A Christmas Dream
For December’s post, I’d like to share a Christmas legend from Russia. It’s an adaptation of a short story by Leo Tolstoy. Jesus said, “Charles, be on the lookout tomorrow, for I am going to visit you.”
The Benefit of the Doubt: How Religious Doubts Can Lead to a More Mature Faith
Doubt can serve as a life-giving, growth-enhancing, spiritually enriching gift. I like to call this “the benefit of the doubt.”
Friends for the Journey
“The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships with other people.” (Director, Harvard University happiness study)
What to Do about Church?
Doubter’s Parish readers discuss their relationship with institutional religion.
Book Review of Brian McLaren’s “Do I Stay Christian”
In his provocative new book, Brian McClaren offers ten reasons to abandon Christianity—and ten reasons to stay.
Orthodox No Longer
Whatever you may think about nontraditional believers, their numbers are rapidly growing, their views are taking hold among a large swath of people, and they are not going away.
Vampire Theology
The characters of Netflix’s “Midnight Mass” miniseries creatively represent at least four different types of religion that can be found in contemporary America.
The Night I Stopped Believing in Substitutionary Blood Atonement
It’s theologically offensive in the modern era to think God required a bloody sacrifice of his Son in order to forgive humanity.
Where is the Joy?
We have a huge deficit of joy these days. We need to reclaim it.
Pandemic Pastors
One pastor told me, “No matter what I do about COVID protocols, I get attacked. I’m exhausted to the bone.”