Yesterday I started teaching two classes at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Never heard of it before? Not surprising. It’s a small, liberal seminary, affiliated with the UCC, the UMC, and the UUA. I taught a class there in 2012, and last summer I was approached about teaching more. And about a title. So they gave me on: Distinguished Lecturer in the Practice of Theology. That’s a pretty fancy title for an adjunct professor, but it looks good... Read more
Scot McKnight made an interesting observation this week: But the Abelardian and Girardian have an oft-missed sinister side, even if you may object to my saying so. In these theories we side with Christ and God and not those who put him to death. We end up being the good guys, the victims, while the bad guys — Roman and Jewish leaders, the gutless disciples, the whole damned human race — are the ones who put him there. We, on the... Read more
One of the things I hear assumed by Christians all the time is that God is outside of time. It’s odd, I think, to make this assumption, because it’s not biblical, it’s Platonic. There’s a verse in 2 Peter that often gets cited — “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” — but that is a reflection on God’s experience... Read more
This week only, register for Progressive Youth Ministry (before it sells out) and save $50. Read more
This photo went viral last week: Here’s a photo essay by Courtney Perry about how it happened: (more…) Read more
After a lot of hard work by our developer, we have relaunched the Ordain Thyself App for iOS7. Find out more about the app on OrdainThyself.com, or download it from the App Store. Read more
Before last week, Doug and I hadn’t run a Christianity21 conference since 2009. We’d run some others — both our own and in partnership with others — and some had gone quite well. We’d also run dozens of Social Phonics Boot Camps during that time. But people kept asking us to run another C21. Those requests came both from people who were at the first C21, and from those who’d heard about it over the years. We knew that we... Read more
The Reverend Joy Bennett serving me communion on August 30, 2012. It happened on August 30, 2012, and it has been recorded beautifully by Joy Bennett at A Deeper Story: She felt the weight of this settle on her shoulders, responding quietly to each. Then he read, “Will you accept the discipline of this Church and give due respect to those in authority? She paused. All her previous experiences with authority figures in churches rushed to her mind. The church... Read more
I’m at Christianity21 this week, a gathering produced by Doug Pagitt, Sarah Cunningham, and Your Favorite Blogger. We’re one day in, and it’s been awesome. One of the great things about this event is that there’s no theme, and there are 21 gifted speakers, so we never really know what magic will happen in the chemistry between the talks. They don’t all agree, but they do tend to dovetail with one another. Yesterday, Jonathan Merritt led off the opening session... Read more
There’s a very big difference between, on the one hand, making a theological, philosophical, or scientific argument for the existence of God and, on the other hand, making a personal statement about why you still believe in God despite your doubts. Those are two very different types of communication. I am keenly aware of the difference. I’ve written many posts here that are the former, and I’ve got an entire chapter already written for a forthcoming book that is along... Read more
Theoblogy
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