To Think God as Love

My question for you: What do this phrase, these words, actually mean? Which god is it we trust in? What is this trust we claim to practice before and to this god? And who are we? Caution: the answer to the last of this trio determines the answer to the other two. Now, how do [...]

In his The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson argues that Jesus, coming to us now as the church, his body, is always local and invariably personal. Tragically, the American way of life wars against locality and particularity and personability. Consumerism is a poison that sickens and then kills the seed of the Kingdom in the church. If [...]

“People who rest their lives in promise do not make good consumers.” Walter Brueggemann bases this claim on his reading of Israel’s – and by extension, the church’s – stories, which he loosely groups as stories of promise (e.g., the blessing of Abraham), deliverance (e.g. the Exodus) and sustenance (e.g., the provision of manna in [...]

Gas prices, as everyone knows, are uncomfortably high, and all the prognosticators insist the prices aren’t coming down any time soon, if ever. And in spite of the sadly predictable election-year bloviating, no government regulations are going to solve the problem.

“The market system depends on the logic of exchange, quid pro quo (this for that). No one can doubt the great benefit of exchange relationships in the distributing of goods and services. On the other hand, the history of economies that are ruled exclusively by the logic of exchange shows that the accompanying logic of [...]

Bishop Girotti, a Vatican official, has listed seven sins to supplement the original deadly seven. The new seven are “social” in orientation, he says, because though “sin used to concern mostly the individual, today it has mostly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization.”  Here’s the list:  1. “Bioethical” sins (e.g., birth control) 2. “Morally dubious” scientific experiementation [...]

I’ve just read Halden’s entry, “The Ethics of Complicity,” which treats the problem of Christian responsibility in and to a capitalistic and militaristic state. Many Christians, both in the academy and the church, call for a radical break with the “world,” and decry all forms of compromise with the “gods of this age.” However, Hadlen insistes that there’s no “outside” to [...]

“Each year, Lent offers us a providential opportunity to deepen the meaning and value of our Christian lives, and it stimulates us to rediscover the mercy of God so that we, in turn, become more merciful toward our brothers and sisters…” I like very much Benedict’s use of the language of “providential opportunity.” That is, [...]