2014-05-12T12:56:16-05:00

Last updated on: May 12, 2014 at 12:56 pm   By

What’s Emerging? A New Story Dave Csinos, the founder and president of the Faith Forward Conference taking place in Nashville May 19-22, is excited by what is emerging in Christian education curricula today. He sees more taking place than just surface changes. New forms are reflecting the revitalization of emerging Christianity and that diversity is just what Dave hopes participants at Faith Forward 2014 will experience and continue to build on together. What strikes Dave as particularly relevant is that... Read more

2014-12-31T16:55:38-05:00

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 4:55 pm   By

On April 15, terrorists from Boko Haram abducted 276 Nigerian girls sleeping in their high school dormitory. The girls awoke to a nightmare of violent gunfire as the terrorists forced them into their vehicles and vanished. Recently the leader of Boko Haram has garnered media attention with his video arrogantly taking credit for the kidnapping. He added a religious element to his repulsive actions: “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. There is a... Read more

2014-05-05T14:04:13-05:00

Last updated on: May 5, 2014 at 2:04 pm   By

What’s Emerging? A New Theology of Atonement Why do violence and religion appear to be such intimate bedfellows? The apparent connection between the two has provided low hanging fruit for atheists and anti-Christian polemicists for centuries. Not only do we fight brutal wars for religious reasons, but religion itself seems to have been born as a practice of ritualized violence. No human culture seems to have emerged without the appearance of religion, and most of these archaic religions involved some... Read more

2014-05-05T10:51:11-05:00

Last updated on: May 5, 2014 at 10:51 am   By

Happy 5th Anniversary Patheos! In just five short years, Patheos has become the go to website for an open exchange of ideas about religion. We have watched with admiration as their  respect for the variety of religious expression has created a safe space for debate around honest, sometimes difficult questions. So we are delighted to be joining Patheos as a new blog during this celebration! We share the Patheos insight that understanding the role of religion in our lives is... Read more

2014-05-01T10:09:23-05:00

Last updated on: May 1, 2014 at 10:09 am   By

I have long been aware of mimetic theory’s critique of philosophy’s inability to tell the truth about violence. The depth of the problem, however, was only recently made clear to me by this article in the New York Times: Abandon (Nearly) All Hope by Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research. In his defense of philosophical realism, Prof. Critchley gives voice to a pervasive misunderstanding of Christianity, one that provides academic cover for the cold... Read more

2014-12-31T16:56:03-05:00

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 4:56 pm   By

Dear White People, We need to take a long, painful look in the mirror. The image we see will make us uncomfortable, but, tragically, it is us. The image staring you back at you is the image of Donald Sterling. We have found a new sense of self-righteousness by uniting against Sterling for his racist comments. All of us white people can agree that Sterling is a despicable human being and he deserved to be banned from the NBA for... Read more

2014-04-30T12:09:47-05:00

Last updated on: April 30, 2014 at 12:09 pm   By

Parenting is hard. It happened to me again on Sunday morning. We just moved to Oregon last week and were about to try a new church. Our morning routine is pretty typical: we tell our children it’s time to get dressed. Our first and third child diligently put on their clothes, while our middle child finds a thousand and one ways to stall. Driving. Me. Crazy. Intellectually, I could sympathize with the boy. I remembered that I hate it when... Read more

2014-04-28T14:10:28-05:00

Last updated on: April 28, 2014 at 2:10 pm   By

What’s Emerging? A New Perspective on Victims Something new is happening in Christianity today. The Spirit is moving among us, shaking up old ways, raising new questions, and challenging thousand year old tenets of our faith. Books with titles like Everything Must Change (Brian McLaren), Jesus Feminist (Sarah Bessey) and Banned Questions About the Bible (Christian Piatt) are populating our bookshelves. Some call these authors heretics who are destroying the fabric of Christianity. Others claim that without these prophetic voices,... Read more

2014-06-25T22:23:24-05:00

Last updated on: June 25, 2014 at 10:23 pm   By

Part 1:  Just what is emerging?  There’s a lot of talk about “emergent church” these days. But just what is emerging? Phyllis Tickle, popular author and founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly, says we are entering the age of the Spirit, and I agree. But where is the Spirit leading us? Brian McLaren, a leading voice in the emergent church movement, calls it “A New Kind of Christianity.” But what is this new Christianity all about? Having... Read more

2014-04-23T10:47:07-05:00

Last updated on: April 23, 2014 at 10:47 am   By

Have you ever wondered how mimetic theory changes lives? ME TOO! So, I decided to put together a top ten list. Here you go: 10. You will impress others with your bold use of words like “mimetic,” “interdividual,” and “internal/external mediation.” 9. You will understand the destructive nature of religion. 8. You will understand the constructive nature of religion. 7. You will understand the paradox of numbers 9& 8. 6. You will see how scapegoating works and that the goat you... Read more

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