The Diagonal Way
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Theological reflections on creation's holy journey into the life of its holy Creator.
The Diagonal Way
6M ago
Today I have war on my mind. A week ago, a surprise attack on Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip ignited a war in the middle east on a scale I haven’t know in my lifetime. We are 18 months into a war in Ukraine that began with an invasion and ground troops such as ..read more
The Diagonal Way
8M ago
The doctrine of the Trinity solidified as a doctrine, which is to say as a particular teaching of the church, over a long period of time. The heavy lifting took place across the first five centuries of the faith. Does that mean the Trinity is not in the Bible? Is it part of the New ..read more
The Diagonal Way
8M ago
From time to time I post brief descriptions of the books I’ve been reading. I’m constantly scanning the shelves of people I know to see what has drawn their attention, and I assume everyone is like me. Here is a sampling of my reading over the past summer. Well, let’s say spring and summer. The ..read more
The Diagonal Way
9M ago
In my work as a theologian, I study the language and traditions of Christian holiness. That does not mean I think I am holy. There is far too much evidence to the contrary. Instead, it means that one of the questions that drives my work is, “how can people be holy?” This question is never ..read more
The Diagonal Way
9M ago
At the center of Christian faith stands a great irony. The unwillingness of one man to save himself from a cross opens the path to salvation for all. How does this transference occur? Catherine of Siena (d. 1380) suggests that it all turns on desire. Theories of the Cross I have written about the mystery ..read more
The Diagonal Way
10M ago
Pickstock’s Explosive World “Truth,” Catherine Pickstock says, “is both a horizontal dance in time and a vertical dance in the skies.” This is one of the many lines of her recent book that generates a world of rich ideas. Pickstock’s dense and generative theological philosophy has been my companion since graduate school. When she flew ..read more
The Diagonal Way
10M ago
It’s Saturday: let’s talk about the Trinity. (Not for the first time in this column. Nor for the second.) Actually let’s zoom in through an adjacent question: why do Christians baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? The easy answer to that one is “Jesus told us to.” But “Jesus said ..read more
The Diagonal Way
1y ago
The Genesis flood: one of the archetypal stories of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. A text that’s been used to trace the beginnings of races, to combat scientific theories of evolution, and to demonstrate mysterious connections between distant religions and peoples of the ancient world. The flood. We’re only 5 short chapters into the book ..read more
The Diagonal Way
1y ago
The Prophetic Books are Faith-Forming Reading the prophets of Israel is tiresome work. I’m 31 chapters into Jeremiah, and I feel a bit like I did a few years ago at mile seven of a half marathon. The prophet has us listening in on metaphors that don’t quite land. I will dash the people of ..read more
The Diagonal Way
1y ago
Now and then I post annotated bibliographies of the reading I’ve doing lately. Here are the books I’ve spent most of my time with in the last few months. Fiction Children of the Arbat, by Anatoli Rybakov I can’t remember where I first heard of this book, but its publication was a major event of ..read more