****YOU HAVE REACHED THIS WEBSITE IN ERROR
-THIS WEBSITE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE****
PLEASE OPEN A NEW WINDOW
AND GO TO OUR NEW WEBSITE AT

WWW.PROGRESSIVECHRISTIANITY.ORG 
THANK YOU!

A New Year, A New Beginning

Serendipity is my favorite word and speaks volumes to me about life as I have come to understand it. Serendipity is defined as, “The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.”

read more

The Transcendentals

The timeless and universal aspects of life are known as beauty, truth, and goodness. They are endowed properties of all beings, some more than others. In mortals, they are sprinkled in just enough quantity to preserve and leaven the whole, but not nearly enough to straighten the irregular timbers of humanity wholesale.

read more

Where “The Hill We Climb” Can Take Us

How poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, lifted America

The inaugural poem of Amanda Gorman – at 22, the youngest inaugural poet laureate in U.S. history – lifted our spirits as it dazzled our imagination.  Indeed, as her lofty words filled the air at our nation’s capitol, hope was given a new face. 

read more

Some Thoughts on Healing the Great National Divide

The one thing I never imagined was that fascism could come to the United States. Unfortunately, the myth of American exceptionalism has been totally discredited. Fascism came close to coming to our shores during the last four years. Let’s hope that we as a society can take the steps necessary to see that such a threat never happens again.

read more

The Myths We Deem to be True and Sacred

In this new year – just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse — something dark and revelatory already happened on that day. Thousands of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol; wielding clubs, and bats, and – in one instance – a Bible.

read more

Stations of the Cross: Confronting and Contemplating Climate Change

A practice for individuals and churches

You can “walk” these stations by practicing one station per day, from March 20 through Good Friday, April 2 – or at any other time or manner during Lent (Ash Wednesday, February 17, until Easter Sunday, April 4).  

read more

The Hill We Climb

The words of Amanda Gorman, Poet Laureate, from her moving poem during the inauguration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice-President of the United States of America.

read more

Towards a Regenerative God as Creator

We live in a rapidly evolving world. Even technologists have trouble keeping up with technology. Perceptions of God are virtually static— but divided — pro—con — agnostic —indifferent.

read more

The Ambient Christ:

The Inside Story of God in Science, Scripture, and Spirituality

There is a unified field in the cosmos that holds everything together, and every discipline is a portal to it. Science calls it a field of fundamental forces and elementary particles. Religion calls it God and accepts it by faith as an impenetrable mystery.

read more

Creation’s Wisdom: Spiritual Practice and Climate Change

If creation is in crisis, then our spirituality must directly engage this creation and articulate a spiritual framework that will allow us to relate to both the world and the crisis we face that is both life-giving and healthy.

read more

Religion News from Around the World: A Monthly Roundup by Rick Herrick

December 2020

What Jesus Means to Muslims, Faith Leaders Promote Vaccine Use and other articles from RNS in December 2020.

read more

Why Millennials Are Moving Into Convents With Nuns

Even as young people eschew religion, some are forming unexpected bonds with sisters of faith through a shared commitment to social justice.

read more

Dominion Over Creation and Climate Change

Out of the mouths of babes comes either curiosity and wonder or doubt and defiance. On either extreme the truth that emerges is always a question: “Why?”

read more

What IS a Theologoumenon and What DOES Changing Water into Wine Mean?

A couple of hurdles to deriving the greatest possible meaning from the Bible are orthodox literalism (everything in the Bible must have happened just because it is in the Bible) and secular denial (since hardly anything in the Bible really happened, the book is of no value).

read more

Pondering the Existence of God: A Review of “The God You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In” by Jeffrey E. Frantz

The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey E. Frantz was a minister in the United Church of Christ for more than forty years. In writing about God, the great mystery that challenges all persons of faith, in The God You Didn’t Know You Could Believe In, Frantz was speaking to his congregation. He knew just the right topics to cover and the right questions to answer for any layperson seeking to bring depth to his or her faith.

read more

Thank God for Science and Religion!

The awesome insight I wanted to share with you was “that the human brain has many times more connections than stars in our galaxy” [p126]. That’s an “aha” from the inside out, or rather, way, way beyond!

read more

The Forest is Full of Socialists

I have two points to make today. The first is very practical and the second is deeply philosophical.

read more

Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic: A Chat with Matthew Fox

Matthew Fox has been one of my dearest friends for 25 years as well as a beloved mentor and inspiration. We have worked together innumerable times and I continue to be amazed at his focused mystical brilliance and the ceaseless flow of amazing work that has poured from him.

read more