Holy Week is a time when many Christians spend more time engaged in overtly religious activities than any other week of the year. Given such, it seems an appropriate time to ask the question, "Just how Christian are Christians today?" Or, put differently, how do others experience and perceive the Christians around them and how do Christians perceive themselves? Looking Back Fifteen years ago, I was introduced to a book to what was then a recently published book considering how Read More …
loving
Living or Loving? (#0959)
Bob Bohl is the former moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and pastor of Village Presbyterian Church. He is currently chairman of the Board of Trustees at Princeton Theological Seminary. In a sermon entitled "Living In the Direction of God's Dream," he offered these challenging words: I believe there are at least two kinds of churches...one is a living church and the other is a loving church. There is a distinct difference between the two. Living churches are judged by their Read More …
5 Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion (#0362)
Unitarian Universalist minister James Luther Adams proposed five smooth stones of liberal religion in an essay entitled "Guiding Principles for a Free Faith," which was published in On Being Human Religiously: Selected Essays in Religion and Society (Max Stackhouse, ed. Beacon Press, 1976, pp. 12—20). R. Lloyd Ryan summarizes JLA's smooth stones: Revelation is continuous. Relationships ought to rest on mutual and free consent. We need to work together for just Read More …