Category: Theological reflection
Sexuality in the Song of Songs – Part 3: Symbols
Before looking at the Song’s message and theology, some of the Song’s symbols and images must be decoded. It is important to not get carried away in doing this. While the Song is rife with sensual images appealing to all five senses, it is easy to take this decoding too far and end up with…
My deepest feelings are my guide
The Church is in trouble every time it instructs us to disregards our hearts or tell us that our hearts are evil/wicked. If Life is to be our religion and being alive is our spiritual practice; If the church is build by authentic relationships and if becoming and being all that I am is my…
Sexuality and the Song of Songs – part 1: Background
The Song of songs is a much debated and unique book in the Old Testament. It is near impossible to find consensus on any statement about the book except that it is unique. The book has no parallel in the rest of the Jewish or Christian Canon. It becomes difficult to assert anything about authorship,…
Philosophy + Theology = True!
I was approached last week by a Soldier that was concerned about my reading and quoting philosophical works in my blogs and my sermons. He quoted the oft quoted: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what…
Humankind is my family
“Who are my mother and my brothers?” Jesus asks in Mark 3.33. It is a poignant question, one worthy to ponder as we face this turbulent life. It seems to me that while the biblical narrative in some cases puts an emphasis on family, it also deconstructs the very idea of family. Archbishop Desmond Tutu…
Love is my rule!
It may seem to some the most logical place to start: God is love! This it is what I was taught as I took my first stumbling steps as a Christian. I was also taught that the bible is a love letter from god. This, however, struck me as a bit odd given the strangeness…
What about Radical Salvationism?
Since I attended the conference on Radical Theology – Subvert the norm II, I have been asking myself what would a Radical Salvationism look like? Then I stumbled across the following quote by Cadet Christopher Footer in JAC Issue #45: There is only one God, and there is only one Salvation Army. That army however…
Deconstruction
I often end up in conversations about deconstruction. Is it wise, they ask to deconstruct doctrinal and creedal statements, bible texts and above all is it wise to deconstruct god? In the question, I find, there is a fear that deconstruction will somhow damage or break the idea or concept that is being deconstructed. There…
Being alive is my daily spiritual practice
What is a spiritual practice, or a spiritual discipline? Most people I know would place a spiritual practice within the confines of what you do on a Sunday in church or possibly in your daily prayer session at home. A subset of my friends would also extend it to their activities in feeding the hungry…
Life is my religion
It is a grand statement: Life is my religion! But what does it mean? Let’s start with the end, religion, what is religion? The word religion comes from latin and means to re/connect (ligare is the same root word that gives us the english word ligament). What is it we need to re/connect? Naturally this…
In my name ….
This week has been full of questions and reflection. And as I was reading “The idolatry of God” I was reflecting on Jesus asking us to pray in his name. I think in our traditional thinking we connect this with John 4.6 (No one comes to the father but through me) or we possibly se…
We believe …
The conversation goes on and on, and we toss around words that are loaded with presuppositions, the verb “to believe” is not the least of them. I have written extensively about this, but it seems it’s a topic worth another go. What does it mean to believe, to have faith and to be faithful? I…
Truth, Grace & Justice
The trinity of love consists, according to Christian Schwartz book “The 3 colors of love”, of truth grace and justice. The scriptures rarely mention truth or grace without mentioning justice, but what if any is the relationship between the three? Grace is the word most often associated with love, when someone is graceful we understand…
Christianity, faith or science?
It seems that most people are upset by uncertainty, and more specifically Christians get really upset if one where to say that we cannot know. I was taught when I first came into the church about this “blessed assurance”, to know that you know that you know that god is real/good/loving etc. At the same…
The importance of play and silliness
Sitting here and mulling over my many impressions and conversations at this weeks conference (Piratkyrkan bibel – 2012). One conversation keep coming back. Saturday night we had a small conversation about Glossolalia, speaking in tongues. It is my belief that everyone can speak in tongues, as I find it hard to believe Paul would express…
First love
An unnamed ancient eastern mystic have penned that you “…should always stay at the beginning”. The beginning of a new relationship is sweet and filled with endorphin induced bliss. Equally when we first meet/fall in love with Jesus we are equally blissed out. All our attention is on this new found love, we breathe it,…
In god’s queer image …
A dear friend and mentor wrote: You ask whether your post will make you an outcast from the Christian community. I hope it does not because we could do with a dose of clear thinking, careful theological reflection, and honesty on this subject, and others. Of course, the Christian community cannot bear such questions because,…
The sacrament of coming out of the closet …
The biggest problem with wearing a mask is that as long as we wear it only the mask receives love. The psychology is as simple as it is diabolical, I know that what I am presenting is not real me, therefore I also know that the person you are loving is not really the real…
Marriage is meaningless …
After years of deconstructing both my worldview, my faith, my theology, my sexuality and every other aspect of my faith I have come to this conclusion (among many others to be sure), marriage is meaningless. Marriage has meant many different things in many different times and many different cultures. Most of the time marriage has…
Truth and grace revisited
I love my blog readers, they are not many but they are faithful. Recently a new but dear friend has been reading my blog from the beginning, charting the twists and turns of both my life and my faith. This has provoked more than a few very interesting questions. One of the more poignant questions…
Taking the G out of the kingdom ….
I was listening to a Homebrewed Christianity – Theology Nerd Throwdown (TNT) when I was struck with this beautiful idea. It was Tripp Fuller who said (Not the exact quote, though these are his words) If you take the G out of Kingdom you get kindom with no cock and no crown. The kindom of…
A larger container
Often in these theological conversations we are presented with a set of polar opposites. Monica Coleman states in a recent Homebrew podcast that when presented with polarities in conversation all you need is a bigger container. Think of the earth (or the Earth as Jeanine Slettom and John Cobb would have it), a globe with two…
I cannot dance to Pipers tune.
Out of Ur recently posted this outrageous interview with John Piper where Piper states that: “It’s right for God to slaughter women and children anytime he pleases.” I must say that I am flabbergasted with the smile on Pipers face as he makes these horrible claims for god. I have a very hard time believing that…
Wrestling with god.
My good friend Mackan Andersson came by today for a chat and a coffee. He brought me this beautiful one page of a 16th century vulgate bible with a woodcut of Jacob wrestling with god. Reminded him of me he said … And yes that is what it feels like, wrestling with god. Yet I…
The big masturbation post
Not so long ago I sat in a room with a group of young Christians, no longer teenagers but rather young adults. We where talking about the bible and Jesus. Was it possible that Jesus could have sinned and what does it mean that Jesus felt every human emotion, did he then lust? Masturbate? The…
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