The Lenten season has been especially intense for me this year on a spiritual level. I have sought to follow its rhythms, demands and opportunities from Ash Wednesday until now, Holy Week. Each day I have read the Mass readings and experienced their impact. My sense that the Christian life is best undertaken within the rhythm […]
I begin by saying the obvious: We enter an election year in a time of great political and cultural division in our country. That could have been said every four years since 1968. But today we also can add that we enter an election year with very high levels of social mistrust, loss of confidence in
Thinking Biblically about Government in an Election Year
In my 2020 book, After Evangelicalism, I argued that there were likely twenty-five million people who had been raised evangelical but who had either switched to another religious tradition or no longer identified with any religious tradition. This estimate was based on the massive (35,000 surveyed in all fifty states) and much quoted Pew Research
Now Is the Time to Talk about Post-Evangelicalism—Out Loud and Together
“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” — John 17:20-21 John 17 often is labeled as Jesus’ “high-priestly prayer.” This is because he stands in the sight of God praying for his people. In this extraordinarily profound
One of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:23) It is a commonplace observation of mainstream historical-critical New Testament scholars that the accounts of Jesus’ birth contain historically questionable and even fantastical elements. For those whose
How I Am Believing in the Christmas Story This Year
Dietrich Bonhoeffer always brings me up short when he emphasizes the indicative rather than imperative voice in Paul’s thought and in Christian ethics more broadly. For example, in terms of Bonhoeffer’s work on image Christology, he emphasizes that the work of Christ in restoring the image of God in humanity is an accomplished fact, a reality
Christ Came to Make Us Truly Human: Social Ethics and the Image of Christ
This is the second in a three-week Advent series. In six places in the New Testament, five of them in the (probable) writings of Paul, the image of God is reinterpreted in light of Jesus Christ. The imago dei becomes the imago Christi. This Pauline theme is sometimes called “image Christology.” It takes us closer to our exploration of
Christ Came to Make Us Truly Human: Remade in the Image of Christ
Advent is upon us, and in my house, at least, we are already awash in Christmas decorations, music and movies. The peppermint bark candy is already on hand. The Christmas plates, cups and glasses are out. Our tree was up by Nov. 29! My wife, Jeanie, does Christmas right. At Catholic Mass on the first Sunday of
Christ Came to Make Us Truly Human: Human Sinfulness and the Image of God