I’m in Chicago listening to Jurgen Moltmann speak as I write this. It’s an incredible thing to sit and listen live to a person who has had such an incredible impact on my thinking and my faith. He talked just a little bit about his time as a visiting lecturer at Duke. He was on faculty at Tubingen and the time, where they asked the questions “what is the church?” But in Durham in 1967-68 and they wanted to know... Read more

Everybody needs a little bit of Spoon in their life…don’t forget about the underdog. Read more

I read this today in a book by Richard Rohr and thought it would apply not only to the discussion in the previous post, but to the hateful speech I’ve been seeing on television during the political forums in the past few weeks. “They’re not credible prophets. If we hate people who don’t agree with us, if we feel righteous and superior to those who have different politics, we’re not in the Spirit. Until that grace is given, we should... Read more

A blog reader asked me two questions in a recent comment: “Is Obama who you thought he was? and has America changed for the better(long term) since he was elected?” I thought about it a bit and started writing a response, but it was too long so I made it into this post. Here’s my response: Q1: Obama seems to be about what I expected him to be. Q2: I don’t think America has changed appreciably since he took office.... Read more

in stores today Read more

“Jesus has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross. He has many seekers of consolation, but few of tribulation. He finds many companions at His feasting, but few at his fasting. All desire to rejoice in him; few are willing to endure anything for him. Many follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many reverence his miracles, but few will follow the... Read more

Stanley Fish’s article God-talk helps me to think through some of what has been bantered about on this blog and in some off-line discussions over the past few weeks. As always, it takes someone much more eloquent than I to make sense of what I’m thinking. I don’t agree with everything he’s saying, but I like general line of advance. Thanks to Nate Jackson for sending me a link to this great article. If you are brave, read part 2... Read more

“Humanly speaking, if we have any chance to survive, I suspect that it is men and women who act out of that deep impulse (which is best described with words like tolerance, compassion, sanity, hope, justice, love & self-sacrifice) who are our chance. By no means will they themselves bring about the Kingdom of God. It is God alone who brings about his Kingdom…We cannot make the Kingdom of God happen, but we can put out palm leaves as it... Read more

“A man’s sympathy is a more decisive fact in his activity than his judgment.” p.9 Read more

I had a friend throw Colossians 2:8 at me the other day. We were having a conversation and he was trying to correct what he thought was a flaw in my current spiritual path. He saw me as too open to the post-modern philosophies of the day and that this was allowing me to let too much “doubt” in and made my categories of truth too fluid – not so black and white. He wanted to talk about truth and... Read more