I realized after fourteen months of dumbfounded mainly-silence that I had succumbed to hopelessness about the US, the country that I love and that it was time to snap out of it. There are three problems with hopelessness. One: it closes its eyes to reasons for hope; therefore, in the name of realism it misses […]
Helpless Hopelessness is Disempowering: And the difference between hope and optimism
Plenary Address to Festival of Homiletics, Atlanta, Georgia, May 14, 2025 Note: This is the formal text of my address to the wonderful Festival of Homiletics conference, which gathered over 1400 primarily mainline Protestant church leaders from around the world. I was very struck by the strong response to this message and to a workshop
Proclaiming the Moral Teaching of Jesus
Sermon, Commissioning Service, Mercer University School of Theology, May 9, 2025 Note to Readers: This message reflects the profound challenges that I believe face all ministers of the Gospel at this moment in this context, and the kind of character and faith with which we must meet those challenges. It was presented to the graduates
Convictional. Resistant. Steadfast.
A Sermon on Luke 4:16-30 and Isaiah 61 Note: I wrote this sermon and preached it with (this was a participatory congregation!) the lovely Edgewood Church, in Atlanta, on Sunday, 23 March, the 3rd Sunday of Lent. The Luke 4 text was selected by the pastors of the church. Luke 4:16-30 16 When he came
How Jesus Subverted Nationalist Religion and Almost Got Himself Killed
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went to Munich on September 29, 1938 for a last-ditch peace conference with Adolf Hitler. The issue was Hitler’s demand for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia as the price for Germany not invading. With the Czech government refused admittance to the conference room within which its survival was being debated, British
Winston Churchill on Appeasement: In Honor and in Defense of Ukraine
Note: I am developing a work that offers post-evangelical meditations on the book of Job. This section reflects on what Job says in chapters 9-10. This section was drafted over the last week. Perhaps it will speak to you. I hope to bring this book out in 2026, with Orbis Books. He is not a
The Terror of Arbitrary Power: A Meditation Based on Job 9-10
Note: The talk below was presented on 8 February to Ethiopian theologians gathered under the banner of Prophetic: The Public Theology Fellowship, led by the gifted Andrew DeCort. You will see that my task in this workshop was to address the nature, purpose, and strategy of Christian public theology. I was also asked to reflect on
Bearing Faithful Witness: Christian Public Theology in Crisis Times and All Other Times
The Moment We Have Been Preparing For Note: On January 26, 2025, I had the special privilege of offering the closing keynote address at the Q Christian Fellowship conference in Atlanta. This organization describes its mission as follows: “cultivating radical belonging for LGBTQ+ Christians and allies.” Below is the text of my Sunday morning address, which followed
Closing Address, Q Christian Fellowship Conference, Atlanta
WHERE I WAS BEFORE 5 NOVEMBER 2024 The election results came as a shock and great disappointment to me and many academics (of course, not all!). While we knew that Trump could win, I now see some of us were self-soothing by screening out information that we did not like. My favorite pacifiers were the
Final Reflections on the Lessons of 2024
I am writing this post very early in the morning of Friday, Sept. 6. It is less than 48 hours after 14-year-old Colt Gray decided to start his freshman year at Apalachee High School, 40 minutes north of me, by murdering his classmates and teachers, four of whom are dead, nine of whom are injured. I
Apalachee High School: The Questions that Haunt Me at Night