Last week I continued to argue that Scripture was not intended to function primarily as a repository of answers, although it’s often treated as if it was. Rather, like Jesus himself, scripture operates as a formative, gentle, and non-coercive force that helps to shape perception—how people see the world, preserve tension—between the truths we are…

Last week, I challenged the belief by many that religion developed in order to explain the unknown. I countered that religion addresses the deeper and more persistent problem of living, when even intelligent human beings cannot seem to live together without eventually collapsing into conflict. Across traditions, cultures, and history, we saw that cooperation, restraint,…

This is the first of a series of five talks about Making Sense of Religion, in which I finally “come out” and declare “I got religion!” —which is a bit of a double entendre and I’ll leave it to you to figure out what I mean. This introductory talk is a bit long, and also…

We have been talking about love, and throughout this series I have tried to steer us away from thinking about love primarily as a romantic feeling. Instead, we focused on the actionable aspects of love—the kind of love expressed in service, forgiveness, and care for others. In other words, the kind of love the New…

We have been talking about love and trying to understand its actionable dimensions. Last time, we discussed community and saw how love and grace shaped the early church as it moved from a pseudocommunity into a true community. Today I would like to turn to one of the practices without which love and community simply…

Last week, Dr. Weaver made an important observation. He said that when we study prophecy, we often see ourselves in it. That is natural. But if we claim that the prophetic record represents us, then we must also allow others to see themselves in it as well. That is a humbling thought. It suggests that…