. In spite of a mild winter, and a low record of 5-6 snow shoveling gigs, the warmth, green and bursting colors are always wonderful to experience and behold. Shortly, one of my favorite summer activities will be starting: the Farmer’s Market, hosted by my church community, Christ United Methodist Church. Since moving 10 years ago to Ashland (a town of 25,000) from Philadelphia (a city and its surrounding areas of about 1 and 1/2... Read more

LIBERATE Launches Today

Last updated on: June 9, 2012 at 11:17 am By Daniel A. Siedell

When I am not writing about art, culture, and theology here at Patheos, I serve as Director of Theological & Cultural Practices at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and my chief responsibility is curator of LIBERATE, the online resource ministry of Senior Pastor Tullian Tchividjian. The website launches this afternoon at 3pm (EST) and I invite you to visit. Our mission is, following Jesus’s in Luke 4, “to proclaim liberty to the captives” (v. 18) and... Read more

Calling All ‘Reflective Exiles’

Last updated on: June 7, 2012 at 9:53 am By Kyle Roberts

“Reflective exiles.” I recently came across this striking term in an article by Philip Harrold called “Deconversion in the Emerging Church.” These are people who have left the established church (and sometimes their faith altogether) because of dissatisfaction with the church’s answers (or non-answers) to difficult questions. Hard questions like, “Why did God seem to command genocide in the Old Testament?” and “What happens to theology and biblical interpretation if evolution is true?” and “How could a good, loving God send... Read more

Go Bananas

Last updated on: June 6, 2012 at 10:38 am By Daniel Harrell

As I sliced up a banana for my morning corn flakes while waiting for the transit of Venus, my public radio coincidentally broadcast a piece about my fragile yellow crescent of potassium. I already knew my banana to be the most popular fruit in the country, despite its severely short shelf life. What I didn’t know was the ruthless journey by which the banana gained its popularity. The story is told in Rich Cohen’s book, The Fish That Ate The... Read more

The Ear and the Eye

Last updated on: June 8, 2012 at 9:51 pm By Daniel A. Siedell

Makoto Fujimura, The Golden Sea, 64 x 80, mineral pigments and gold on Kumohada paper, 2011 I recently spent the weekend with artist Makoto Fujimura at his new studio in Princeton, New Jersey, and in the course of our conversations, some of which were videotaped for a documentary, we discussed the presence of grace in artistic practice. Grace, which is undeserving, one-way love, is disruptive, counter-intuitive, and operates against our fallen human nature because it wrecks our conditional economy... Read more

People Watching in Airports

Last updated on: June 4, 2012 at 6:54 am By Wyndy Corbin Reuschling

I spent good chunks of time over the week-end in three airports, more time spent than in the air getting from point A to B to C. I do remember the old adage that airports are great places to “people watch.” So between redeeming time by catching up on reading to traversing concourses, I did “people watch.” So, my ruminations on people watching at three airports: What about those shoes? I am in my sensible clogs that fit nicely on... Read more

Moral Courage: Caring and Compassion, Seeing and Speaking

Last updated on: May 31, 2012 at 9:31 am By Wyndy Corbin Reuschling

I was invited to give the Commencement Address at Bethel Theological Seminary this Saturday, June 2. The theme is “Courage for the Journey,” on which I built the call for moral courage. Moral courage necessitates caring and compassion, and seeing and speaking if we are actually willing to embody courage as a social virtue. Here are some snippets from the address: “Wherever you go, the Lord will be with you. You will need strength and courage, but because ministry is... Read more