“Advent is a time that rightly begins the church year. But as Christians we wait not only at Advent. Rather, waiting is a time that is constitutive of every time of the church year. (more…)
Tag: Minding the Web
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Creatures of Time (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“Advent is a time the church has given us in the hope we can learn to wait. To learn to wait is to learn how to recognize we are creatures of time. Time is a gift and a threat. Time is a gift and a threat because we are bodily creatures. (more…)
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A Timely Word for Christ the King Sunday (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“I have called attention to the kind of authority Jesus and Paul enact as a way to suggest that there may be some tension between the political order that is the church and that form of social and political organization called democracy. I need not tell you this is the day Americans elect their president and a host of other offices. We will be told this is the day the people rule. That sounds like a good idea, but you need to remember that there was a democratic moment in the Gospels, and the people asked for Barabbas. (more…)
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No Humility without Humiliation (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“Humility, of course, is a tricky virtue. Have you ever known of anyone who successfully tried to be humble? Humility is usually something that happens to us, rather than something we do. I was once having a conversation with a friend in Ireland about sexual misconduct by priests. I asked him if the acknowledgment of this crime as sin might teach the church humility. He thought for a short time and then said, “Possibly, because there is no humility without humiliation.” The tax collector was humiliated, which made him an appropriate witness to the one alone worthy of worship.” (more…)
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All Truth Will Finally Testify to the Trinity (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“Because God is Trinity, Christians have no fear of the truth no matter where it may be found. Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit of truth will guide them into all truth. All that is has been created by the Holy Spirit, so that all truth testifies to the one who makes the Father known. (more…)
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The Plague of Trinity Sunday Preaching (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“This is Trinity Sunday. Across Christendom preachers are trying to explain “Trinity” to their congregations. God is one, but God is three. How can one be three we ask? Attempts to explain the Trinity I fear often result not only in dull sermons but, even worse, heresy. Even more debilitating is the reality that the heresy evoked by such attempts is not recognized as heresy. It is not even clear if the person that represents the heresy thinks being a heretic is a “bad thing.” (more…)
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The Fears of the Courageous (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“Who you are, moreover, makes all the difference. The courageous know fears the coward can never know. Of course, cowards may be overwhelmed with fear, but they do not know the fears of the courageous, because the fears of the courageous are fears honed by being courageous. (more…)
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Life Under the Law When We Are a Law Unto Ourselves (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“We do not think we live in a time when moral conventions (which is just another word for the Law) determine our lives, but we do. We may not quite be in a Jane Austen world, but we are close. Jane Austen lived in a world of clear social conventions in which everyone knew what was the right thing to do or say, particularly when you were at dinner. Her novels are relentless investigations of whether people who always seem to do the right thing, in fact, have a true heart. (more…)
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Announcing the Publication of “Minding the Web”
It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the publication of Minding the Web: Making Theological Connections by Stanley Hauerwas with Robert J. Dean by Cascade Books. The book is currently available for purchase through Wipf and Stock and in the days ahead will be available through many of your favorite book-sellers. (more…) -
On (Not) Knowing our Sins (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“That we may have the haunting thought we are only playing at being a sinner, I suspect, involves the more general worry that, in the world in which we now find ourselves, we are not at all sure if we know what it means to be a Christian. I suspect we are not even sure we know what being a Christian looks like. Surely, to be a Christian means more than being a nice person that believes stuff about God. There is, after all, the Sermon on the Mount. But then that is one of the problems: we cannot imagine living out the demands of the Sermon. But because we cannot imagine living the type of lives the Sermon seems to envisage, we cannot help but fear that we are only playing at being Christian. (more…)
