The Test of True Prophetic Speech

Last updated on: October 15, 2021 at 5:30 pm By Frederick Schmidt

The 1960s reintroduced prophetic speech into the church’s vocabulary. Although some of the best work in that regard was done long ago, appeals to the role of the prophet have become common. Pastors often claim that role. Even public figures and pundits without religious commitments have claimed that role. With regularity one hears people talk about “speaking truth to power.” But increasingly there is an element of dishonesty to such claims. Far too many self-anointed prophets never make the effort... Read more

“Death is nothing at all”

Last updated on: October 11, 2021 at 8:49 am By Frederick Schmidt

I take comfort in the fact that my part of the Christian family prays for the dead and that we believe that the dead can pray for us. We are not, as Flip Wilson put it, “the church of what’s happening now.” We believe that the Resurrection has changed history forever and has broken the power of death. In Christ’s rising from the dead, Jesus has vindicated the claim that the Triune God is Creator and Lord of Life. In... Read more

In Memoriam: William J. Abraham

Last updated on: October 9, 2021 at 8:47 pm By Frederick Schmidt

Losing some friends is like taking in the disappearance of a mountain. Just why that is the case is difficult to say. It may have something to do with the depth and the duration of the friendship. It may have to do with that sleight of hand by which we all live – which takes for granted the permanence of a friendship in a world where nothing endures – unless, of course, you believe in resurrection. The friend-as-mountain experience is... Read more

Spiritual Direction and the Power of Stories

Last updated on: October 8, 2021 at 7:23 am By Frederick Schmidt

The film “Up!” begins with one of the most poignant sequences in film history. It tells the story of two young lovers (Carl and Ellie) who share the same hopes and dreams of high adventure, but whose lives — as pleasant and filled with love as they are — unfold in a very different fashion than they imagined. When Ellie dies, she leaves behind a scrapbook that created as a child. Most of the pages are blank and devoted to... Read more

Eight Guidelines for Long-Term Care

Last updated on: October 4, 2021 at 7:46 am By Frederick Schmidt

I remember the early reports from nursing homes during the Pandemic. Both here and in the UK, when those institutions came under fire for the number of deaths caused by Covid, some of them protested, “We aren’t medical facilities, we are social institutions.” Plainly, that is not what people assume when making decisions about their own care late in life or about the care of their family members. This is not a new challenge, of course. Anyone who has been... Read more

Covid, Consumers, and the Church

Last updated on: October 1, 2021 at 10:54 am By Frederick Schmidt

There is a school of thought out there – an attitude – a disposition – that says to the church, “Prove to me that you have what I need.” “Convince me to come.” “Persuade me to be involved.” “Meet my needs.” In some ways it should be no surprise. Our consumer culture is a strong voice and its vocabulary changes everything it touches. Targeting major life passages, there are “industries” or “economic sectors” organized around almost everything that we do:... Read more

What is Celtic Spirituality?

Last updated on: September 28, 2021 at 6:13 am By Frederick Schmidt

At a faculty-student gathering some years ago a student asked, “What is Celtic Spirituality anyway?” An Irish-American colleague and longtime friend was sitting nearby, and knowing I would get a rise out of him, I responded, “Oh, it’s Christian, only dark and broody, with a dash of animism.” In truth, Celtic spirituality has far more to offer than my send-up of it would suggest. But there is definitely more misleading and tendentious information published about it than probably any other... Read more

Covid, the Unemployed, and the Meaning of Labor

Last updated on: September 23, 2021 at 9:23 am By Frederick Schmidt

Genesis 2 offers a vivid picture of humanity as viceroys, called upon to work alongside God in naming and ordering creation. That role, of course, presupposes that the viceroy will be guided by the character of the king himself. Viceroys (as the name itself suggests) are not left in charge to do what they please. They mirror the behavior of the king himself. The events in Genesis 3 offer an equally vivid picture of what human existence is like... Read more

Money as Minted Spirituality

Last updated on: September 20, 2021 at 6:02 am By Frederick Schmidt

When I was in seminary, I didn’t have a lot of money. I paid for school from paycheck to paycheck. I stocked groceries and worked on a college paint crew. I lived in an eight-by-forty-foot trailer that had been burned out and repaired; and it sat in a trailer park less than 50 feet from a railroad track. Meals consisted mostly of starches of one kind or another. A pork chop for my birthday was a big event. But I... Read more

Trusting in Prayer, Trusting in God: The Crucible of Suffering

Last updated on: September 17, 2021 at 7:57 am By Frederick Schmidt

Over the years I have written on the subject of suffering. I didn’t set out to do that. It has been the object of human reflection for as long as people have strung sentences together. To say that an ocean of ink has been spilled over the subject is an understatement. It is also impossible to say anything utterly new about it. But over the years I wrote two books on the subject[1] and a long string of articles.[2] Two... Read more