It seems that the people of the Jesus Movement expected something else. Maybe a violent overthrow of their Roman oppressors. Maybe just a living wage and single-payer health care. A chicken in every pot. Maybe they just wanted someone, one of their own, to say that he understood and to speak for them and fight for them. But it didn’t …
Faith in Doubt, Doubt in Faith
Qohelet, the primary voice of Ecclesiastes, has a penchant for hedging. There is no profit in wisdom or foolishness – the wise and the foolish will both die alike – but it’s probably still better to be wise. Ultimately, God is inscrutable, but we should probably honor God anyway. Is this capitulation to the common wisdom that Qohelet spends so …
Shepherding the Wind
One of my all-time favorite teaching moves was when my theology teacher used the movie Contact to help us seminary novices get a handle on the idea that our talk about God has a story to it (in particular, Contact was a springboard for us to talk about the doctrine of revelation – that point of numinous connection human beings …