faith
-
The Trinity is the most important concept in the church. It is important in the way that things are important. It has this essential character, it is the source of great conflict, and it has some brilliance to it. And yet the doctrine of the Trinity is about as confusing, ill-defined, and poorly executed of…
-
I first really heard the gospel in school. I was in an undergrad Bible class on Paul; the kind of distributive requirement that seemed like a natural fit for me. English major; PK (priest’s kid). The professor was an Orthodox bishop, Makarios. And his thick Indian accent meant that we had to really listen. Listen…
-
Let me begin by saying that I shy away from the term “Old Testament”. Yes, I’m one of those people. My concern with the name (and its companion, the New Testament) is not that they aren’t PC enough. It is that they are too narrowly prescriptive and restrict the beauty and depth of our scripture.…
-
I’ve grown quite tired of the phrases “deeply held belief” and “sincerely held religious belief”. They’ve been coming up a lot lately, especially with that interesting woman from Kentucky. Or those people with the restaurant or the one with the bakery. But we know it from the Hobby Lobby decision. Deeply held, sincerely held belief. We…
-
Wisdom to the Hebrew people wasn’t just learning, but was expressed in proverbs, teachings that could be memorized and shared. The more wisdom you had memorized, the wiser you were. the pursuit of wisdom, spirituality today Proper 15B | 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 & John 6:51-58 What is wisdom? Before we talk about Solomon’s legendary wisdom,…
-
When David was creeping on the roof, looking in windows like a perv, he saw this woman, naked, bathing. And in true Biblical form we’ll say that “lust was in his heart”. Which just sounds like the euphemistic excusing “boys will be boys” of Biblical interpretation. It makes David seem so innocent to his urges:…