article published in Catapult

My article, “Anarchism and Hope“, has just been published in Catapult Magazine, a bi-weekly online publication that’s been creating themed issues for over 5 years with a goal of creating community around holistic Christian faith practice. The current issue theme is “Hope and Cynicism“, and was inspired by the Cynicism and Hope conference at which [...]

A thought about anarchism and Christianity

I’ve been accused before of being “too anarchist, and not Christian enough” by some folks… and “too Christian, and not anarchist enough” by others. I’m not sure there’s much I can say to the latter, other than to reiterate that I believe the most radical act one can commit is that of dedicating one’s self [...]

Raising the dead

“Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to teach the teachable; He did not come to improve the improvable; He did not come to reform the reformable. None of those things works.” — Robert Farrar Capon
Quote courtesy of the fine people at Boar’s Head Tavern

New look!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed if you’re an old reader, I’ve made some substantial changes to the site look - most notably the template change and banner image.
I’ve also added several more links to the sidebar, including splitting the media section into blog and site categories and expanding several sections, particularly the equality links, consumer [...]

Ellul works available for download

If you check the Ellul page, you will see instructions on how to access and share the files containing a number of works by French sociologist and theologian Jacques Ellul. These works are not currently in print and there are no plans to put them back into print, though if I find out there are [...]

Green consumerism? A short video

N.T. Wright on academic vs. ministerial postings

I can identify with this an awful lot - Wright really speaks to my heart on this one. I have the exact same dilemma.
Trevin Wax: Why is it that you have never pursued exclusively an academic post? Why have you chosen to remain so connected to the local church?
N.T. [...]

where I’ve been

I’m sorry I’ve let off my blogging pace from the past couple of weeks - I really do enjoy writing more and getting out my thoughts through this outlet, and I also enjoy the increased blog hits that seem to come with more writing.
Over the past couple of days I’ve been working on an article [...]

Galatians 3:28 and gender equality

One thing I’ve heard on a couple of message boards lately is the statement that Galatians 3:28, which says “For there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, but you all are one in Christ Jesus”, does not in fact refer to a social equality that is expressed in the practice [...]

Thanksgiving

It’s hard to believe, given the association of Thanksgiving with feasting and making merry with family and friends, but Thanksgiving actually grew out of a European tradition of taking days to fast and pray and humble one’s self before God that was carried on by English immigrants to the new colonies (particularly by the Puritans, [...]

Language, embeddedness, and perspective/normativity

It’s really only recently, within the past couple of years or so, that I have begun really, seriously considering and reflecting on just how embedded I am in a world where white, male, straight, Anglo-European, blue collar middle-class, small town, and education level so define the way I see things, the way I speak of [...]

Defense threatens layoffs in war spending standoff

Washington Post article
What do you think? Who’s playing games with whose jobs at this point?
For my money I think the Administration would prompt Defense to encourage layoffs because they’ve already shown so little concern for the average American in all this that… well, what’s buggering a few more?
I think it’s good to see Congress finally [...]

Jesus for President

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals is the title of a new book by Shane Claiborne (of The Simple Way) and Chris Haw (of Camden House).

I especially like this button:

There are some interesting images and such on the “counter-propaganda” link, especially the very powerful litany by Shane and Chris, with help from Christian [...]

Interview with Brian Walsh

Interview with Brian Walsh | Revolution in Jesusland
Zack Exley, author of the Revolution in Jesusland blog, interviews Toronto professor/campus minister and Colossians Remixed co-author Brian Walsh. This is definitely worth listening to the whole interview.

“our hands are too full”

I got this from Reflections of a Jazz Theologian:
Saint Augustine once said…
God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive.
Gerald May adds…
If our hands are full, they are full of the things to which we are addicted.  And not only our hands, but also our hearts, [...]

What Would Jesus Deconstruct? 2

In the last installment of What Would Jesus Deconstruct? I looked at Caputo’s brief account of Charles Sheldon’s book In His Steps and the question of “What would Jesus do?”. He finished the section by saying the question hinges on the one word, “would”, and the “would” draws us into the realm of hermeneutics. It [...]

Make Something Day

I’m sure by now a lot of people have at least heard of Adbusters‘ “Buy Nothing Day“, a kind of subversive response to the mayhem that is “Black Friday“, the “official” beginning of the holiday shopping season. The Ecclesia Collective takes that initiative one step further with “Make Something Day“. I really like this idea, [...]

Paul’s Gospel and Caesar’s Empire, by N.T. Wright

article link
The good Bishop of Durham has summed up a lot of things quite concisely in one article that I spend pages and pages on this blog discussing. He goes briefly over passages from Romans and Philippians within the framework of a discussion of the term “Gospel” and Paul’s conception of Jesus as Messiah and [...]

A reflection for Advent

I didn’t write this, but I wish I had.
A young man called out to Jesus from the crowd and said, “Teacher, command the trustee of my father’s will to give me my share of the inheritance!” Jesus replied, “I am not a lawyer or a judge—why should I get involved?” Then Jesus told everyone, “Guard [...]

What Would Jesus Deconstruct? 1

Before beginning a discussion of the book proper, it’s worth mentioning that What Would Jesus Deconstruct? is the second book in the Church and Postmodern Culture series from Baker Academic. Caputo’s volume comes after James K.A. Smith’s quite helpful and eminently readable (that is, intended for a non-specialist audience) Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, [...]