When I listened to public prayers in evangelical churches, I heard people telling God what to do, combined with thinly veiled hints on how others should behave. When
What would it take for church to become known as a place where grace is on tap
We need a renewed awareness of death, yes. But we need far more. We need a faith, in the midst of our groaning, that death is not the last word, but the next to last. What is mortal will be swallowed...
The suffering person faces choices. She can recoil in anger and despair against God. Or she can accept the trial as an opportunity for joy. I do not mean to imply that God loves one type of sufferer a...
The novelist Reynolds Price says there is one sentence above all that people crave from stories: The Maker of all things loves and wants me. Christians still believe in that truth.
Rather than looking back nostalgically on a time when Christians wielded more power, I suggest another approach: that we regard ourselves as subversives operating within the broader culture.
Los seres humanos crecemos al luchar, trabajar y extendernos; en cierto sentido, la naturaleza humana tiene más necesidad de problemas que de soluciones.
Jesus’ story makes no economic sense, and that was his intent. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day’s wages. Grace is not about finishing last or first; it is...
Jesus was not crucified for being a good citizen, for being just a little nicer than everyone else. The powers of his day correctly saw him and his followers as subversives because they took orders fr...
In my lifelong study of the Bible I have looked for an overarching theme, a summary statement of what the whole sprawling book is about. I have settled on this: God gets his family back. From the firs...
In God’s presence I feel small because I am small.
Evil’s greatest triumph may be its success in portraying religion as an enemy of pleasure when, in fact, religion accounts for its source: every good and enjoyable thing is the invention of a Creator...
C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away...
But what if I create a universe that is free, free even of me? What if I veil My Divinity so that the creatures are free to pursue their individual lives without being overwhelmed by My overpowering P...
Be careful, warned Nietzsche, lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon.
An institution cannot love; only people can love. As the proverb says, apart from love, giving becomes an insult.
A lo largo de toda la Biblia, en especial en los libros de los profetas, vemos a Dios debatirse en un conflicto interno. Por una parte, amaba apasionadamente a las personas que había creado; por otra,...
Pleasure represents a great good but also a grave danger.
Frankly, I have seen even more graceless, not to say scurrilous, responses to Barack Obama from Christians. The church has allowed itself to get so swept up in political issues that it plays by the ru...
Everyone is entitled to my opinion.