FEAR

Last updated on: September 25, 2013 at 10:27 pm By Jim Burklo

Fear keeps no track of the statistical likelihoodThat the boogeyman’ll getcha.It doesn’t listen to arguments against itself.It mortifies with mights,It incarcerates with coulds,It what-ifs you till you’re stiffTill you’re droned by don’tsRemote-controlled with can’tsSecurity-fenced with fright.Fear’s a fever of the imagination,Extra heartbeats of anticipationLeading to anti-participation.Fear makes you crazier than safer,Not worth the protection you pay for.Fear’s what you feel about what you don’t knowThat prevents you from knowing.Gangsters won’t go to the woods for fear of the deer,Lumberjacks won’t... Read more

SFTS Student Starts Street Ministry in San Francisco

Last updated on: September 24, 2013 at 10:39 pm By Deborah Arca

[Editor’s Note: Before coming to Patheos, I spent a decade of my life and career at the San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) in Northern California. I’m deeply grateful for the ways it changed my life and deepened my faith. This press release from the PC(USA) Presbyterian News Service about an SFTS student who is ministering to the homeless touched me today and I wanted to share it here.] By Christopher Schilling Presbyterian News Service Reprinted from Chimes What started with a McDonald’s hamburger and... Read more

Give (The Department of) Peace a Chance

Last updated on: September 23, 2013 at 10:19 pm By Guest Contributor

The time is upon us to recognize that peace is not merely a destination, but a journey, and not merely a noun, but a verb, for we can be people of peace even in the midst of a violent world. Read more

There Will Soon Be No More Priests: A Review of Occupy Spirituality

Last updated on: September 19, 2013 at 9:21 pm By Jim Burklo

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Matthew Fox's new book "Occupy Spirituality" is at least as much about "occupying" religion in order to break it open as it is about "occupying" Wall Street in order to reveal alternatives to its assumptions. Read more

Mimetic Theory and American Exceptionalism

Last updated on: October 7, 2013 at 4:26 pm By Guest Contributor

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By Suzanne Ross and Adam Ericksen The Raven Foundation So out of the entire op-ed piece published by President Putin in the New York Times on September 12, his challenge to American exceptionalism is what has everyone up in arms. At the very end of the piece, he takes exception to Obama’s assertion of our exceptional commitment to the defense of the defenseless. Here’s the paragraph from Obama’s speech that Putin was referring to – read it carefully: America is... Read more

Occupy Spirituality: A Video Interview with Matthew Fox

Last updated on: September 19, 2013 at 4:08 pm By Deborah Arca

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Think the Occupy Movement has come and gone? Not so, claims renowned theologian Matthew Fox, the co-author, along with activist Adam Bucko, of a new book called Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. Occupy may have been diverted temporarily, Fox says, but the movement is still very much alive — morphing, changing, and deepening — in a new generation of imaginative and passionate young people. Timed for release just before the second anniversary of the Occupy movement, Occupy Spirituality... Read more

St. Augustine on Syria

Last updated on: September 11, 2013 at 5:14 pm By Jim Burklo

Christianity has concerned itself with matters of war and peace for almost its entire history. The one unifying assumption of the faith has been that war is terrible and is to be avoided assiduously. There has always been a part of Christianity that has rejected war absolutely, considering participation in it to be completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus. But alongside it has been a strand of the faith that recognizes that war is morally justified in certain circumstances.... Read more

Mimetic Mondays: Reflections on Syria

Last updated on: October 7, 2013 at 4:24 pm By Guest Contributor

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By Adam Ericksen and Suzanne Ross As the world wrestles with how to respond to the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria, we thought we’d offer you some mimetic reflections on the use of violence. Mimetic theory is an anthropological theory of human violence that has theological implications. The reflections in this article are from friends of ours who are guided by the mimetic insight about violence in their work as preachers, teachers, bloggers, film producers, activists and civilian... Read more

Sinner and Saint: An Interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber

Last updated on: September 10, 2013 at 9:42 pm By Deborah Arca

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Pastrix, the much-anticipated spiritual memoir of one of progressive Christianity’s most talked-about and unconventional pastors, Nadia Bolz-Weber, hits the market this week from Jericho Books. The cover, featuring a gorgeous, backlit photo of a pensive Bolz-Weber baring her stunning shoulder-to-wrist spiritual tattoos, is worth the price of the book alone. But once you open the cover and read the first sentence (which, not surprisingly, begins with the word “shit”), you’ll be doubly rewarded by perhaps one of the most honest,... Read more

Syria: Groupthink or Grouppray?

Last updated on: September 6, 2013 at 12:07 am By Jim Burklo

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With morbid fascination, I’m watching the leaders of the United States groupthink their way into a counterproductive use of American military force. It’s disturbing to observe otherwise intelligent and well-motivated public servants drift into a bad decision. If I’ve learned anything in my 60 years as a citizen of this country, it’s this: I don’t assume that my nation’s leaders have more information or insight than I do about whether or not to America should go to war. I’m a... Read more

Who was sent by the Jerusalem church to witness revival in Samaria?