parables of a prodigal world

This is a hard post to write. It might go all over the place. Please bear with me. Humility is an important virtue. It is also often a justification for cowardice. I've come to see more clearly of late that this is a significant tension in the " Post-Evangelical " community, of which, though I don't care much for labels (I don't think YHWH does, either), I'd proudly consider myself a member. I while back, I posted a makeshift Post-Evangelical Manifesto in response to the then-famous Evangelical Manifesto . There, I explained that one of the driving theological forces behind P-E-ism (my wrists are starting to hurt, so I'm gonna use P-E and E from hereon in) is the recognition that, in our age, classic doctrinal expressions and expositions of the gospel of Jesus Christ have become difficult to hear, even stale. Moreover, though P-E-als believe resolutely in the truth of Jesus Christ, we don't think that is a truth that can be fully articulated with word...

For those who are, or are considering becoming, Advent Conspirators this "Holiday Season," I thought I'd help out your online shopping with what I call The Ultimate Advent (conspiracy) Shopper's Guide . Happy shopping...and tell a friend or two (or three). Grace and Peace, Raffi

N.T. Wright was once asked, after one of his lectures, about having collaborated with British Bible Society on a spread in British Vogue called "The Prodigal Daughter Returns." It was a photo essay based loosely on Luke 15:11-32 , with various pictures of a model in different urban settings, each with a snippet from the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The questioner asked why he did it, was he not concerned that some people might misunderstand, etc. I don't remember the exact words of his response, but it was something to the effect that he would gladly and dutifully take the risk of being misunderstood by some in order to get the gospel message into others' heads. Which brings me to Bible Illuminated: The Book: New Testament . With its pop culture depictions of the New Testament, it's one of many recent attempts to present the Scriptures in an innovative light. “Well-known figures among the more than 200 photographs are Andy Warhol in drag in the Book of John, the...

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs— Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). God’s Grandeur. 1918.