In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, threats to our democracy, and national protests for racial justice, Black Christian Brad Braxton and Black secular humanist Anthony Pinn exchanged a thousand words a week, each to the other, exploring the philosophical and theological questions of what it means to be human. The result was a book titled ‘A Master Class on Being Human.’
Theology
Posted inReligion
Defining toxic theology
Reading Time: 5 minutes The first time I heard the term “bad theology” was in graduate school after a debate with a very conservative professor. It was at Fordham University in the Pastoral Care and Counseling program, and the professor was a Catholic priest, as were many faculty members in the Religious Studies department at Fordham. I had written […]
Posted inReligion
Why is God male?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Conservative theologians sputter with rage at the notion of using female or non-gendered pronouns to refer to God, but they have no rational explanation for why this offends them so deeply.
Posted inReligion
Imaginary gods
Reading Time: 2 minutes My grandson named his dog Anubis after the ancient Egyptian canine deity that is either a jackal or a dog. Those long-ago Egyptians worshiped about 2,000 different gods of every variety, some part animal and part human. The holies were served by an army of priests in lavish temples. The Egyptian priesthood held enormous wealth. […]
Posted inReligion
How John Milton changed Hell — again (Journey Into Hell #13)
Reading Time: 6 minutes Hi and welcome back! During our Journey Into Hell series, we’ve sure seen the Christian concept of Hell change a lot from its humble origins. And now, it’s changing again. John Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost, brought a unique point of view to Christians’ existing package of Hell-beliefs. That point of view would become an […]
Posted inReligion
Sermongate: The Seriously Misplaced Priorities of the Evangelical Old Guard
Reading Time: 9 minutes In the various reactions to this mini-scandal that we’ve seen, possibly the worst hot takes of all come from his political enemies in evangelicalism: the Old Guard, whose members work to make the SBC even more regressive, racist, misogynistic, and cruel than it already is. Indeed, their reaction to Sermongate reveals a seriously misplaced set of priorities. Today, let’s check out their reaction — and see how they destroy their own claims to possessing a superior set of morals and ethics over all other flavors of Christianity.
Posted inReligion
The Truth About Sermons That Evangelicals Can’t Face
Reading Time: 8 minutes Sermon fatigue is very real for evangelical pastors, and it happens for such an important reason that evangelicals can’t possibly address it or engage with it on any meaningful level. And today, I want to show you that reason.
Posted inHistory, Religion
Refining Hell in the Middle Ages (Journey Into Hell #11)
Reading Time: 8 minutes Today, let’s check out how early medieval philosophers and theologians further developed the concepts involved with Hell.
Posted inGeneral
Many, Many, Many Gods
Reading Time: 3 minutes By Jim Haught “Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.” — Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), creator of the essay. But Montaigne spoke too modestly. Instead of dozens, the human imagination has created thousands – even tens of thousands – of gods. Hinduism’s ancient Sanskrit […]
Posted inGeneral
Hell in the 4th Century: Things get unreal (Journey Into Hell #9)
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Last time we visited Hell, we checked out what the second wave of Christians (2nd – very early 4th century) thought of the idea. And we saw these Christians slowly embellishing and extending the initial ‘lake of fire’ idea. Today, let’s see what the third wave of Christians in the 4th […]