In my book Novel Preaching I tell of having lunch with the chair of the English Department at SMU. C.W. Smith. Dr. Smith is the award winning author of several novels and short stories, most recently the novel Purple Hearts, a story set in a small Texas town during W.W. II. Dr. Smith commented to me, “The most difficult thing in teaching 18 year olds creative writing is getting them to notice what they see. The second thing is to get them to have the confidence that what they notice has some significance.” Read more

I win most “my childhood was so fundamentalist’” debates. In these conversations I usually just have to bring up one name, and the latest round of “Crazy Christian upbringing” goes to me. That name is Jerry Falwell. For most mainline and progressive Christians the name itself is enough to bring weeping and gnashing of teeth. Memories flash through our heads of Dr. Falwell telling people we would blow the terrorists away in the name of the Lord, that 9/11 was... Read more

Rather than simply escapist television, I would argue that for many fans of the series their experiences of LOST were highly religious in nature. While numerous definitions of religion exist, one rather basic definition could be that which attempts to explain the meaning of life and what happens to us during and after death. There can be no doubt that, according to this definition, LOST functioned as a religious text. Read more

Missed church yesterday? Pastor Courtney Pinkerton shares her reflections on Pentecost: "Call her what you will: Pneuma, breath of God, Sophia, this feminine Spirit of God woven through Hebrew Scriptures, Flame, Wind, Advocate, Paraclete, Comforter. I'll take them all. I also have a sneaking suspicion she may be what the Quaker's call the inner teacher, the soul's own wisdom." Read more

"Science and technology give us new ways to live our faith and show love to our neighbor." Professor of Science and Religion Noreen Herzfeld weighs in on how religion actually benefits from technological advances, as part of our on-going series on the religion-science debate this week at Patheos. Read more

"My God is in the next room, cooking unseen feasts and humming..." More poetic musings on the Holy Spirit, from guest blogger Callid Keefe-Perry. Read more