Because that’s the subject of this week’s QTH. It’s not really turning my crank this morning. I’m sitting at the cabin, next to the fire, surrounded by my kids. It’s our last weekend up here for the year. On Monday, the plumber will come and blow out the pipes, we’ll pour antifreeze down the toilets, put out mouse poison, and lock it up till next Spring. Between now and Monday, I hope to bag a wild turkey — we’ve got... Read more
At Leadership Journal, part of the shrinking stable at Christianity Today International, there’s an article by Stanton Jones, the provost of Wheaton College. Well, it’s not really an article, it’s an interview Stan had with a gay parishioner. Well, it’s not really an interview, but a made-up interview that Stan didn’t actually have, but is instead a “composite” of many conversations he’s had with gay men. In the “interview,” a young, gay man asks Stan for some pastoral help in... Read more
As I’ve written here before, I have a bit of a fascination with war. It began my freshman year in college, when I took a seminar called, “The Iliad and Memories of War,” with the intoxicating and quirky professor, James Tatum. Tatum later turned that seminar into a book. The first week of my freshman year in college, Tatum assigned me and my ten classmates to read The Iliad, the 16,000-line epic poem by Homer. It was a daunting... Read more
This week’s Question That Haunts Christianity comes from Gary, a Lutheran pastor: (more…) Read more
Richard Beck, thoughtful as always, decides to break his own rule and blog about blogging. Having been flogged in some quarters and praised in others for taking on liberal icon Marcus Borg last week, Richard’s post has been supremely helpful to me: One of the things I’ve learned from writers like James Alison, a theologian deeply informed by Rene Girard, is how rivalry is intimately associated with our self-concept. Specifically, most of us create, build up and maintain our self-esteem... Read more
That’s what Mark Oppenheimer asks as he reports on the troubled legacy of John Howard Yoder: “Physically he died, but his work and his theological writings live on,” said Linda Gehman Peachey, a freelance writer in Lancaster, Pa., who is also part of the six-member group. “For those who have known this other side — his behavior, particularly toward women — that is really painful.” Mr. Yoder’s memory also presents a theological quandary. Mennonites tend to consider behavior more important... Read more
This week’s Question That Haunts Christianity comes from Jason, and it’s a doozy: Hello Tony, I’ve been reading your Questions that Haunt Series for a while now and I thought I’d submit my own. If I’ve understood what you’ve written correctly, you, like me, are a largely materialist Christian. “Souls” probably don’t exist, metaphysics is largely unfounded speculation, and heaven and hell seem more and more like abstract concepts than real places. But also, like me, you seem to still affirm the... Read more
“To speak of the resurrection of dead is at the same time to speak of the transformation of heaven and earth. The preoccupation with our own personal and private destiny, so often encouraged by talk of the immortality of the soul, is radically thrown into question. The destiny of the soul is tied to the destiny of the earth. The doctrine of the resurrection, then, entails a profound solidarity with the earth.” -Ted Jennings, Loyalty to God, “The Christian dogmatics, which... Read more
Let’s continue this conversation, shall we? Marcus Borg asked (and I answered) what’s at stake in the difference of opinion we have about the materiality of Jesus’ resurrection. My first four responses were regarding the church, the Bible, and the people. That made some think I should be moved to Patheos’s evangelical channel (I am listed there, FYI). But let’s go on to list some more ways that the resurrection has implications for Christianity. Whatever you think (material vs non-material,... Read more
Many years ago, Doug Pagitt invited me to be part of a nascent network. That went through several iterations — Young Leaders Network, the Terra Nova Project — until it settled in as Emergent Village. That network had a good 10-year run, and lots of great things were birthed as a result. Now Doug and some friends are launching a new network. The CANA Initiative may have some of the DNA of those previous groupings, but this is a new... Read more
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