Readers might remember my earlier post from March 13, 2024, also entitled What we need is here. That post was an earlier draft of my entry into the Henry C. Smith Oratory Contest. The piece below is the version I actually delivered. I've also included a video my performance of the speech for those interested. … Continue reading What we need is here: Peace as Homemaking (2024 C. Henry Smith Oratory Contest Entry)
Category: Kingdom of God
Gluttony, Fasting, and Feasting: Three Approaches to Technology
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say ‘look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” (Matt. 11:19) In thinking about the human relationship to technology, we often go wrong in two directions. The first is the error under which … Continue reading Gluttony, Fasting, and Feasting: Three Approaches to Technology
Living in God’s Time in a Technological Age
In his 2004 JJ Thiessen Lectures, John Swinton addresses the theme of disability and time. Dr. Swinton’s central thesis is that disability is all about time.[1] Essentially, Dr. Swinton uses the experience of ‘disability’ as an apophatic tool to expose the rebellious modern conception of time and it's connected anthropology. Swinton makes a similar move … Continue reading Living in God’s Time in a Technological Age
The State of Exception and The Apocalypticism of the Kingdom of God
And we pray, not / for new earth or heaven, but to be / quiet in heart, and in eye, / clear. What we need is here.
-Wendell Berry
The Hidden History of the Resurrection
"For us Christians, Saints and the supernatural are the things that make history…and it is all the rest that we should be inclined to regard as legendary." Charles Peguy The life of Jesus Christ as the ‘true human’ represents a life of perfect freedom. The radical freedom of Christ is not the consumerist, sexualized, autonomous … Continue reading The Hidden History of the Resurrection
Gratatude
What our sense of 'gratitude' reveals is the depth of our false allegiance to the god of this age.
The Economy of Judgement, The Economy of Grace
There is no tension between the two: God's grace and judgement are the same movement; the one implies the other.
Christ and Possessions
I recently heard that the foundational principle of some libertarian or anarchist political theories is the right to own private property. It is precisely this principle that leads these thinkers to reject all forms government coercion, because they violate this most basic human right to autonomy and self-sufficiency. As far as I'm concerned, this position … Continue reading Christ and Possessions
Parables of the Kingdom
He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves … Continue reading Parables of the Kingdom
Towards an Anabaptist Epistemology: A Non Violent Way of Knowing
Having summarized the broad outlines of an Anabaptist political theology, I will now draw out the epistemological implications of this stance. Some broad definitions might be helpful before we proceed. When I speak of “Anabaptism,” I am thinking of two particular, closely connected views. First, there is the commitment to Christian nonviolence or pacifism, the … Continue reading Towards an Anabaptist Epistemology: A Non Violent Way of Knowing
Coffee with Kierkegaard 