Kenneth Tanner – Speaking Wisely of the Cross
Speaking wisely of the cross.
The cross means no one else has to die for the
world to be made right again.
Not one more person has to die to balance a
scale, to ensure that we have enough of
whatever it is, to satisfy vengeance, to make
my life more convenient, to improve the quality
of another person's existence, or please add
any of our deadly rationales. They all belong in
Gehenna.
We will die and some will be killed, but
Christians, as people who believe the death of
Christ is the only death that can make the
world right again-trust that when God dies for
the world he loves as a human that death itself
dies-we ought to be be the people who say to
the spirit of Cain in all the ways that spirit
arises in us, "No more!"
Image: Peter Howson, Harrowing of Hell
exhibition, detail, 1999.
Identity Storm by Eric H Janzen
Part One What's the Point? The Eye of the Storm… I shudder as I begin writing this and nearly get up from the keyboard and run away. A crisis of identity has recently turned my inward life upside down, and the blame can be squarely put on the shoulders of my beloved...
Words of Fear, Words of Hope: (an exercise)
Words of hope, words of fear. An exercise in discernment of spirits... in four parts Part I: Read James 3:9-18 slowly and out loud. (twice) Part II: Watch the Will.I.AM video below. (twice) You can view it here: Part III: Read the Focus on the Family 2012...
On the social and moral problems of youth in the 21st century — by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo
INVITED PAPER FOR CONFERENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY, MAGNITOGORSK, RUSSIA. Doubtless several aspects of the social and moral crises among young people will be discussed at this conference, so I will focus on only one aspect of it. It is difficult to say whether Communism...
Bob Ekblad’s ‘A New Christian Manifesto’ – Review by Brad Jersak
Bob Ekblad, A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.Review by Brad JersakAfter my first encounters with the theo-praxis of Bob Ekblad, recounted so vividly in his previous work, Reading...
Religion – according to Heschel
Religion begins with a consciousness that something is asked of us. Religion consists of God's question and man's answer. Religion is not what man does with his solitariness. Religion is what man does with the presence of God....
Beyond Cynicism: the Renewal of Prophetic Purity – by Brad Jersak and Peter Helms
Intro: As the apostolic / prophetic movement has become increasingly bizarre, many who were told to simply bless everything are now deeply disillusioned. In these days when renewal meetings, alleged outpourings and flamboyant leaders have reached a point of crisis, it...
Eagle River/Anchorage and Thomas Merton: Forty Years After (1968-2008) by Ron Dart
Merton grew and developed over the years, in an interior sense, more deeply than anyone I know, and came to be recognized as the leading mystical writer in the English-speaking world. Robert Giroux I September 18/Eagle River Alaska-the Convent of the...
Jesus inside Guatamala’s Violent Gangs — by Bob Ekblad
A week ago Sunday I returned from four intense days in Guatemala City working with "Estrategia de Transformacion," an initiative that supports, encourages and trains a group of ex-gang members and committed pastors engaged in transformational work with...
The Legalism of Self-Preservation — by Al Sergel
How humbling or degrading is the feeling that I’ve succumbed – with no real intent on my part - to the legalism of self-preservation? This question came to mind while reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 commencement address to Harvard University. ...
Philosophical Shot and Chaser — submitted by Al Sergel
While sitting at the 3rd gas station for gas...30 cars deep (we have a gas shortage in Charlotte).Are we really the body of God or merely the shadow of man? Shot of Thomas Merton: We are all more inclined to idolatry because we imagine that we are of all generations...