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.
02050 – The Tragedy of Christian History
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01671 – We’re All Closed in…and Don’t Know It
We are all so closed in and we don't even know it: by our language, by our cultures, by our religions, by our sex, by our age. So how can we possibly expect that we know God? I feel as if my life has been spent straining to see through a knothole the size of a pinhead...
01402 – “It’s Not about Me”
I think Jesus would have said, "It's not about me." During his lifetime, he deflected attention from himself. In an illuminating passage in our earliest gospel, when a man addressed him as "Good Teacher," Jesus responded with, "Why do you call me good? No one is good...
01129 – Music at it’s Best
Music at its best… is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us–beyond language–to the dark roots of our scream and the...
01075 – Masculine-Only Images for God are Inadequate
The Bible does not limit God to masculine images. God as Father is not the only image in Scripture. Faithfulness to the complete biblical revelation leads us to include other images. Opening our minds to new ideas can be scary at first. Growing up I learned that God...
01070 – Thought, Language, and Action
Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
01068 – Names for God are not God
…images of God in language must not become idols. However hallowed by tradition, however enriching and suggestive, however profoundly they move us, our metaphors and names for God are not themselves God.
01063 – We Just Don’t “Get” God
Our language is insufficientOur intellect does not grasp youOur imagination cannot get hold of youAlthough we do not know what to call you, we are called by you.
01060 – Language Can Open a Broad Room
The important thing is for language to open up space which does not limit us but which moves us, make[s] us experience, have a breath of other things: “You set my feet in a broad room. (Ps. 31: 9).
01058 – Language: Are Changes Worth It?
Language patterns do not finally change until we use new patterns enough for them to sound natural and normal. That takes effort, and it takes a conviction that such changes are worth the effort.