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Category Archives: Books
“Longing, Beauty, and Community”
A couple of months ago, Airbnb released this ad emphasizing their latest offering: experiences. It’s a great ad, one that anyone who has planned international travel can appreciate. I don’t think things are as black-or-white as the ad suggests, but … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Church, Faith, Life in the Fifth Act, The Long Story, Travel
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Communion, Community, and the Soul
I’d like to spend a few posts this week reflecting on Curt Thompson’s The Soul of Desire, a book I mostly read while in Tennessee this summer. I’d like to start with a few quotes and three points of to … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Church, Faith, Life in the Fifth Act, The Long Story
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Summer Reading: The Soul of Desire (part one)
One book I was able to finish before starting my summer mainland trip was Curt Thompson’s Anatomy of the Soul. I did not intend to read his The Soul of Desire this summer, too, but it’s what I found myself … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Church, Faith, Friendship, Life in the Fifth Act
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Summer Reading: Fountain of Salvation
One of the books that I finished reading during my summer retreat was Fountain of Salvation by Fred Sanders. Unlike The Deep Things of God, Sanders’s other recent book on the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, Fountain of Salvation is … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Church, Faith, Life in the Fifth Act, Scripture
Tagged Fred Sanders, Trinity
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In the Backpack
Frederick Buechner starts The Alphabet of Grace, his theological “slice of life” book, with this wonderfully true assertion: At its heart most theology, like most fiction, is essentially autobiographical. Aquinas, Calvin, Barth, Tillich, working out their systems in their own … Continue reading
Anselm on Teaching, Seeking, Desiring
We introduce Anselm and his version of the ontological argument for God’s existence relatively early in our junior Bible class. Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn’t; we consider it as much because it was the first of its kind as … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Commonplace Book, Faith, Teaching
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“Where There’s a Will . . .”
We’re just over three months into the “Desert Fathers in a Year” series. So far, my favorite saying comes from the section on hesychia, which relates to the idea of deep peace. The saying comes from Abba Arsenius: Abba Mark … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Church, Faith, Friendship, Scripture, Teaching
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The End of Break (and a turn in the road)
And just like that, spring break has come to an end. For all intents and purposes, the turn of the calendar from Saturday to Sunday brings with it a change in disposition, of direction, when conversations and thoughts turn in … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Faith, Holidays, Movies, Music, Scripture
Tagged Andy Gullahorn, Erik Varden
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Just As I Am [January 17, 2025]
This past Christmas break was the first one where I felt like all of the “unbundling” of the last few years of work and church could finally be felt. There was a lightness to things for me, an appropriate size … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Just As I Am, Music, Teaching
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Resolved But Never Solved
I’m sitting in the A-gates area of the Denver International Airport. I’ve spent the last nine days in Tennessee seeing family and friends, and it was a really good trip. I learned some time ago that the only way to … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Faith, Holidays, The Long Story, Travel
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Space Enough, and Time 