Why do so many Advent and Christmas carols feel sad? Also: why does that make me love them more? Christmas in a minor key I’ve been texting my brother Eric, whom I consider to be a musical genius, about the chord patterns of several Christmas songs. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is written in a major key, yet the mood shifts at Yet in thy dark streets shineth. The carol moves from a major 3rd to a minor 6th and... Read more
What does it mean, theologically, to grieve a lost future? I have been doing some genealogy work lately, and found the story of an ancestor named Mathias. He immigrated as a bachelor from Germany, met a woman named Ann from Ohio, and married and settled with her on a farm in Indiana. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, and then six more children. When the seventh child was two years old, Ann died. The 1850 census reports him as the sole... Read more
“Subjectivity is truth.” That is the famous and famously cryptic sentence at the heart of Soren Kierkegaard’s very philosophical theology. It’s been back in my consciousness lately, though it’s been a few years since I’ve spent time with the elusive Dane. I’ve been reading some essays by Paul DeHart, a theologian at Vanderbilt, and Kierkegaard is one of the thinkers he often circles back to. Kierkegaard and Me It’s that way for many of us, it seems. Kierkegaard doesn’t like... Read more
The Bible is ambiguous when it comes to defining hell. Still, I have notice a surprising consistency in what it has to say. Hell seems to be about trusting in God’s mercy. Does that seem odd, to align hell with mercy? Don’t we all know that hell is the doctrine of eternal punishment? And doesn’t that mean Christians can either accept it or reject hell? And doesn’t that filter us into conservatives and progressives? I’d like to think of hell... Read more
I wrote in my last column about heaven. Specifically, the idea of heaven as the true divine gift present in any object or moment of time. I got there by reading Maximus the Confessor and Ta-Nehesi Coates. But now I’m reading on in Coates’s Between the World and Me, and that faith gets a little more difficult to maintain. Heaven and the Value of a Life Coates writes of the deep effect that the murder of his Howard classmate Prince Jones... Read more
A quick scan of the Bible gives us several ways of understanding the term “heaven.” The dwelling place of God (“Our Father, who art in heaven..”) The abode of created angels (“In the beginning, God created the heavens…” “War broke out in heaven; Michael and all his angels fought against the dragon.”) The sky, or firmament, or visible “upper edge” of the earth (“The heavens declare the Glory of God…”) The destination of the righteous (“Unless you change and become... Read more
In this first week of Advent, I’m contemplating Mary the Godbearer. All who celebrate Christmas in one way or another, from priest to grandmother to toddler, are contemplating her. We’re waiting for the birth. Packing nine months gestation into four Sundays. For the next 24 days, we’re all pregnant with Emmanuel. We’re all Mary, this month. On my wall at home I’ve hung an Orthodox icon of the Nativity. It’s a wild piece of art, as icons go. All around the... Read more
You and I were made to praise something beyond our understanding. To desire someone that lives both in and beyond our daily activities. This is the meaning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. It’s also the meaning of the Christian story of the cleansing of the temple: the day when Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. Maccabees and the Worship Offense You can read the origin of Hanukkah in books of the Maccabees. Maccabees is the story of a massive Jewish revolt. Alexander... Read more
Is theology small-minded? Does it, I mean, depend on a limited perspective? That’s an assumption that shows up often in science fiction. Basically: the more we know, the less we believe. I’ve recently finished reading Frank Herbert’s Dune—yes, I’m one of those who finally read the book because the movie was coming out. I haven’t seen it yet, and won’t spoil anything from the story. But it’s got me thinking about theology and perspective again. What does a grand cosmic... Read more
All Things in Relation to God The goal of all Christian doctrine is to name and perceive “all things in relation to God, not only as their source but also as their goal, and as the origin of all form and character.” With this bold opening, my friend Andrew Davison launches his nearly 400-page tome of systematic theology. That “in relation to” phrase forms the center of his vision. To put it simply: participating in God is the beginning and... Read more
The Diagonal Way
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