I have been rekindled in my thoughts concerning “salvation” the past few years. We have such a truncated version of “gospel” that we try to keep it reduced to something like, “Jesus came to save you so when you repent you can know you go to heaven when you die.”
Tag Archives: Theology
Loving others in their context needs to happen FIRST
When I was in graduate school, I took a very formative course on black church history with an African American pastor. I vividly recall him saying in class, when discussing racism in the church, “Don’t tell me what you believe about Jesus. Tell me how you feel about black people, and that will tell meContinue reading “Loving others in their context needs to happen FIRST”
Maybe it’s not “deconstruction” Maybe it’s RECLAIMING
Aimee Byrd writes passionately about lifting up women in the Body of Christ. She is targeted all the time by threatened men who consider themselves “leaders” in the Body of Christ.
Hacking our way to clarity
The second half of this Holy Post Podcast has an interview with Philip Yancey. They feature his latest book, which is his memoir. Yancey has been a challenging voice for me for decades. (His interview comes around 49 minutes in.) With our current struggle with terminology like “deconstruction”, Yancey represents the understanding that some formContinue reading “Hacking our way to clarity”
The generosity of life I seek
Dorothy Day had in incredibly influential man in her life, challenging her to the work she carried among the poor. His life had a profound impact on her. His name was Peter Maurin. She would describe him in her book, The Long Loneliness, as one who sought the common good. He was grounded in hisContinue reading “The generosity of life I seek”
EVERY generation deconstructs… and some even reconstruct
I am reading The Long Loneliness, an autobiography of Dorothy Day. It struck me how she went through her own “awakening” in the early 1900s in much the same way I did when I was in college. I reflect on that because “deconstruction” is the “buzz word” of our time… and it’s not really atContinue reading “EVERY generation deconstructs… and some even reconstruct”
Deconstructing and Reconstructing
To be fair, I haven’t had the kind of crisis of faith I’ve watched so many others undergo. But I’ve certainly had to step back and examine honestly where I’ve been complacent — or even complicit — in enabling others who have abused their power in the name of the Lord. It’s a process inContinue reading “Deconstructing and Reconstructing”
I am but a shadow of my future self
How I live now matters. My body matters. My mind matters. It is not discarded in the future, so I can treat my current life any way I want. Current gleanings from NT Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope: I am but a shadow of my future self. How I love now matters. What we doContinue reading “I am but a shadow of my future self”
Heaven and hell isn’t the ultimate question
If I could get every American conservative Christian to read Surprised by Hope, it would be mandatory reading. Wright forces my thinking away from what I thought was the ultimate question: Who is going to heaven or hell? (And, did God send them there or did humans choose?) Maybe we’re asking wrong questions, and thisContinue reading “Heaven and hell isn’t the ultimate question”
Notes on redemption
A few notes jotted down on the plan of redemption from NT Wright’s book, Surprised by Hope. Redemption isn’t scrapping what’s there and starting from a clean slate. When I read passages talking about a “new heaven and new earth” that was the mentality I had. The old earth (where we live currently) would beContinue reading “Notes on redemption”
Apprentice 2 Jesus 