Do you think that Christian leaders who publicly support same sex marriage, gay rights, etc., should be pushed out of the closet? Last fall, I publicly affirmed gay marriage as a Christian and biblically virtuous lifestyle. Of course, not all Christians agree with me. But some do. In fact, some Christian leaders do. Last weekend I was on the phone with one such leader (don’t even try to guess). He supports gay couples in his congregation — he’s a pastor... Read more
Praying the Bible Intro – lectio divina – reading – meditating – praying – contemplating In the movie The Apostle, Robert Duvall plays Sonny, a preacher-evangelist who has made a few mistakes in his life, one of them a big mistake (murder). About one-third of the way into the movie, he’s trying to figure out why these things have happened to him and why he showed such weakness in dealing with difficult circumstances. Estranged from his wife and children, he’s... Read more
Praying the BibleIntro – lectio divina – reading – meditating – praying – contemplating Depending on what version of the Bible you use, the word meditate appears about fifteen times in the Old Testament. (It’s not used at all in the New Testament.) Fourteen of the Old Testament uses are in the Psalms, six in Psalm 119. The one reference to meditate not in a psalm is a famous line from the opening of the book of Joshua. Moses has... Read more
Praying the Bible Intro – lectio divina – reading – meditating – praying – contemplating One of the best meals I’ve ever had was in an upscale restaurant, Daniel’s Bistro, in New York City. My entrée was called the DB Burger, the signature dish of the menu. The description read, “Sirloin burger filled with braised short ribs, foie gras, and black truffles served on a Parmesan bun with pommes soufflées.” That’s quite a hamburger, and it cost $29! The most... Read more
Praying the Bible Intro – lectio divina – reading – meditating – praying – contemplating Though dates differ, Guigo II lived from about 1115 to 1198. His official title was the Ninth Prior of the Grand Chartreuse of Carthusians. That’s a mouthful. Here’s what it means: The Carthusians are an order of monks who are particularly strict (for example, they wake up every night at 11:45 P.M. and pray for three hours!). The headquarters of their order is the Grand... Read more
Recently, Stanley Fish wrote about the problems with the way the liberal intelligentsia thinks about religion vs. science — or reason vs. faith. He was, of course, slaughtered in the comment section of his NYTimes blog by, um, the liberal intelligentsia of Times readers. So this week, he defends himself against their onslaught, referring to Barthes and Foucault specifically, to harp on a subject he often revisits. To summarize: Get over it, people — science is no more objective than... Read more
Praying the Bible Intro – lectio divina – reading – meditating – praying – contemplating For the last couple weeks, I’ve written some ecclesial and theological provocations. For the next couple weeks I’m going to focus on spirituality — namely, prayer — as well as blogging about other things. I’ve got a couple books out that focus specifically on praying the Bible: the first one is about the ancient art of lectio divina; the second about using prayers from the... Read more
Next fall, Doug and I are hosting a learning party in the Twin Cities for people who love Christ, love Christianity, and are interested in the future. The two of us have been given the microphone a lot in the past decade, and we began our event company with the express intent of giving the mic to others. Our first few events have spotlighted one or two presenters, but for Christianity21, we wanted to follow the excellent example of TED... Read more
I’m going to close out this week’s topic by looking back to the history of the church — the very early church — to gain a bit more perspective on ordination. I’m currently writing a little book reflecting on the Didache and its use for us today (the image at left is the 10th century manuscript, lost for 800 years, and rediscovered in 1873). If you’re unfamiliar, the Didache is a manual of Christian living from the second half of... Read more
I’ve faithfully read your comments, and John’s post, and here are my rejoinders-by-bullet-point: Ontological Shibboleth: I’ve been accused of creating a straw man in suggesting that denominational ordination tends to grant ontological superiority to those in the clergy caste. I agree that few, if any, denominations believe this to be true. I’m saying that most act like this is true. Even the most liberal progressive trinitarian denomination, begun by congregationalists (!), the United Church of Christ says in their book... Read more
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