Theology
A matter of love, not certainty
In Carl Hughes’s hands, Kierkegaard helps to distinguish Luther’s desire for certainty from his appreciation for mystery.
March 16, Lent 2C (Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35)
We live with a clear-eyed hope that refuses to squint in the face of suffering.
The imitation of the Spirit
Christians are taught to practice imitatio Christi, empowered by the Holy Spirit. What if we flipped this narrative?
In Martin Marty’s classroom
One evening, Marty had the whole class out to his house. There were shelves of books that he wrote or edited and even more books by his students. I thought, I do not belong here.
March 9, Lent 1 (Psalm 91:1–2, 9–16; Romans 10:8b–13; Luke 4:1–13)
God chooses to draw near—and to draw us out of ourselves.
An ungovernable faith
By refusing to swear oaths, 16th-century Anabaptists took away the state’s primary tool for control.
Voltaire’s encounter with the crucified Christ
The Enlightenment thinker was fiercely critical of religion. But what did he mean by religion?
The legacy of “religionization”
Marianne Moyaert provides a helpful but somber history of the ways European Christians have imagined people of other faiths.
Dust and glory
Our origin in dirt can teach us humility. But what if it also bears the divine image?
How and what to think
I’m only trying to teach my religion students one of these things. At least that’s what I tell them.
God’s maternal love
I wonder if what I felt, feared, and learned as a young mother mirrors what God experiences when she tries to feed us.
Learning to see the planet as gift
At Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center nestled deep in the Cascades, I asked my students to consider their vocation in light of the Anthropocene.
The academy needs better theologies of cooking
The first step is to give voice to those whose work in the kitchen is shaped by necessity, not choice.
The heart of embodied theopoetics beats for liberation
A new edited volume seeks not to replace traditional, White male–focused theopoetics so much as to reshape the subject altogether.
What does it mean to be a Christian in these times?
We have a cross at the center of our faith, and we need to start acting like it.
The consolation of studying theology
Theological education is precarious, inconvenient, and uncomfortable. So why do students keep enrolling?
What can the church offer trans people right now?
Baptism and Eucharist should rework all of our ideas about identity.
Sacred waters, melting ice
Baptismal rituals in glacial lands hold memories of the past—and wisdom for facing climate change.
Church on the run
If I want kinship with my Anabaptist ancestors, I know where to look: in prison.