But there is another way I believe God and spirit may be experienced: kinesthetically. It is primal and pre-rational, our first encounter with something beyond ourselves. It begins in our mother’s womb, immersed in embryonic fluids, nourished and protected by our mother’s flesh. We feel the pulsing of her heart. On a men’s retreat, I heard the Franciscan Richard Rohr speculate that men’s love of drumming may come from that early memory of our mother’s heartbeat.

So in a round-about way, Gamaliel, as quoted by Luke, is giving us a powerful clue about what kind of literature the Gospels are — a unique mix of a few core historical events with lots of theological overlay, all blended with a good dose of the kinds of stories of miraculous signs that we know were common and sometimes persuasive in that day. And not surprisingly…. They still are today!

I hope it will be a long time from now; I am grateful to be occupying this body today. But when you see this body lying before you in your gross anatomy lab, don’t call it mine. It will be for you, and for all the patients you will serve in your career as a doctor. Cut this body open with deep reverence, not for me, but for the living people whose bodies you will work to heal. My experience of eternal life during the process of my death will transcend this body completely.

More enervated than inspired by this year’s campaign season, I thought of writing a parody of Jesus’ Beatitudes (you know, “Blessed are the job creators…”) or maybe collect Jesus’ sayings about the way things are and the way things should be and place them in contemporary U.S. contexts (such as the parable of the laborers in the vineyard whose time cards differed but whose pay was the same)…

I would say that belief in either God or spirituality goes hand in hand with collectivism. Spirituality is about “the whole enchilada.”

“….seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1: 17) Here’s how I translate this biblical urging into the way I will vote in November: 1. The passage of the Affordable Health Care …

Dr. Crossan presents his life’s work of exploring the full matrix of Jesus’ own time and place to reveal that historical figure as still-and-ever a challenge for us today.

The Nicene Creed was both a religious and a political tool, a humanly constructed statement of belief that gave order and meaning to the world of its time. The question this book raises is whether it still gives order and meaning to our world–or rather, what kind of order and meaning does it give to our world.

God is persuasive love, containing but somehow still beyond all that we can grasp, and within whom “we live and move and have our being.”

The recent horrible shooting incident at a premier showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado has focused attention, once again, on some aspects of what has gone wrong when a person takes such a violent and antisocial turn.

I’ve titled this as about the Resurrection, which is just one part of a complex of beliefs… but let’s return and end there… What similarities or differences do you see in Paul’s Resurrection statements and beliefs and those of the early Jerusalem Jesus-followers?

Butterflyfish began with a watermelon picnic. While the kids ate and played, the grown-ups got to talking about music, about faith, and about how best to pass on and enjoy the old, old stories in beautiful new ways.

The Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida, announced in July that it would host a Qur’an burning event on its church property in observance of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks “to warn Americans about the dangers of Islam.”

This book was conceived by the passion of the author to discover and share the living faith of “leaders in the twenty-first century who will guide us in our search for a more just world.” He is Professor of Reconciliation Studies at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota and has spent over twenty years of his life seeking to understand the essence of social justice and reconciliation.

The Earth Heroes books feature the youth, careers and lasting contributions of some of the world’s greatest naturalists and environmentalists. This is the first in a series of meticulously researched books that introduces influential people involved in the preservation of wild places to upper elementary and middle school children.

In Coming Back to Earth, Geering concludes that the most credible scenario for Christianity s future depends on accepting the Gaia concept as a powerful modern myth that will sustain individual humans spiritually, and our planetary home ecologically.