“He laughed, he, Jorge. For the first time I heard him laugh.” The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco Rarely does one leap from slumber at 3 a.m. eagerly. But that Summer of ’96 morn, a sacred moment beckoned me. Soon, after a rigorous, wee-small-hours hike, I would reach the peak of Mt. Sinai and behold the... Read more
“And we were put on earth a little space To learn to bear the beams of love.” — William Blake Patheos is great at words. We bring you lots and lots of them here at our site (which, incidentally, is celebrating its 5-year anniversary next month!) and they’re really, really good. They make us think harder about the big questions of our faith. But we can all only take so many words before we need a break from theologizing, philosophizing... Read more
What’s Emerging? A New Perspective on Victims Something new is happening in Christianity today. The Spirit is moving among us, shaking up old ways, raising new questions, and challenging thousand year old tenets of our faith. Books with titles like Everything Must Change (Brian McLaren), Jesus Feminist (Sarah Bessey) and Banned Questions About the Bible (Christian Piatt) are populating our bookshelves. Some call these authors heretics who are destroying the fabric of Christianity. Others claim that without these prophetic voices,... Read more
This past Thursday, the men on Tennessee’s death row, four of whom have scheduled execution dates in the near future, invited Governor Haslam, the man who signs the death warrants to join them for prayer. The backdrop for the story is that Tennessee has more executions scheduled in a year than the state has killed in the past 50 years. Last week as Christians around the world remembered Good Friday, the day Jesus was executed, legislators in the Bible belt... Read more
Jesus lives. Yet, many African-Americans are still waiting for the resurrection. Read more
Marcus Borg introduced his book, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering A Life of Faith, by describing “A Tale of Two Paradigms” where he juxaposed the basic elements of “the earlier paradigm” of the Christian tradition and life with what he labled “the emerging paradigm.” Many of us who promote an emerging paradigm and participate in the progressive Christian movement were once connected to traditional understandings and practices. The following conversation I had recently with my mother reveals how different these... Read more
SOULJOURN: The Book and the Journey Pop Prophets and Religious Pluralism A review by Jim Burklo of NATURAL MYSTICS: The Prophetic Lives of Bob Marley and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan by Varun Soni (Figueroa Press: 2014) Waves of wailing falsetto lifted Rama’s holy name above the reedy voice of the harmonium and the steady beat of hands clapping and palms sliding on the tabla. “Sanson Ki Mala Pe” sounded like the very stereotype of Indian spiritual music, to ears untrained... Read more
God of Resurrection, You are Author and Story; you fold yourself into Character; now wrap yourself in my welcome. Shimmer and dance and leap within, snapping along these nerves, pouring from these fingertips, shouting from this palate and tongue and teeth. Let me speak you, sing you, dance you; let me hope you, promise you, reveal you; let vision, and word, and yearning be you, all you, only you. By Andrea La Sonde Anastos Copyrighted and posted with permission... Read more
Part 1: Just what is emerging? There’s a lot of talk about “emergent church” these days. But just what is emerging? Phyllis Tickle, popular author and founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, says we are entering the age of the Spirit, and I agree. But where is the Spirit leading us? Brian McLaren, a leading voice in the emergent church movement, calls it “A New Kind of Christianity.” But what is this new Christianity all about? Having... Read more
in Golgotha, at the Cross, humanity spoke violence and God spoke love, and the cross became the Rosetta stone. Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In