For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
There’s a kind of spiritual theatre that I grew up around—a world where the Holy Spirit arrived with fireworks: tongues and trembling, declarations and deliverance, prophecy and power. You were supposed to feel it. To be moved. To be filled with something electric, uncontainable, divine. And sometimes, people were. I never was. And there were... Continue Reading →
Hope is difficult to speak about with integrity. Too often, it is made to sound like denial—like a way to silence grief, soften injustice, or sidestep the complexity of human pain: “Everything happens for a reason”, or “She’s in a better place now”. I am frankly sickened by how Evangelical Christians celebrate God’s leading them... Continue Reading →
I want to share a thought with you – a sort of hypothesis I am exploring. It is the kind of thought that in certain churches will guarantee excommunication – or at the very least ensure that your name is only ever mentioned in hushed tones – but it is too important not to share.... Continue Reading →
One of the problematic consequences of adopting a doctrine of the infallibility and/or inerrancy of Scripture is that we are blinded to the fact that what we read in a text is what we bring to it. We always read ourselves and our assumptions and contexts into texts. We cannot do otherwise. As a result,... Continue Reading →
Two of the most common critiques of Christianity today come from very different directions. The first—hypocrisy—is not a critique of Christianity itself but of its failure to live up to its own vision. The second, however, strikes at the heart of what many have come to believe Christianity is: the doctrines of biblical inerrancy and... Continue Reading →
I am a good reader. It is hardly surprising because I have devoured books since I was small. Consequently, I was often asked to read the Bible passage at church, prior to the sermon. And I always used to add afterwards, even though it was not part of the liturgy, “This is the Word of... Continue Reading →
Today I want to respond to a comment on my last post. I had been talking about the Eucharist as a central symbol of the new way in which Christianity wanted to frame culture. I bemoaned the fact that in the way we practice it today we more or less completely miss the power of... Continue Reading →
I am still battling to find it, I must confess. Hope, that is. It is elusive. Please do not worry, if you are a long-standing personal friend and know my struggle with depression. This is not that kind of hopelessness I mean. It is not me, personally, that I have a problem with (although no... Continue Reading →
I am intrigued by the notion of liminal spaces. The transitional places, the spaces in between where we think we have been and where we believe (hope?) we are going. And it strikes me that at any given time, we tend to conceptualise ourselves as either occupying a particular space, or as moving between two... Continue Reading →
I sometimes long to be free. I hunger for peace. Sometimes the world as it is seems overwhelming, too much to bear. I am tired of story after story after terrible story of human beings treating the natural world, and their fellow human beings, with complete disdain and unspeakable cruelty. My mind shrinks from the... Continue Reading →
Vapors In The Wind 