When Yahweh created the world, His Spirit hovered over the waters to transform the empty waste into glory and beauty. When Yahweh re-created the world in the tabernacle, His Spirit hovered again, this time over the craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab, to whom He gave wisdom to make things. The Spirit . . . . Continue Reading »
After further delays and snags, this week we received the deed to our new building. Soon we will mark this milestone ritually by publicly immersing Dr Atwood in Gatorade. As we have said and will continue to say, this is a tremendous gift from God, and we should be very thankful for it. In . . . . Continue Reading »
I have often cited this passage from Thomas Oden’s Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry (85), though I long ago forgot it came from Oden. It has some flaws, but it’s a moving statement of the privilege of pastoral vocation: “”There are five incomparable days in the . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s a widespread instinct that the higher a church’s liturgy, the more apt a church is to be full of lukewarm nominal believers. Mainline liturgical churches like the ELCA, ECUSA, PCUSA are, it is argued, full of people who know nothing of the Bible and little of Jesus, and they . . . . Continue Reading »
I offer some thoughts on the church’s response to the current debates and crises in American health care at http://www.firstthings.com/ . . . . Continue Reading »
It was “not good” for Adam to be alone. But he wasn’t alone. He was alone with God . But God judged that “alone with God” was “not good.” Adam’s state became fully good only when another person joined him. As John Paul II says ( Man and Woman He . . . . Continue Reading »
In Divided Christendom;: A Catholic study of the problem of reunion , Yves Congar gives a careful, charitable explanation of the reasoning behind Catholic refusal of intercommunion with Protestants. asks about the status of separated brothers, whether Orthodox or Protestant. He writes that if a . . . . Continue Reading »
Sola scriptura is not a piece of epistemology. It is not a modernist quest for certainty and unquestionable foundations. It doesn’t pretend to bypass interpretation or the church or people with all their foibles and fallibility. It’s not a claim that Scripture is easy. It’s not a . . . . Continue Reading »
Some of my critics have objected to my use of the word “catholic” to describe my “ecumenism.” I would point out that my use of “catholic” is a perfectly understandable one in English. Dictionaries define the word as “all-inclusive” or . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the respondents to my recent First Things piece on communion acknowledged that the undivided table is intolerable, but qualified that with the statement, “If you assert that an undivided table is more important than defending the table’s main purpose, a means of salvation whereby . . . . Continue Reading »
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