Enthusiasm
Samuel Johnson’s 1755 The Dictionary of the English Language defines “enthusiasm” in this way: "A vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication." I admit that I am an enthusiast.
Worship, law, and “my personal Jesus”
The idea of a personal relationship with Jesus that lacks the experience of grace as command is just plain silly. Like sex without committed fellowship under God, it ain't the real thing.
O Lord, open thou our lips
I grew up in the Pentecostal Church, which is another way of saying I grew up in a tradition where we go to church to sing. This value for singing and musical expression was ubiquitous. On our way to church, we would listen to praise music; in church, I would ... Read More...
Christian worship is boring
The Holy Eucharist is supposed to be boring. So claims the Catholic theologian James Alison. He says, “When people tell me that they find Mass boring, I want to say to them: it's supposed to be boring, or at ... Read More...
Theology and electroshock
I’m going to interrupt the regular learned commentary on this site to propose a somewhat ridiculous thought experiment. What if we imagined a religious Milgram experiment? What if the experimenter coldly instructing a subject to punish a failing learner with electroshock had theological authority?
The Anglican way
I shall seek to write down that which I believe to be the essence of Anglicanism. None of the elements I note are in themselves the exclusive property of our tradition, but taken together they express what our church—with a small c—has sought be at its best.
Pentecost litany
The Church and the Nations
Spiritual baseball
The unlikely path to intimacy with Jesus