wonderful thoughts from the Pope, intellectually coherent and practically relevant and doable IMO
Weekly lessons in theology and public life • Since 2011
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Lesson 10: Two Theories of God’s Presence
Read MORE: Lesson 10: Two Theories of God’s PresenceIn some sense, understanding how God is present among us is more important than believing God exists. There is little or no significance in affirming a deity unless you can identify how this impacts your life. The Old Testament acknowledges…
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Lesson 9: God’s Presence in Creation
Read MORE: Lesson 9: God’s Presence in CreationWhen I came to Gettysburg, one very brilliant seminary professor made fun of those who talked of finding God in nature. He accused them of being pantheists who mistook beauty for divinity. At his worse, he suggested they engaged in…
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Lesson 8: God’s Presence in Historical Events
Read MORE: Lesson 8: God’s Presence in Historical EventsIt is Christmas Day, an appropriate time to acknowledge God is present in historical events. Our worship every Sunday recognizes this in special happenings. We read scriptural reports on God’s actions throughout the history of salvation. We profess in the…
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Lesson 7: God’s Presence in Other People
Read MORE: Lesson 7: God’s Presence in Other PeopleAs I implied last week, I began this series thinking it would be short and sweet. My intention was to focus on how God is present among us in the words of the Christian story that enable to perceive him…
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Lesson 6: God’s Presence in the Word (Part 2)
Read MORE: Lesson 6: God’s Presence in the Word (Part 2)As usual, writing these lessons has taken me where I never expected to find myself. When I started the series, I fully intended to examine all the different ways that God is present in the Word. That would have been…
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Lesson 5: God’s Presence in the Word
Read MORE: Lesson 5: God’s Presence in the WordI belong to a tradition that claims God is primarily present among us in the spoken Word. It acknowledges the importance of the sacraments, but thinks they are ordinary water, bread, and wine unless accompanied by the Word. So, too,…
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Lesson 4: Presence in Baptism
Read MORE: Lesson 4: Presence in BaptismI’ve been suggesting that our primary two considerations about the divine presence among us are God’s promise and our accurate testimony. A sacrament by definition involves the promise of God’s presence. Baptism, like Communion, is a means of grace because…
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Lesson 3: God’s Presence in the Communion Meal
Read MORE: Lesson 3: God’s Presence in the Communion MealIf you asked most Christians about God’s presence, I suspect they would think you were talking about the Sacrament of Holy Communion. That is a good thing in as much as the meal is the central act of our worship…
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Lesson 2: Presence as Promise
Read MORE: Lesson 2: Presence as PromiseThis series has not gone as I expected. My original plan was to critique as many theories about God’s presence in this world as I could find. I was thinking of word and sacrament, grain of the universe, Body of…
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Lesson 1: The Question of God’s Presence
Read MORE: Lesson 1: The Question of God’s PresenceAs I have previously confessed, these online lessons have addressed my own questions. Finding myself recently echoing the psalmists’ pleas for God to speak up and reveal himself in our present brutal society, I decided to do a series on…
Recent Comments
I absolutely love these ideas, especially paying attention to beauty and reducing your needs.
Fritz a wonderful lesson – and esp. reading has a flow I found encompassing. If only …….. yes we can…