Congregations across the US will sing the song “In Christ Alone” this weekend, just as mine did this morning. It’s an obvious choice for Easter weekend because its verses trace the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. A line midway through the song recently became a flashpoint for the last ten centuries of debate among […]
Suffering and solidarity
This week I’m reading a remarkable essay by Joanne Carlson Brown and Rebecca Parker on the many, many ways that theologians and activists have explained redemptive suffering, punishment, and justice. It’s part of the old collection Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse. What’s fascinating about the arguments I’ve read so far is that they’re more than 28 […]
CN: When someone takes your place
CN: descriptions of graphic violence. Also plenty of spoilers for Season 1, episode 3. Some of you may have watched the Netflix drama Marco Polo. So far, it’s run for two seasons, and the second season is much better written than the first. It’s a standard mix of historical fiction, myth, war sequences, and unvarnished brutality—and yet, […]
What atonement means
I presented my paper on the lived experience of atonement theologies this morning. First, I took the audience through some of the violent and Othering imagery and metaphors at the end of the Christian bible and explained, based on George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s research, that metaphors open up patterns of thought and interpretation as well as restrict them. Then I shared […]
Getting the ideal right
The ideals we reach for shape us in ways we don’t always recognize ourselves. But others around us can recognize our evolution, just as easily as we notice a house plant warping its stalk to reach for oblique sunlight. This weekend’s conference on nonviolence and atonement is almost here, and Pacific Union College professor Dr. Jean Sheldon speaks on […]
Event: Non-violence and the Atonement
I’m speaking at the 2016 Spectrum Conference next week. The theme is Non-violence and the Atonement, and we’ll be joined by Greg Boyd, author of The Myth of a Christian Religion and proponent of the Christus Victor atonement theory. Check out the schedule and read an interview Spectrum conducted with me.
