As the world begins to open up after fifteen months of pandemic restrictions, as things begin to return to “normal,” a few surprises are undoubtedly around the corner. The Episcopal church that I attend will be returning to two services in person at 8 and 10, after more than a year of services primarily on Zoom. I am a regular lector at the early service; when the summer lector schedule came out a few days ago, I was pleased to... Read more
Frank Tupper, an important Baptist theologian who argued that God is in control of very little in our world, died last year. According to an online eulogy and summary of his life, the thesis for Tupper’s writing, theology, and life was that “In every specific historical context with its possibilities and limitations, God always does the most God can do.” As a response to the problem of evil, to pervasive questions about why a good and omnipotent God allows pain,... Read more
All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change These are the opening lines in “Earthseed: The Books of the Living,” a collection of notebooks compiled by Lauren Olamina, the main character in Octavia Butler’s dystopian, frighteningly believable vision of the near future, Parable of the Sower. Lauren is a late teen who lives inside a gated community with her Baptist preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from... Read more
Memorial Day is a great time to honor those who have made sacrifices over the years, including the ultimate sacrifice of their lives, to protect our freedoms. This year, Memorial Day is also an appropriate time to remember the close to 590,000 U.S. citizens who have died of Covid-19. Finally, Memorial Day is a good time to pause and consider how well we are living out the freedoms that these sacrifices were made for. In an early season episode of House... Read more
Next to Lent, the part of the liturgical calendar that I have always found least attractive is the stretch of endless weeks in green from Pentecost to the Sunday after Thanksgiving: Ordinary Time. Catholics and Episcopalians (as well as many other Christian denominations) follow the same liturgical calendar and readings—I recall that, when on sabbatical a dozen years ago, a fellow resident scholar at the ecumenical institute where I was spending four months, who happened to be Catholic, told me... Read more
Not long ago, I read Hilary Mantel’s long-awaited The Mirror and the Light, the final entry in a trilogy of novels about Thomas Cromwell, the consigliere and fixer for Henry VIII. Cromwell is the son of a blacksmith, a violent and abusive father whom Cromwell flees as a young teenager. Over many years as a soldier, a merchant, and ultimately a self-made lawyer, Cromwell begins to make his presence known at court through his sharp insights and practical wisdom. Those... Read more
The central theme of my ethics class this past semester was human dignity. Through short stories, excerpts from novels and plays, and philosophical articles we explored the reasons why we believe that human beings, simply by virtue of being human beings, are morally set apart from everything else. This is a high stakes issue, since our commitment to universal human rights and equal treatment of all human beings, despite our obvious differences, is built on our claim that a human... Read more
Jeanne and I once watched a documentary called “Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action,” created, filmed and directed by a man with the fabulous name “Velcrow Ripper.” He is the cousin-in-law of a colleague and friend of Jeanne’s who made the recommendation. The movie was beautifully constructed and filmed, as well as being very thought-provoking. The central thread of the documentary traces various ways in which people seek spiritual growth and reality that are seldom located in traditionally religious frameworks. All... Read more
Today is commencement on my campus. There were no commencement exercises last year–that there will be one this year shows that we are nearing the light at the of a long Covid-19 tunnel. Today’s celebration will be held outdoors on one of our campus soccer fields rather than at the downtown sports arena where it would have been held pre-Covid, there will be fewer in attendance than the thousands that annually pack the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. But it is a live,... Read more
Exactly twelve years ago today, I headed home from a four-month sabbatical as a Resident Scholar at the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, on the campus of St. John’s University in Collegeville Minnesota. I already suspected then, and I know now, that it was a life-changing sabbatical. Exploring the implications of what happened to me during that sabbatical has been the primary focus of this blog for almost nine years, as well as the inspiration for two books:... Read more
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