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 →
Hope Evolves
As a father, I have heard of it happening to other people’s children but I never dreamt that it could happen to me. I have taken all the precautions that could reasonably be expected of me, and I believe I have been responsible and vigilant. But sometimes even your best efforts are just not enough... Continue Reading →
Jesus: Destroyer of Worlds
Most days I feel like I have the emotional strength to deal with life. Today isn’t one of those days. And that is not a request for advice, or consolation. I don’t admit to this because I am desperate for help; I write it because I process by reflecting, and I reflect by writing. ... Continue Reading →
The Quest for Hope, Part 4: Old Wineskins
I don’t think most Christians want Jesus. They would deny it, of course, but what they really want is a violent god. They want an angry god. They want a god who looks like everybody else’s god, only better. A mightier smiter; a my-god-can-kick-your-god’s-butt-Chuck-Norris-style god. We suffer from the theological equivalent of trying to keep... Continue Reading →
The Quest for Hope, Part 3:When I Consider the Heavens
Millenia ago in Judea a young man sat in the cool silence of a cloudless desert night. It could be that he was accustomed to solitude, had spent many nights out here alone. Perhaps – as always – he was enthralled by the hypnotizing vermilion of the campfire coals; perhaps his fingers sought the reassuring... Continue Reading →
The Quest for Hope Part 2: The Problem of Suffering
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 →
The Quest for Hope, Part 1: The Lies We Live By
You may have been wondering why you have not heard from me in a while, and the truth of the matter is that I have not really known what to write about. I have been working through a sort of existential angst. It is not depression: I have suffered from that for much of... Continue Reading →
Choosing to Live by Choosing Hope
I am wary of attempts to reduce life’s complexities into trite truisms, but if I were pressed to summarise life’s journey into one succinct statement of sugar-packety goodness, it would be this: fulfilment in life is dependent on one simple choice: will you walk the path of hope or the path of despair? Make no... Continue Reading →