The last Sunday before Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical calendar year is always “Christ the King” Sunday, although I notice that in the interest of inclusiveness the online lectionary is calling it “Reign of Christ” Sunday this year. Fair enough–no reason to assume that Christ (a title, not a name) is a dude. The gospel reading du jour is from Matthew’s gospel, the well-known description of the Last Judgment where Christ separates the sheep from the goats,... Read more
Today is Black Friday, the unfortunate beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Apparently in service to the holiday spirit of capitalism, some stores opened in yesterday’s evening hours, forcing their employees to interrupt their Thanksgivings in pursuit of increased sales. It is also the beginning of this year’s skirmish in the much-hyped “War on Christmas.” This is a “war” allegedly being waged by all sorts of non-Christians in this country, a war whose continuing battlefields include the apparent prohibition against... Read more
Simone Weil once observed in a notebook entry that “the stories of miracles complicate everything.” She’s right about that, but she could have replaced “stories of miracles” with “Jesus’s parables” and her statement would also have been true. A section of one of my sabbatical book chapters works through a few of the parables in Matthew’s gospel and draws out some of the complicated meanings just below the surface of what appears to be the “obvious” meaning of the story.... Read more
Today is my youngest son’s 42nd birthday–which makes me feel exceptionally old! I always tell people that I was in my early teens when my sons were born. But enough about me–those who know Justin know what a stellar human being he is, a great friend, a compassionate and dedicated professional (a crises co-responder who literally saves lives on a weekly basis), and a wonderful son. We will be joining him, along with his older brother Caleb and our daughter-in-law... Read more
In an interesting confluence, today’s lectionary Psalm–Psalm 90–plays an important role in the final section of the conclusion to my teaching memoir that has been a focus of my semester-long sabbatical. I have a full draft of the book completed and after conversations with a few friends and colleagues who have been reading it, I will be moving toward creating publication proposals. Today you get a preliminary peek at Nice Work If You Can Get It: Stories and Lessons from a... Read more
Commenting on a new blog essay that I wrote while on retreat last summer, a Facebook acquaintance who is a fellow graduate of the Great Books program at St. John’s College wrote the following. Him: I don’t believe in your God nor in the notion that God or any entity created the universe. The new Webb photos confirm my long-held conviction that the universe is a cold, mindless, soulless void without purpose or meaning, and that any characterization to the... Read more
Last Thursday I posted my second recent essay revisiting the problem of evil, arguing that the most common and popular solutions to this thorny problem don’t ultimately work. Why Traditional “Solutions” to the Problem of Evil Don’t Work In this final essay on the problem of evil, I suggest some strategic changes that provide an entirely different angle on the issue than most traditional attempts employ. The problem of evil arises when one assumes the omnipotence and omnibenevolence of God... Read more
Regular readers of this blog know that I am currently thinking through an old issue–the problem of evil–in a new way. More on that to come in future posts. Someone on a podcast said recently that “suffering is the cost of doing evolutinary business.” So, I would argue, are diversity, beauty, and the powerful attraction of imperfection. The theory of natural selection also challenges people of “traditional” Christian faith to rethink their assumptions. Over a decade ago, I spent a... Read more
In the most recent episode of their podcast “The Bible for Normal People,” Pete Enns and Jared Byas interviewed Thomas Jay Oord, a prolific theologian and philosopher, on the problem of evil. The problem of evil regularly shows up in my ethics courses in a unit called “Does God have anything to do with ethics?”; I found the podcast both entertaining and helpful in suggesting ways that everyone, including myself, might both frame and think about the problem of evil... Read more
One of the speakers at the Evolving Faith 2023 conference that Jeanne and I attended in Minneapolis last month was Amy Kenny, a powerful writer who I first encountered on a podcast while on retreat last summer. My reflections shortly after that retreat on this blog are also included in my book project The Freelance Christian’s Guide to the Liturgical Year that I just finished a first draft of. I consider myself to be well informed and well read, but every once... Read more
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