Category: Theology

In honor of election season and the Anabaptist discussions that inevitably come up about faith and government, here's a study I did way back when (5 years ago?) on the most often cited passage in the argument for obeying the state.  Enjoy.  =) Romans 13:1-7 is arguably one of the most debated and difficult passages… Continue reading Romans 13:1-7… Patriotism or parody?

Inspired by a coffee conversation this morning with my flatmate (have I said lately how much I love my flatmate?)... reflections on empire and faith, informed by Mitri Raheb, Jean Zaru, John Howard Yoder, and William Cavanaugh. It's an old paper, so it's a bit long and academic but hopefully not too dry. =) For… Continue reading Resisting Empire

Mystagogy (mist-uh-go-jee) is one of my favorite words, not just because it is so delicious to say but also because it is a part of the early church practice that I think deserves reclaiming. Stick with me as I explain. In the 3rd and 4th century church (and perhaps earlier), the process for becoming a… Continue reading Anabaptist spiritual guidance, part 3: Ritual and Mystagogy

Taking a wee break from the spirituality series to offer this reflection I wrote last year around Alexander Schmemann's book For the Life of the World, one of my all-time favorites. "The Church is the sacrament of the Kingdom – not because she possesses divinely instituted acts called “sacraments,” but because first of all she… Continue reading For the Life of the World: Toward a Sacramental Understanding of the Church

Balthasar Hubmaier was one of the most important first-generation Anabaptist leaders in Moravia in the 1520s. The best writer of the Swiss line of Anabaptists, he was a Catholic priest and a Zwinglian pastor before becoming a renegade Anabaptist. Here’s his anthropology (understanding of human nature) in a nutshell: Human beings have three parts, all… Continue reading Anabaptist spiritual guidance, part 2: An Anabaptist anthropology

I took a class this semester on Spiritual Guidance in the Christian Tradition, in which we studied models and histories of spiritual guidance (direction, companionship) in Orthodox, Wesleyan, Ignatian, French humanist, feminist, interfaith, Jewish, artistic, Quaker, African American, desert elders, and communal contexts. Seeing the particular gifts and challenges of spiritual guidance within each framework… Continue reading Anabaptist spiritual guidance, part 1: Intro

Below is a companion essay to my previous Church and State post... The same caveat still applies. And for you lay theologians out there, "epistemology" is essentially a flowery word for "a way of knowing things" or for the often-complicated answer to the question "how do you know what's True?" This essay is based on… Continue reading A Nonviolent Way of Doing Theology (ala J.H. Yoder)

This is a much longer post than I usually do -- a paper written last semester.  I post it today in response to some thoughts and conversations about the political protests happening around the country.  The question it seeks to address, via exploring and explaining Yoder's theology, is this: what is the relationship between the… Continue reading Church and State: Beyond the Constantinian Assumption (ala J.H. Yoder)