John Hick, an influential theologian and philosopher who died earlier this year, was drawn to issues that transcend any particular tradition—the question of evil, the meaning of suffering, life after death, and religious diversity.
read moreStudents of the history and legacy of the West’s Protestant Reformation over its past millennium or thousand-year period can in contrast observe that “RiP” can have another connotation, which implies and express a less peaceful changing of attitudes and chain of events. What emerges is not a single “Reformation” but at least five “Re-formations” or modifications and amendments of attitudes, belief-systems and doctrinal confessions.
read moreThe Southern Baptist Convention is expected to elect its first black president on Tuesday: Fred Luter, a former street preacher who turned a dying New Orleans church into a powerhouse. His election is a milestone for the …
read moreA View from the Underside: The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a one-person play adapted and performed by Al Staggs that brings the life of one of the great heroes of the twentieth century to the stage.
read moreThe Government’s plan to introduce same-sex marriage is one of the most serious threats to the Church of England in its 500-year history, senior clergy claim. The Church today outlines its opposition to the Government’s proposals in …
read moreI believe it’s in the Bible that we find people and a God willing to wrestle with one another. The spirituality of the Bible is more mudwrestling than hang-gliding, from the depiction of a God who wrestles mud into human shapes in Jewish scriptures to the depiction of creation itself groaning in childbirth in Christian scriptures.
read moreVATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Monday sharply criticized a book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun, saying it contradicted church teaching on issues like masturbation, homosexuality and marriage and that its author had …
read moreHenri once wrote that the “J. M.” in the middle of his name could stand for “Just Me.” He believed that the minister (again, every Christian) was called to live a life offered to others. The autobiography or memoir is said to have first appeared in The Confessions of Saint Augustine, and spiritual autobiography has long had a place as a means of doing theology. I lead workshops and retreats on spiritual autobiographical writing, encouraging participants to tell their stories.
read moreI still remember the existential gut wrenching I felt when I first read John Dominic Crossan’s assertion that underneath the resurrection story that cracks like holy thunder on Easter morning was the more likely scenario that the crucified body of Jesus was probably consumed by wild dogs.
read moreFor a while, their message was everywhere. They paid for billboards, took out full-page ads in newspapers, distributed thousands of tracts. They drove across the county in RVs emblazoned with verses from the books of Revelation and …
read moreBrenda Peterson is a nature writer, born into a family that believed that we are living in the end times. We talk to her about her Southern Baptist background, what fundamentalists and environmentalists have in common, and about her new memoir, I Want to Be Left Behind.
read moreIn Odyssey on the Sea of Faith, Nigel Leaves maps the ways in which the ideas of Don Cupitt have developed, evolved, and changed — from mildly evangelical, to liberal, to leading exponent of the view that there is no God out there and that we must create new religious ways of be-ing. This book makes sense of Cupitt. For those interested in the ideas of Don Cupitt, it will be the authoritative resource for many years to come.
read moreIn his interview with ABC News, released just this afternoon, President Obama said that his faith played a role in his decision to finally endorse same-sex marriage. He noted that he and his wife Michelle “are both practicing Christians,” …
read moreUPDATE: News outlets have confirmed that Yauch’s death was from cancer. Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boys member who went by the stage name MCA, had long practiced Tibetan Buddhism before his death, which was announced Friday in several …
read moreNEW BRIGHTON, MN (March 28, 2012)—United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has announced the election of the Reverend Dr. Barbara A. Holmes of Memphis, Tennessee as its eighth president. The seminary’s Board of Trustees confirmed Holmes’ …
read moreThis is a book about the Moses we don’t usually hear about – not in religious school or from the pulpit.
read moreIt was Jesus of Nazareth, not of Nashville, or New York, or…
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