theological reflections

A collection of 70 posts

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The Yes and No of Protest: When Symbols Don’t Align With Our Reality

Much gets said about protest, some people like protesting and fill their lives with it, some have extremely negative feelings and argue it’s a waste of time and something Christians should not do. I’d like to briefly discuss what it means to be focused on the “Yes” of

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Moving Our Conversations Beyond Just Talk: Affirming Practices in Others

My last post about Jim Wallis’ new blog has generated an important discussion that’s got me thinking not only about the leaders we support but also what things about those leaders we support and where we draw the line (this post may not make a lot of sense unless

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Hauerwas and a Faith and Practice for Emerging Churches

Today I spent time reading a dissertation by a now-graduated Fuller student named Brad Kallenberg.  And I found something interesting that points toward a strength within Quaker theory and how it might help other “young churches.??? In his (dishearteningly thick)  dissertation “Changing the subject in postmodernity : Narrative ethics and philosophical

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Things I Value in A Church: A Confession of Faith?

After writing three posts about things to look for when church shopping, I got to thinking about what things people would be looking for when they asked those questions.  I am of the opinion that we all have certain things we look for when trying to find a church.  So

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Books For An Introduction To Studying Bible and Theology

My housemate Chase and I were having lunch the other day and we started talking about important books that we would use if we were going to teach Bible and Theology students.  Now granted we’re both from more of an Evangelical stream of Christianity so I recognize that some

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John Steinbeck’s East of Eden

A long while back I finished East of Eden, a Novel I’d been working on for months.  I wanted to write out some quotes and thoughts I had while I was reading it, because it has such a profound effect on me, but I never got around to posting

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Reflections on Doing Quaker Research

For class we were asked to write a short reflection on our spiritual journey and how it’s led us to doing the kinds of dissertations we’re preparing for.  I thought I would post it mainly because I don’t think I’ve written much about my personal journey,

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Further Perspectives on Relationships and the Web

Recently I had a good conversation with a friend about relationships and the web, it seems I get into conversations like this rather often, and in this conversation some new ideas were shaped for me.  I thought I’d write some of those ideas out.  There are a variety of

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The Boundaries of Convergent Friends

Much discussion has arisen due to the interest groups that Robin, Martin, Liz, AJ and others have been a part of.  This along with the “Convergent Friends Gathering” taking place at our house on August 5th has created a lot of excited and an equal amount of criticism. On Behalf

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Spending Money as Christians: A Quaker Perspective

Last night Emily and I had the opportunity to hang out with some of our good friends from Ohio and eat some fantastic sushi.  During the course of the evening, we encroached on a sometimes-touchy subject (except for this night): How Christians spend their money. The conversation almost always turns

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Theology on Blogs Continued: Constructive Snippets, Cohesive Thoughts

A couple days back I wrote a short entry on the fact that theology is always on the move, and must be adjusted to the times in order that it makes sense of larger more agreed upon truths within our local contexts. Because of this I think it would be

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Why Theology Should Be Written On Blogs and Wikis

I’ve begun reading more about Stanley Hauerwas in my attempts to find theologians who are influential and brilliant, yet challenge the status quo with their own lives and thinking.  One thing I really appreciate about Hauerwas that he focuses on theology that is useful for communities of faith – he

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Matthew 6:10-11 The Kingdom of God and Prayer for Bread

Continuing my series on the Lord’s Prayer and how it functions as both a mission statement and community formating guide for the churchh.  We now direct our attention to further exposition of the prayer itself – this post in particular deals with Matthew 6:10-11. Matthew 6:10 Your Kingdom

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Putting Ads on Blogs: And Why I Can’t Do It Anymore

I’ve debated over the topic of whether I should have advertisements on ol’ gathering in light since I starting using wordpress back in February.   Some of you have noticed the on and off frequency of this site having ads, this was because I was trying to see if I

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NT Wright – Retelling Stories: Alternate Histories and the Lord’s Prayer

Mike Work, writing on his class blog recently, wrote a great short post about Jesus’ way of being a storyteller.  He writes, In his [NT Wright] words, “Jesus made a regular practice of retelling the story of Israel in such a way as to subvert other tellings, and to invite

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World Hunger and Sustainable Eating

It’s important for me to point out a fellow Fuller PhD student, Russ Kirby, who has written a stellar argument for having a sustainable Diet. Russ, a practical theologian, says, If there is enough food to fully feed the world, then why are 840 million people still literally starving

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Reflecting On Your Influences

Every now and then it is a good idea to consider the influences you have in your life, maybe a “lull in grace??? as Patrick has called it, is a perfect time.   I  first thought I would make a top three list of four different categories; books, music, movies, and

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Qaddish and The Lord’s Prayer: Jesus’ Subversive Tactics

In this continuing series on the Lord’s Prayer I am looking at the Jewish prayer known as the Qaddish, and comparing it to the Lord’s Prayer.  When we compare these two prayers we see themes arise that are particularly interesting when we consider that Christ’s prayer is

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The Paternoster – A Formative Christian Practice for All Followers

I’d like to frame the next group of “featured” posts that will be showing up here on gathering in light.  I will be continuing to post my thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer, and how it can and should be used as a missional discipleship tool in churches from

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Left Behind Eternal Forces – Violence for Christians

Today in the Los Angeles Times, there is an article about a new “Christian” video game: Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The game aims to make a broadly appealing video game, similar to Grand Theft Auto; it is a “real-time” strategy game that “features plenty of biblical smiting, albeit with high-tech

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Humility and The Lord’s Prayer: April Ping Homily

This is my ping homily for April, there are still two weeks left for all of you to participate.  If you are interested jump over to Shawn’s explanation of the project. Since I am in the process of thinking and writing about the Lord’s Prayer as a paradigm

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Lecture Today and Intro to The Lord’s Prayer

Today is my first chance to lecture in a classroom setting.  As I have been preparing over the last couple weeks, I have found that I will never get it the way I want it.  I have been writing and rewriting parts of it for the last three days and

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Hey Man Slow Down: The Art of Friendship Behind The Screen IV

I need to finish this series of four articles on Technology and how its affecting our lives in positive and negative ways before it gets away from me.  When I first sat down to write about all of this it was because of a couple of prompts; my reading the

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Why Quaker 2.0?

I’ve written my first post as a contributing member of the Quaker 2.0 team today, if you’re interested in what’s going on over there here is the link.  The main point of what I write there is that we as the Friends’ movement are in a

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How to Blog for Theology and Religion

I’ve been thinking for sometime about doing a how-to for theological and religious blogs as blogging is something I’ve grown increasingly interested in and challenged by.  There are many how-to blogs, and websites that cover tips on blogging – here are a few that I love to read regularly: