What Skepticism Is Good For - Dallas Willard

If you hadn't heard Dallas Willard has died. He has been an influential voice in my life at times. In honor of his life devoted to Theology, Philosophy, and his Lord I offer this video.

May his memory be eternal

800 Saint's Skulls

Did you know that the cathedral of Otranto in southern Italy is decorated with the skulls of 800 Christians who were beheaded by Ottoman soldiers in 1480? (yes they are REAL SKULLS)

Well you should because next Sunday, May 12, they will become the skulls of saints, Pope Francis is canonizing all of them. He will instantly break the record for the pope who has created the most saints. Wow! 

You can read more about it here, in a great article by Damian Thompson 

Christ is Risen

Today is Easter in many of the Eastern Churches. i thought this compilation of Eastern Resurrection hymns was just about the most amazing thing I have ever heard and need to share it with you all.

Catholic Worship is Complicated!

The first time I went to a Catholic church I felt pretty confused. People were standing, bowing, genuflecting, crossing themselves, dipping their fingers in holy water, lighting candles, raising their hands up, Standing and kneeling and standing and kneeling and standing and kneeling. There were prayers in English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. I was amazed that everyone seemed to know what they were doing... "Wow!" I thought, Catholic Worship is COMPLICATED!

I didn't even know the half of it!

If you're looking toward church to validate your views on life, give up

I recently got into a discussion over infant baptism with a few of my friends and readers on Facebook. It was all stared by a blogger who argued that those of us who practice infant baptism are basically destroying the church. Saying, and I quote (emphasis mine):

"Do you hold and believe in infant baptism? Then you destroy all opportunity of Christian unity. You govern your local church, if you are spiritual leader, by some other standard than God’s Word, and place more weight on tradition of your denomination or desire of those willing to swallow a lie. You have exchanged God’s Word for a man-made, man-contrived law to establish church membership, without the ordination and approval of God. You who practice infant baptism offend the Bride of Christ, offend the prayer of Jesus Christ, and offend the Christ Himself."

This was pretty extreme, and I was sucked in to the argument. (I know, I know DON'T feed the Trolls) My response was:

9 Reasons Christians should Reason

I'm not sure you saw this video where it seems a women on argues that reason somehow led to the Holocaust. It's been making it's way around the internet. I thought I would post it because it reflects a very Strange dichotomy between Faith and Reason. SOMEHOW people were offended that some Atheists were honoring reason on the same day that was dedicated to prayer. But WHY should reason offend us? Reason is a great gift from God!

Here are 9 Reasons Christians should Reason!

Iconograpy as a source of order and beauty.

PBS just made a video of iconographer Seraphim O’Keefe. I was struck by something he mentioned (but that wasn't included) when he stated icons play a role similar to fasting in the Orthodox tradition. Both, he says, are ways of finding order and beauty. I have always had trouble finding beauty in my fasts, so thank you Seraphim! You have opened a new doorway to see grace in my life.

I know I love, love, love icons. They are among my most treasured gifts.  

How do you all feel about icons?

Do you have any favorites?

How have icons impacted your own spirituality?

Watch Painting Icons on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

This is basically what baptism does

I ran into this video today. It reminded me of a prayer in the Theophany liturgy of the Eastern Churches. This is the feast that commemorates the baptism of Jesus and teaches the church a great deal about their own baptism.

The prayer states: 

For you are our God,
who through water and the Spirit
rejuvenated our nature grown old by sin. 

I think this video demonstrates this pretty well... and it's advertising water. Coincidence? I think not!

Podcast Episode 24: Liturgical theology

This week  the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast and I talk about liturgical theology, and how liturgy opens our eyes to the reality of the world and the life of God.

Take a listen and let us know what you think!



Download it here

Are Sacraments Magic?

The question "are sacraments magic?" is one that comes up surprisingly often in my life. It's not a new question. Both magic and sacraments would seem to hold claims to using the natural world to accomplish supernatural effects, and it seems only natural that folks would begin to associate the two. People have associated the sacramental life of the church with divination and sorcery for many centuries. Interestingly the words "hocus pocus" are derived from the Latin translation of Jesus words "this is my body" or "hoc est corpus" in Latin. In spite of some parallels the answer to the question is NO! 

Sacraments are not Magic.
There are a couple of ways to distinguish this. In ritual studies sacramental rituals are distinguished from magical rituals by looking at the ends to which they seek to attain. Boiling it down to as simply as possible one could say: