It is Christian belief that the fullness of revelation is not bound to a book, or a collection of religious texts, but is given to us in a person, that of Jesus Christ. He is the God-man, the Logos or Son of God who became man in order to reveal to us that God is love. We are not to understand this love in some sort of abstract fashion, nor that such love can exist as a monad cut off... Read more
God seeks to do what can be done to make things right with us. God does not wish to punish us. God certainly does not desire us to suffer eternal perdition (cf. 2 Ptr. 3:9). God loves the world and all that is found in it (cf. Jn. 3:16). Through that love, God will do all that is possible to help us, to save us, even from ourselves and our rejection of divine love itself (that rejection is seen in... Read more
Humanity, like the rest of creation, is naturally good. God saw all things and saw they were good (cf. Gen. 1:31). Though, we often say, when we fail to live up to our potential, that it is due to something in our nature, in truth, it is not human nature which is bad, but rather, our failing is personal. That is, when we go astray, we do so as persons, persons who abuse or subvert the goodness of our nature... Read more
Scripture is full of prophets warning people about the consequences of their sins. And, sadly, it seems that the prophets’ warnings were not often heeded. Indeed, the people would listen to anyone else but them, anyone who would tell them what they wanted to hear instead of what they needed to hear. They would point to those who said they could continue on as they are, saying that they, not the prophets, were right. Of course, they did so at... Read more
Grace, and with it, holiness, is something which spreads the more people of good will come together. Indeed, even those who are not so holy, when they encounter holy men and women, will find that such holiness will inspire them, and likely have them make some changes in their lives (while most of the time, that change might be small, every so often, it will be huge). This is because holiness does not just stay in place but radiates from... Read more
Paul, in the book of Romans, gives one of the great foundations for the Christian understanding of the conscience. He suggests that everyone has been given a conscience and that they will be judged on the basis by which they follow its promptings in their lives: When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law... Read more
Many Christians say that anyone who has a different understanding of God than the one they have must worship or follow a different God. To make that point, they ask how could people believe in the same deity if they say different, indeed, contradictory things about God. This is a bad line of argument. If that line of reasoning was valid, it would end up leading to all kinds of similar conclusions, such as, historians who believe in two different,... Read more
Abdul Ghaffar Khan, My Life and Struggle. Trans. Imtiaz Ahmad Sahibzada (Roli Books: Greater Noida, India: 2021); 556 + xix pgs. Most people in the United States have heard of Gandhi, but many, if not, most of them have not heard of his fellow-worker and friend, Abdul Ghaffar Khan (“Badshah Khan”). If they did, they would know of a Muslim who orchestrated a large, non-violent resistant movement, organized, in part, parallel to a military organization, known as the Khudai Khidmatgar... Read more
It is a strange thing to see that many try to use Jesus’ words about the poor, that they shall always be with us, as an excuse to do nothing for them. They say, because they will always be with us, we should ignore them and be concerned about other things, like culture war initiatives. They seem to think he was speaking of the futility of helping the poor, which, however, is far from what he said. Rather, Jesus suggested... Read more
The Feast of All Saints reminds us that Christ did not come to save us as individuals separate from each other, but as a community, as a body which is made one in and through him. All those who are saved, through their union with him, through their placement in his body, will become sanctified. Their union with him, in and through his human nature, will allow them to engage the divine nature, for he is God and man, and... Read more
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