Holiness involves the humane treatment of animals. This is not a politically correct statement, but a biblically correct one. Note for example the prohibition against boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk in Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21. The latter passage reads: “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For... Read more

  Holiness is relational. Behavioral solutions don’t solve relational problems. Otherwise, God could say “Take two moral pills and call me in the morning.” God solves relational problems relationally. Where did I get this idea? No, I haven’t digested a hallucinogenic. Nor did I pull a rabbit answer out of a hat. Take it or leave it, but my perspective is based on my ruminations over reading the Bible. Jesus came to earth to live among us. The incarnation (John... Read more

For all of orthodox Christianity’s differences in belief from the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, we share many things in common. One of the things I admire most is his profound compassionate care for all of existence, most notably, his supreme regard for humanity. Such compassionate care is on full display in his volume, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (New York: Harmony Books, 2005). In his essay titled “Ethics and the New Genetics,” he... Read more

Do we become just by doing just things or by being made just? This is a key question in view of Aristotle and Luther. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle writes that “by doing just things we become just.”[1] Luther took an opposing stance: we become good by being made good. Luther had harsh words for Aristotle’s Ethics.[2] According to Luther in his “Disputation Against Scholastic Theology,” the fallen will is not free to choose the good; it will bear bad... Read more

Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Public Square on Remembering Our Dead: Ancestors, Rituals, Relics. Read other perspectives from the Patheos community here. Are you grateful for the dead—any dead? One of the major holidays in Japan is Obon or Bon. The holiday celebration centers on honoring one’s ancestors who are believed to return home during the celebration in mid-August of every year. People in Japan don’t walk away from the dead. There is a living bond or connection. The picture... Read more

Zen Buddhist priest Kyogen Carlson (1948-2014) was a bridge-builder. He built bridges of understanding and respect over the dirty, murky, troubled waters of our nation’s culture wars. It is a deep irony that a man with such an open heart and mind died of a massive heart attack. Whether one knew him or not, each person owes him a debt of mindfulness for what he risked and accomplished. Among other related practices, he helped bring liberal Buddhists and conservative Evangelical... Read more

What’s behind Jesus’ mask? Jesus. Jesus is not a mode that a divine “nameless, faceless, omni-being”[1] puts on and takes off. What we see in Jesus is what we get with his Father. Together with the Spirit, they share the divine name in the sacred story of life (See Matthew 28:19). The Father’s actions through the interpersonal mediation of the Son and Spirit in history reveal the eternal triune being of the one God. As I have written elsewhere, “God... Read more

What is the problem of our human condition? What is the solution? Many views of human nature can be set forth in terms of answering these questions. Historic Christianity and Hinduism answer these questions very differently. The ultimate problem of human nature for many, if not all, orthodox Christians is moral separation from God and one another. The ultimate problem for Hinduism is mental or psychological.[1] While one can never truly separate moral and mental issues from one another, this... Read more

Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) does not mean and should not entail solitary confinement of the Bible from church tradition or reason. Rather, the phrase entails that the Bible is the final written authority in all matters pertaining to the church’s faith and practice (See this helpful introduction to the subject in Lutheran theology). For example, in his 95 Theses of 1517, Martin Luther challenged the use of “indulgences” granted by papal authority (See for example thesis 21 and thesis 27... Read more

We are on trial. Unlike Franz Kafka’s Trial, the divine Judge revealed in the Bible issues particular laws by which to abide and specific charges and verdicts of guilt and/or innocence. The divine Judge also discloses his identity rather than hide in the shadows during court proceedings. In our day, many people find laws oppressive. Laws can be oppressive, when society operates like the one in Kafka’s Trial. The legal system in Kafka’s work is nebulous and open to distortion... Read more