Experimental Theology

...trudging into the distance in the bleeding stinking mad shadow of Jesus...the Lord out of dust had created him, had made him blood and nerve and mind, had made him to bleed and weep and think, and set him in a world of loss and fire... --Flannery O'Connor

My old friend Lucifer came / Fought to keep me in chains / But I saw through the tricks / Of six-sixty-six --Johnny Cash

9.25.2020

The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings: Week 38, The Transfiguration of Mithrandir

I hope you've read The Lord of the Rings before reading this series, or at least seen the movies. Otherwise, today's post is a prett...

9.24.2020

The Teleological Gaze: Part 3, After Virtue

My first insight regarding the need for a teleological "gaze," looking at life in light of purposes, goals, reasons and ends, came...

9.23.2020

The Teleological Gaze: Part 2, Manipulation and Meaninglessness

As noted in the last post, causal stories and teleological stories are very different. In fact, this is one way to distinguish science from ...

9.22.2020

The Teleological Gaze: Part 1, Definitions

I've had a few stray thoughts that I want to try to gather here in some posts. I don't know if they will be coherent or add up to an...

9.21.2020

You Cannot Serve Both God and Twitter: Social Media and Spiritual Formation

When it comes to moral and spiritual formation, churches are fighting a losing battle with social media. We just can't compete. Job #1 f...

9.18.2020

The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings: Week 37, Watch and Wait

As Merry and Pippin come under the care of Treebeard, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli track the pair into the forest of Fangorn. There, the thre...

9.17.2020

Reading Romans Backwards: Don't Be Arrogant

One of the benefits of reading Romans "backward" is how it helps solve some of the puzzles when we read Romans "forward.&quo...

9.16.2020

Reading Romans Backwards: Yielding Power

An insight I picked up from Scot McKnight's book Reading Romans Backwards concerns the relationship between the "strong" and ...

9.15.2020

Reading Romans Backwards: Solving Conflicts Christologically

During the summer I was leading a Bible class at church using Scot McKnight's book Reading Romans Backwards . McKnight's argument in...

9.14.2020

Gandhi's List of Social Sins

On October 22, 1925, Mahatma Gandhi published a list of what he called "Seven Social Sins" in his weekly newspaper Young India ....

9.11.2020

The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings: Week 36, Caring for Growing Things

Before moving on, let's sit one more week with Treebeard's assessment of Saruman: "He has a mind of metal and wheels, and he do...

9.10.2020

Shocking Apologetics

We've all read the statistics about the younger generations drifting away from Christianity. As a college professor, I have a front ro...

9.09.2020

Abba Joseph and the Demon

With the Sign of the Cross, the old monk Abba Joseph trapped in his cell a dark and miserable demon who had come to tempt him. “Release ...

9.08.2020

Pessimism as Political Theology

"Actually I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect 'history' to be anything but a 'long defea...

9.07.2020

Human Dignity Beyond Sentiment: Part 6, The Paternalistic Threat

This last threat might not warrant addition to the list, but I'll float it here for consideration. By paternalistic threat I mean a str...

9.04.2020

The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings: Week 35, The Treebeard Option

After escaping from the orcs, who were rushing to take them to Saruman, Merry and Pippin meet one of the most remarkable and surprising char...

9.03.2020

Human Dignity Beyond Sentiment: Part 5, The Utopian Threat

I didn't know what to call this threat to human dignity, I could have went with ideological, collectivist, communist, totalitarian, or r...

9.02.2020

Human Dignity Beyond Sentiment: Part 4, The Transhuman Threat

A simple way to state the Nietzschean threat from Part 2 is that it's perfectly reasonable to use hierarchy to organize social life, ran...

9.01.2020

Human Dignity Beyond Sentiment: Part 3, The Utilitarian Threat

The belief in human dignity is so widespread it might be assumed there just isn't any other plausible foundation for secular, humanistic...

8.31.2020

Human Dignity Beyond Sentiment: Part 2, The Nietzschean Threat

Having set out the history of human dignity in the West, as it grew out of the metaphysical worldview of Judeo-Christian tradition, I want t...

8.28.2020

The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings: Week 34, Confession, Absolution, and Victory

The Two Towers opens with the death of Boromir and the abduction of Pippin and Merry. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli come to the spot where Bor...

8.27.2020

Human Dignity Beyond Sentiment: Part 1, Human Worth and Christian Metaphysics

In a recent series I described the values of secular liberal humanism as "lazy sentimental christianity." Regarding the adjective ...

8.26.2020

Silence

I've been on silent contemplative retreats before, but I'm not a very silent person. If I'm not talking, I'm reading or wr...

8.25.2020

The Spirit Comes Gently

The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden, for he is light, very light. Rays of lig...

8.24.2020

Church is Gross

Today, I'm delighted to share this guest post from Kevin Makins author of the new book Why Would Anyone Go to Church? : "Church is ...

8.21.2020

The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings: Week 33, "But Not Alone"

Frodo takes off the Ring and escapes the great, grasping Eye. For the moment at least. At this point, in the words of Fleming Rutledge, Frod...

8.20.2020

Lessons from the Scattered, Persecuted Church

Thinking about the impact of COVID upon the church, yesterday I suggested that during this season we're being called to a more solitary,...

8.19.2020

COVID, the Church, and Spiritual Formation

COVID has created so many challenges for the church. Gathering is a problem. Embracing and hugging is a problem. Singing is a problem. And f...

8.18.2020

Lazy Sentimental christianity: Part 4, Lazy

You can't get an ought from an is. Hume's dictum haunts our secular world and humanistic morality. You can't squeeze values ...

8.17.2020

Lazy Sentimental christianity: Part 3, Sentimental

Last post we observed that the content of our modern, secular, non-theistic, and humanistic moral consensus is borrowed from the Judeo-Chr...

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