all souls are by nature christian…

At worship today, the speaker mentioned that Leo Tolstoy believed that every person was created to be Christlike and that when we do come to an awareness of Jesus it is as if we remember, or discover, ourselves for the first time. The quote is as follows….
By its nature the human soul [...]

viola strikes back (pun intended)

As mentioned before, Frank Viola and George Barna have written a book called Pagan Christianity that delivers a rather stinging critique of widely accepted church practices. They are coming under a lot of fire for it. Frank has a website where he tries to engage people (critics and acolytes alike). I have really appreciated the [...]

a red letter day

As I indicated in a comment on my last post, Michael Frost sent me an email asking me what I had done to stir up some folk who had accused me of being a “red letterist”. He asked me what that was. I responded that I think it points to those folks (usually [...]

isms schmisms

Just a necessary follow up to the previous post on Paul would be Appalled. Before I am heard as writing off the role and teachings of Paul, let it be known that I fully accept the Pauline writings as canonical and authoritative and that Paul is the most important interpreter of Jesus in history. [...]

religion is a bad idea

Eric made a comment on the last post. I tracked back to his blog (Just Wondering) and found this fascinating discussion between him and a friend called Brad. It extends the discussion about religion, but looks at religion as ideology. when we get too ideological, then we oppress people. I will [...]

paul would be appalled

As many of you know, I have a distinct dislike for religiosity and religious people in general. Perhaps it is the rebel (holy or unholy?) in me but there is something in me that wants to offend such folk and challenge their prissy religious sensibilities. I maintain the belief that it is Jesus [...]

fire or fire?

In our reflection today, Debs and I read 1 Peter 1 which has so much to say about the connection between suffering and sanctification. The mystery of joy, of being saved, in the midst of sometimes severe suffering is surely the mark of a saint. But on reflecting on how many [...]

the twilight of atheism

Here are some quotes taken from Alistair McGrath’s book, The Twilight Of Atheism. I have taken these from David May’s excellent summary of that book. What interests me is McGrath’s thesis that the relation of atheism to the corruption of religion in general and the church in particular. Atheism is more a [...]

orthopathy…or the way of the heart.

As we have seen, engagement with Jesus must move us beyond being spectators to participants. If we wish to become like him we must learn to actively participate in Jesus, actively applying him and his teachings to our lives. We cannot be disinterested spectators when it comes to Jesus. In fact, in the encounters described [...]

belief in belief

I have been hanging around Evangelical circles for most of my Christian life. but truth to tell, I was brought to the Lord by some real crazy, chandelier-swinging, Pentecostals. I had a really profound, life-defining experience, through their amazing ministry. They didn’t seem to know much about the faith, but they knew [...]

sunday-monday disconnect

This dualistic spirituality described in the previous blogs has been called a number of things, but perhaps the idea of the Sunday-Monday disconnect brings the experience to the fore. We experience a certain type of God on Sunday, but Monday is another matter—“this is ‘the real world’ and things work differently here.” How many [...]

beyond the sacred and the secular

One of the most immediate implications of genuine monotheism as we have outlined, is that if taken seriosuly, it obliterates any false distinction between the sacred and the secular. If all of the world lies under God’s redeeming claim, and our task as his people is to hallow the everyday, then there can be [...]

missional thinking; truth or idol?

In reading Karl Heim’s wonderful book, Jesus the Lord, I was reminded about a little gem emanating from Luther’s very seminal mind. I must confess that apart from the last few years of his life, I really like Luther and find him the most compelling and passionate of the Reformers. I love his [...]

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