Today’s entry in Incandescence: God compares the soul to four things: You taste as sweet as grapes. Your fragrance is as intoxicating as balsam. Your radiance is like the brightness of the sun. And you’re the maturity of my most sublime love. The soul always follows a rare and excellent path, and she draws the senses after her in joyful obedience. -Mechthild of Magdeburg “The Flowing Light of the Godhead” Read more
#quotestoolongfortwitter “Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God idea, not in God Himself.” –Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life, 213 Read more
Doug Pagitt and I run a company that helps ministries, publishers, and businesses better utitlize social media and events, and we produce a monthly email newsletter. This month we give updates on several upcoming events and, as usual, drop a little tip for increasing blog traffic. You can read the latest edition here. And you can subscribe here. Read more
I often get criticized for allegedly caricaturing evangelicals and mainliners. I’ll write something critical, and people will comment that I’m taking cheap shots, creating straw men, etc. But seriously, check out this BBC story on an American company that puts Bible verse references on the rifle scopes used by American and British soldier. This is better than The Onion could make up: Coded references to biblical passages are inscribed on gunsights widely used by the US and British military in... Read more
Andrew Root is professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary. He’s written many books and often speaks on issues related to youth ministry. He’s also going to be in conversation with Kenda Dean of Princeton at an upcoming event: FirstThird: Theological Dialogues on the First Third of Life, March 1-3 in St. Paul. Andy wrote me and asked to guest post regarding my ongoing interaction with Chris Smith’s new book, Souls in Transition. Here’s what he thinks: I... Read more
A couple weeks ago, I watched (and blogged about) the David Di Sabatino documentary film, Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher. David was kind enough to drop me an email after that post, and kinder still to send me a copy of his more recent film, Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman. It’s odd that I ever got into Larry Norman music when I was in high school, but I did. In spite of growing up in... Read more
This is part of a series of posts in which I’m reflecting on Christian Smith and Patricia Snell’s new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. Finally, I want to introduce the six major religious types that Smith found upon his study of emerging adult religiosity. To each type, he estimates a percentage of the population of 18-23 year-olds and gives a quote that best describes their attitude toward religion: (more…) Read more
This is part of a series of posts in which I’m reflecting on Christian Smith and Patricia Snell’s new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. Today, we’ll look at how beliefs themselves change between youth (13-17) and emerging adulthood (18-23). As with our forays into changes in religious affiliation and changes in religious practice, we’ll see a general trend away from conventional religiosity and toward non-religion. While the changes are not overly dramatic, they... Read more
That’s Tom Ehrich’s question: “I think it’s time for leaders to lead, and for clergy to be aggressive about doing everything they can to grow their churches,” I told her. “Lay leaders shouldn't be allowed to stifle growth. It’s God’s church, not theirs.” I wasn’t done. “Other than budget expenses for something like a new Web site,” I said, strategies for moving forward aren’t about money or hiring. They are about mission, ministry, education, pastoral care, membership development and other... Read more
This is part of a series of posts in which I’m reflecting on Christian Smith and Patricia Snell’s new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. Today, I’m going to present what happens between the teen years (13-17) and the emerging adult years (18-23), according to Souls in Transition, in regards to religious practices. As we found yesterday, the general trend is away from religious affiliation and toward nonreligious sentiments, although that trend is relatively... Read more
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