That Preacher of Peace by Brian Zahnd In his bizarre and surrealistic novel, The Master and Margarita, the critically acclaimed 20th century Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov creates a fascinating conversation between the Roman governor Pontius Pilate and the Galilean preacher Yeshua. When asked about his views on government, Bulgakov’s Yeshua says, “All power is a [...]
Saints and Sages
________________________________________ This morning I read an op-ed piece by a local freelance journalist entitled “Finding Their Religion”. In the column the journalist writes rather disparagingly about “organized religion,” likening it, as Nietzsche did, to “herd mentality.” The writer tells us how she vowed that her children would never be part of the religious herd. Instead, [...]
Beauty Will Save the World
____________________________________________________________ Here is the book description for Beauty Will Save the World from my publisher (Charisma House). (I’d say they they got the book description just about right. A tip of my hat to whoever wrote it.) ____________________________________________________________ Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the allure and mystery of Christianity Publication Date: January 3, 2012 [...]
God Is Like Jesus
________________________________________________________ God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus. We have not always known what God is like— But now we do. Consider these two foundational truths of Christian theology: 1. God is immutable. i.e. God does not change and is [...]
Karl Rahner’s Prayer
____________________________________________ My friend Sister Ginny, a Benedictine nun, sent me this prayer composed by the great Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. I think it is worth sharing, worth meditating upon, and most of all, worth praying. O God, whenever I think of Your Infinity, I am racked with anxiety, wondering how You are disposed to me. [...]
The Beautiful Alternative
“Evil is to be overcome by forgiveness. As likewise is violence.” -John Milbank, Christ the Exception Jesus gives us an alternative to violence. Forgiveness. Jesus didn’t just theorize about it, he lived it. On the cross Christ made his message credible. He lived it all the way to the end. And calls us to follow [...]
The Idea that Created the Killing Fields
I will always put the needs of the nation before those of the individual. -Nuon Chea Nuon Chea (noon chee-ah) was the intellectual who provided the ideology for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and was second in command to the infamous Pol Pot. Within the Khmer Rouge, Nuon Chea was known as “brother number two.” [...]
Manhood Is Not Brutality
Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of the Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when [...]
Love Economics
Love your neighbor as yourself. —Jesus Jesus didn’t teach capitalist economics or socialist economics, Jesus taught love economics. In this present fallen age, the competition of a free market is probably the best way to arrange an economy, for the simple reason that the market is far more capable of fixing prices than any central [...]
Beauty Will Save The World
Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity
In Stores Now!
Order at Amazon.com and at Barnes&Noble.com.