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 […]
Graceful engagement
I first heard the term “graceful engagement” from the founding director of Intersections International, Rev. Robert Chase.1 He was describing to me the peace-building approach that Intersections uses across its programs, and once I heard it, I started seeing other examples everywhere. This week, I came across a resource from the Institute for Welcoming Resources, […]
What we do while we wait
Today I’m writing from Orlando, FL, where the National Religious Leadership Roundtable is connecting with local clergy post-election and post-Pulse. Naomi Leapheart, the Task Force’s Faith Work organizer, opened tonight’s meeting with a challenging reflection on the Christian liturgical season of Advent. I hope she publishes her remarks! At the heart of her challenge to us was the idea that […]
Martinez: Proving beliefs with our lives
The book of James, one of my favorite books in the Christian scriptures, is famous for the phrase “Faith without works is dead.” The writer argues that we demonstrate belief with the actions we take: our convictions have material consequences and we prove our commitment with the degree to which we’ll live out what we believe. Suppose […]
Hunt: Stones for bread
There’s a line in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus asks his audience, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” (Matthew 7:9-10) He then explains that even if a parent might answer their children’s needs with […]
In a world of matter, you can’t live on ether
In the misty Grecian past, philosophers imagined that the perceptible world was composed of five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and ether. Ether, or quintessence, was said to fill the realm in which the gods lived. In our time, most people no longer build our understanding of things on four or five elements. But we do still work […]