Stories of Jesus, from Temptation to Cross From John, the last of the Gospel writers, we learn something about Jesus that the earlier, usually more historical, Gospels neglect. Jesus probably was a disciple of John the Baptist. During that time he carried on his own baptizing ministry. (John 3:22) Eventually Jesus parted ways with John the Baptist. This part of series “Stories of Jesus and the Character of God” looks at a few episodes of Jesus’ journey from Temptation to... Read more
Parkland shooting survivor on running for office: If that’s what it takes… Applause greeted David Hogg throughout his speech yesterday at the Westminster Townhall Forum in Minneapolis. The speech was broadcast live at noon on Minnesota Public Radio and again yesterday evening. Survivor of the mass murder at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, Hogg is completing a “gap” year of political activism on gun issues before entering college. David Hogg and other Parkland students founded Never Again MSD and co-founded... Read more
Stories of Jesus, from Temptation to Cross Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels give us an overture of highly symbolic, largely non-historical stories of Jesus’ infancy and childhood. Then, ignoring the largest, so-called hidden, part of Jesus’ life, they pick up the story with an account of Jesus’ baptism by John. The baptism story sounds realistic, except for God’s voice coming out of the sky. Next both evangelists go into a story that sounds like plain fantasy. The spirit leads Jesus into... Read more
Biblical Faith, ‘About Real Historical Events’ The connection between blackface and Bible history may not seem obvious, but hold on. It was only when I realized how history remains alive in the present that I understood the truth about the blackface production that I was part of in the 1960’s. So this post is about blackface, but here’s Pope Benedict XVI’s quote about history: Benedict XVI: “For it is of the very essence of biblical faith to be about real historical events. It does... Read more
In several posts I have presented a picture of angels and devils that seems far from the ones I learned about in my traditional Catholic upbringing. I don’t believe my going from there to where I am now means leaving the faith. I’m a bit tentative about where I am with respect to angels, after all. I will conclude with some statements of what that tentative position is. First, a more important question: Why get at all worked up about... Read more
Thinking about the “things visible and invisible” of the Nicene Creed has resulted in several posts about angels and their “essential” relation to the visible world. “Essential” is Karl Rahner’s word. I’ve been trying to flesh that out with Walter Wink’s and my own suggestions. Wink discusses angels primarily, though not only, as the “within” of the products of human history—communities, institutions, established roles, ideologies, and such. I have looked also to the area Wink passes over too quickly, the... Read more
Many questions occur as I pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary: Why did Jesus have to die as he did? Why did he walk the path toward his death? Why was he poor instead of rich? If he had lived longer, he might have been able to convince more people to follow God’s way. If he had been richer, he might have had more influence with people who mattered in society. He could have made some great changes. Money... Read more
Scientists are hard at work investigating the question, Is there life on other planets. They are finding Earth-like planets and listening for radio signals from possible alien civilizations. Imagine the excitement if another intelligent “life form” is discovered, although travel and even communication back and forth will be completely impractical. I suspect part of the excitement is due to the fact that we feel otherwise so misplaced in the cosmos. In the present scientific picture of the world, it’s practically... Read more
Walter Wink, a Methodist theologian and Bible scholar, has helped modern minds appreciate the New Testament’s language about spiritual reality. Most often for this side of reality we use the word “angels.” It sounds like beings separate from the physical world, interacting with that world occasionally but not by their very nature. In the New Testament, however, the spiritual and the material are close together. Wink sums up the New Testament’s various words for this angelic reality with the phrase:... Read more
Reminiscing theologically about bells because the parish of my childhood decided to fix the bells in the church steeple “I got bells!” I said, and said it first, so there I was in my altar boy cassock and surplice, kneeling on the right side of the altar, the side with the bells. Not ordinary handbells, these were electric bells with five buttons to push. A few preliminary tasks done, having to do with wine and water in their cruets, and... Read more
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