Jim Crow & Jesus Christ
I hope my longtime friend and colleague Terry Todd won’t mind my opening with a story. When Terry and I were filming the PBS…
The Latter-day Saints and the Resilience of Faith
My friend Robert Millet has been talking about his faith in relation to other expressions of the Christian faith for decades now, and I…
The Complement of Sacramentalism
Many thanks to Ferris Blount for his nuanced discussion of the Black Church, and especially his reminder that the Black Church is anything but…
Hearts Strangely Warmed
I deeply appreciate Sarah Lancaster’s summary of the Wesleyan tradition and its emphasis on holiness and piety within the context of community. True, as…
Standing against the Tides of Routinization
I open with my appreciation for Christopher Gehrz’s explanation of Pietism, and I love his conceit about a week in the life of a…
Is Conversion Essential?
By way of context, I sometimes refer to myself as a lower-case baptist. I was baptized by my father by full immersion in the…
Almost Persuaded
Wes Granberg-Michaelson has presented a compelling, even winsome, case for Reformed (Calvinist) Christianity, a tradition that once shaped my theological perspective. He speaks of…
Response to Anglican/Episcopal Comments
I’ve often said that a scholar can receive no greater compliment than to have others interact seriously with his ideas. I thank all of…
Following Jesus along the Canterbury Trail
I have two semi-flippant responses when people ask me how I, reared as an evangelical, became an Episcopalian and, in 2006, an Episcopal priest.…
Those Countercultural Anabaptists
I open with thanks to Michael King for reminding us of the virtues of the Anabaptist tradition. It is indeed a movement with a…