In “Religion in the Making” Whitehead defines Religion as “world-loyalty.”  There is a good deal more in the book to discuss at a later date (like after I get a new copy of it because all the pages fell out today!), but there is something important here.
Why? One could assume that Religion is, or at [...]

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Elgin did not want to leave my lap last night so we read through a favorite Paul Tillich book of mine from undergrad. It is a short book, 85 pages, based on a lecture series he gave where he connected the philosophical quest with the heart of Biblical religion. He concludes the last [...]

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No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truely poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God - for them there
will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel.  God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can [...]

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I really like this poem and used it in my Advent reflection for this week of ‘Hope.’  Hope you enjoy it.

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The traditional doctrines of theology do not solve the painful problem of evil.  The ordinary conception of the creation of the world and the Fall turns it all into a divine comedy, a play that God plays with himself….The freedom through which the creature succumbs to evil has been given to it by God, in [...]

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I recently got a copy of Niebuhr’s journal as a young man and young minister, “Leaves From the Notebooks of a Tamed Cynic” at a used book sale and what a steal it was for a whole 25 cents.  Here’s two zinger quotes.  If you are a cynical Christian or recent div school grad [...]

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This quote is from the end of “Adventure of Ideas” and edited by Cobb:
Peace is primarily a trust in the efficacy of Beauty.  This trust in self-justification of Beauty introduces faith, where reason fails to reveal the details.  And this trust finally comes as a gift.  The gift of trust comes largely beyond the control [...]

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This is again a quote from Moltmann’s “The Spirit of Life.”  The distinction between freedom ‘from’ and freedom ‘for’ something is important for Christians to recognize or else the freedom we have in God may amount to a transaction or a spiritual enlightenment and not being freed to join the God Movement in our God’s [...]

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This quote is from Moltmann’s The Spirit of Life:
Because of God’s cross, creation already lives from God, and will be transformed in God.  Without the cross of Christ this vision of ‘the world in God’ would be pure illusion. The suffereing of one, single child would prove it to be so.  Without perception of the [...]

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This quote is from “Religion in the Making,” which I have been rereading only to find more sweet quotes for the sharing.  Enjoy this one, it is a goodie and a point that sounds similar to Doug Pagitt in his newest book.

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