The tragedy of Christian history has been that we have so often assumed that ecstatic language is literally true and that the experience of God can be bound by human words.
02044 – The Power of God at Work
Jesus is both a mirror to our humanity and a window to divinity, a window revealing as much of God as is given mortal eyes to see. When Christians see Christ empowering the weak, scorning the powerful, healing the wounded, and judging their tormentors, we are seeing...
02029 – Authentic Conversion
Before conversion, we tend to think that God is out there. After transformation, God is not out there and we don’t look at reality. We look from reality. We’re in the middle of it now; we’re a part of it. This whole thing is...
02021 – Complicity and Forgiveness
The longer you gaze, the more you will see your own complicity in and profitability from the sin of others, even if it is the satisfaction of feeling you are on higher moral ground. Forgiveness is probably the only human action that demands three new "seeings" at the...
02012 – Complex World has Staggering Problems
The world is complex and facing staggering problems. It needs Christians who are up to the task of making a constructive contribution, intellectually ready for the challenges that humanity faces, deeply motivated to love God and neighbor with all our minds. from After...
02001 – Notice the Holiness Around You!
Whoever you are, you are human. Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it.
01962 – God of the Poor
The reality of human society and acquisitiveness is such that the poor will always tend to be exploited; a society built on the competitive principle means that in order for there to be a winner, there must be a greater number of losers. In such a society, where law...
01916 – All Labor that Uplifts Humanity
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
01889 – How Should We Live in an Atomic Age?
[Written in 1948] How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land...
01881 – Examining Big Questions about Our Existence
Socrates famously declared that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living.’ It is one of the most quoted classical sayings outside the Bible, but it is followed less than it is quoted. And if Socrates is correct, it would mean that many people, even highly educated...