Theological Rants, Musings on the Mystical, and Wonderings about Stuff
Speaking of the presence of a demon (or other) reminds you that your loved one was more than the illness, was a full, beautiful person. It helps so that you can look at your loved one as more than someone with a mental illness without dismissing the reality of the pain.
Read MoreIt is good to consider the pain of disappointment especially around the idea of sin. We can often think of sin as doing something that is wrong, transgressing a law, or breaking a commandment and there may be a decent amount of truth to such an idea. Yet wrapped up in such a notion is the experience of disappointment. Something gets in the way of your relationship with God and there is going to be disappointment. Something you do breaks your relationship with others and there is going to be disappointment. There will be judgement, yes, but also disappointment.
Read MoreIs silence a place to encounter God, to wrestle with one’s demons, or to move to a place of healing? Is silence a space where we focus on our own thoughts and ideas or a place where we think about our presence in the world? One of the challenges of silence is that when we find that blessed opportunity to actually engage and be in a place of silence we often do not know what to do when we are in it. So we stir, we scratch, we distract ourselves, and we avoid the silence that we say we desire.
Read MoreIt is from what I see and perceive as a hell of complacency that the poem pushes me. The poem does not end with a moving, stirring battle cry convincing me that I should go and live my best life now but instead struggles to shake out of what Kant described as a “dogmatic slumber.” This is the slumber of mediocrity. The poem does not tell me what it is that I must do in response to the malaise of the life that I live.
Read MoreYes, there is sin. There is sin, and at one level or another we are all complicit. Yes, there is a deep failing in our nation and we all participate in our own ways. And the truth of the sin hurts that much more because we can be and do so much more. As a nation, as a society, as a people we can and should be better. It falls on the shoulders of everyone hearing the sermon, it falls on the shoulders of everyone who is a part of the nation to do better.
Read MoreA devotional book that takes a deliberate side, that invites questions and curiosity is a welcome one for those who already consider themselves progressive Christians. It may assure many of what they already believe, and it may also prod and push many to a deeper place of growth and questioning. It is a book that I would recommend to more progressive Christians.
Read MoreAuthentic Christianity is a fine book, a good introduction into a way of being Christian that offers depth and hope beyond the façade of Sunday morning performances. But it is not the end. It is not the final place to rest.
Read MoreIt is safe to say that with faith and doubt, one could not exist without the other. Doubt, in part, defines faith and faith, in part, defines doubt. Yet we have our preferences, and I wonder if we are living in a time when doubt takes a place that is higher than faith. Faith still persists, just not in the divine or the other. Faith is in the known, in the fact, in that which is certain. I am waiting for doubt to shake the tree, to rattle the foundations of this new form of belief. As long as we encounter the unknown, we will have a place for doubt and a place for faith.
Read MoreThe story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one that needs to continue to be told as it is a story that is not well known in the broader public mind. Bonhoeffer’s commitment to love, forgiveness, and resistance is inspiring and important. We need to learn about and remember heroes like Bonhoeffer, and as much as has been written about Bonhoeffer, he remains a figure from World War II who is not well known..
Read MoreThe idea of starting with sound is novel and creative and holds a good deal of promise. It is something that we all do, even the Quakers. With such an approach, Rutt may be inviting the reader into a space where unity in experience draws people past the differences of theology, ontology, and metaphysics. Rutt also looks to draw from the mystical edges of various traditions (Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam), which opens the potential for the engagement of the divine in ways that can leave space for others. The idea has merit and potential.
Read MoreMy thoughts, musings, and guidance towards a spirituality of reading.
Read MoreDifferent traditions bring different experiences and different approaches and bring nuance to faith. Nuance makes things gray. The answers to theological and spiritual questions need the gray, they need the space beyond the black and white approaches that many take.
Read MoreWe cannot live without evil. We cannot work our way through the challenges of life, interacting with other people, engaging on the day to day without encountering some kind of evil in one way or another. While we may think of evil as a large, ominous presence, a devastating specter that looks to destroy all, a cartoonish devil, evil can and does occur in small and subtle ways. This is one of the aspects of Rosenthal’s book that is engaging and enticing, that evil is seen as that which gets in the way of the “good life.” Such a view of evil does not label one individual as completely fallen or looks to some kind of divine being constantly wrestling with a divine being of good in an eternal Manichaeism conflict. Evil is the moment that we all participate in that restrict others from living the good life. There are gradations of evil. There are levels of severity and part of our challenge is to minimize the evil we inflict on others as much as possible.
Read MoreIn a time when we are arguing about the author’s intent and the value of even wrestling with such a question, to consider what a book means and what the author is trying to say and how we are supposed to react is a daunting task.
Read MoreA book review of A Resurrection Shaped Life, by Jake Owensby
Read More(With apologies to Wonder Woman) When someone says, “I’ve got this,” they are claiming all the space for themselves. They are closing out others and saying that their input is not vital or essential. But what if in response to the macho marking of territory someone else says, “Ok, and who else has this?” This is inviting others into the space and sharing the power.
Read MoreWe are, by in large, a visual culture. We look first. We gage our environment by what we can see. We also listen, caught by the many audible cues that tickle our attention, that draw us from one point of focus to the other, but primarily we see. The visual comes before the audible. What do we lose when we fail to listen?
Read MoreArt calls for us to be engaged. Not just entertained, not just pacified, but engaged.
Read MoreWe need a theology of uncertainty. It is a theology that does not look for answers, but looks to question, to muse, and to play, with a deep reverence and respect and awe towards the relationship with God. It is a theology that celebrates a freedom in that relationship to do so. It is a theological approach that fundamentally holds to the idea that we are called to question and grow in our relationship with the divine.
Read MorePresident-elect Trump called for unity between political parties and the racial divide. However, although the president should champion unity, he does not have the moral authority nor the knowhow to bring peace to a fractured world. The church has a major role to foster peace and unity. The Bible gives us a road map for unity. America must look to God to obtain genuine love, unity, and peace. The church and religious institutions are the vehicle through which God works in the world.
Read More