One of the prevailing problems for all of us spiritually is that our experiences define and delimit our understanding of the spiritual life.  We close ourselves off to the language and experiences of the journey based on a single experience — be it positive or negative — and that becomes the once-now-and-forever way in which we see some dimension of the journey. A supportive church defines the place of Christian community An experience of the church as harsh and judging... Read more

For many across the United States the winter of 2011 has been filled with surprises.  Falling temperatures, snow, and ice have pummeled nearly every part of the country.  Here in Dallas the weather plunged from highs in the seventies to lows in the teens with ice and then snow. We complained about the uncharacteristically warm temperatures.  Then after days on end of ice and snow, others groused, “It’s beautiful, but enough.” When I was tempted to join the chorus, I... Read more

During the time that I spent in Jerusalem, St. Catherine’s Monastery was a regular destination for the classes that I taught.  We took a chartered bus to Sharm el Shekh, crossed through the border control, and on the other side met Bedouin who drove us across the trackless expanse to the southern tip of the Sinai Desert.  There we visited the monastery; climbed Mount Sinai at three in the morning; and celebrated Eucharist on the way back down.  The return... Read more

Not long ago one of my students described herself as a “free range Christian,” alluding to the diverse and varied character of her denominational past.  The phrase captures in a fresh way a reality that has been true of the American spiritual landscape for quite some time. Robert Bellah described it in Habits of the Heart in 1985.  Robert Wuthnow in a book called After Heaven, written in 1998. And you see it on display all around us: Church’s that... Read more

Traffic jams force you to pay attention to the back of the car just ahead of you and after years of attending to the philosophical and political commitments of other drivers, I’ve concluded that not all bumper sticker wisdom finally wears well. One of the widespread bits of wisdom that doesn’t wear well from a Christian point of view is the one that urges the reader to practice random acts of kindness.  Of course, being kind is not a bad... Read more

Novelist, English professor, and committed Christian, Reynolds Price, died this week.  He was 77, had battled spinal cancer, and spent much of his life in a wheelchair.  When he went to Duke University 53 years ago he was offered a three year, non-renewable contract.  But the success of his first novel changed all of that. In the course of his career he was described as “an heir to Faulkner” by the New York Times, a comparison which Price skewered nicely,... Read more

Once, while the great Jewish sage, Honi, was walking along a road, he saw an old man planting a carob tree.  Honi asked him:  “How many years will it take for this tree to give forth its fruit?”  The man answered that it would require 70 years.  Honi asked:  “Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?”  The man answered:  “I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me.  So, too, will I plant... Read more

In the wake of yesterday’s tragic shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords no small number of commentators were quick to lay blame for the climate in which this kind of thing could happen at the doorstep of millions who differ with Ms. Giffords’s views.  I find that troubling — not because I share those views — but because it points to a general decline in thoughtful, judicious political conversation. The murderer who perpetrated these crimes is, by all accounts, criminally... Read more