It’s Ash Wednesday. What is that again? Today, Christians in the Western traditions begin the liturgical season known as Lent. We actually combine two parts of the gospels in the “back story” of Lent. First, we recall and repeat the temptation of Christ in the wilderness for 40 days. Secondly, we recall his approach to Jerusalem, and the events leading up to his crucifixion. So Catholic and Protestant Christians today will receive on their foreheads ashes from last Palm Sunday’s... Read more
Prayer is boring In Luke chapter 9, Jesus goes up a mountain to pray as he often does. But this time he’s not alone. He takes some of his disciples with him. And what a display it turns out to be. His face changes. He clothes turn the whitest of whites. There are conversations, clouds, mysterious voices, terror. Praying for me is way more boring than all that. When I pray, I sometimes experience a centering peace, like I’ve... Read more
The art of forgiveness implies a return. A turning back with graciousness to the moment of harm, to the one who caused the hurt. Sometimes this is possible, and the return initiates a story of catharsis. But sometimes we can’t return to all that. Sometimes we shouldn’t. The trauma involved in some hurts makes return simply too much to ask. Maybe the one who hurt me is unsafe. Maybe they haven’t stopped hurting me. Their ability to return with me... Read more
Forgiveness is front and center in any theology worth its name. How does it occur in human relationships? What does it mean to hope that it can occur in our relationship with God? Human life in time would be unbearable, said philosopher Hannah Arendt, without the capacity to make promises and then to forgive one another when we fail. How, though, does that happen? Let’s consider the human exchange first. Many therapists are—to my mind, rightly—skeptical of giving much time... Read more
In Gregory of Nyssa’s treatise On the Soul and Resurrection, he tells of his journey to see his big sister Macrina after the death of their brother Basil. These are the three most important—for us, though certainly not for God—members of what I earlier called the first family of Nicene Christianity. The two siblings are grieving, and Gregory seeks his sister out for a theological conversation. His principle question will be one familiar to us all. “Where is Basil now?” Said... Read more
God’s ways are not our ways, says Isaiah (55:8). Occasionally, when expressing frustration about something really difficult, you might hear someone recite this mantra. They likely mean it as comfort, but it always sounds to me like a shrug. It’s as if they’ve said that nothing about this difficulty they’ve just heard shows up on a theological map. I think the opposite is true. I think that life is hard and confusing because our ways are God’s ways. The Mind... Read more
In an interview last week on CBS’s The Late Show, British singer Dua Lipa took a moment of privilege and asked her host, Stephen Colbert, a question. Colbert is a Roman Catholic Christian and refreshingly open about his beliefs. Lipa asked how his faith and his comedy overlap. His off the cuff response was, to my ears, a perfect little public articulation of the Easter faith. Funny and Sad Colbert began by telling her about a recent movie, Kenneth Branagh’s... Read more
“Our great mystery is in danger of being made a thing of little moment.” -Gregory of Nazianzus One of the pivotal moments in the history of theology comes in 381, from a villa in Constantinople. There, at the heart of the empire, the long battle for the Nicene faith had come to a head. Within a few months the second great Ecumenical Council would gather. Gregory of Nazianzus had a unique opportunity to lay the case for the Incarnate God... Read more
“Has God forgotten to be gracious?” I love that question in Psalm 77. Like so many verses from the Psalter, it runs right along the edge of blasphemy. This one reminds me of Elijah mocking the Prophets of Ba’al: maybe your god is meditating, or traveling, or sleeping? Theologically, it takes us to the question of divine attributes. Do words like omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing) describe God? The questions about appropriate adjectives for God come together in... Read more
“Everything that partakes of [the Holy Spirit’s] grace is filled with joy according to its capacity.” -Saint Basil the Great In my little systematic theology, I suggested, oddly, that the grammar of the Christian faith begins with the Spirit. Odd, because it seems more straightforward to start with what is more obviously unique in this particular faith. The cross, the identity of the Incarnate God, the Trinity. Perhaps the peculiarly Christian way of reading the Bible. I think all those... Read more
The Diagonal Way
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