All atonement theories get it wrong by substituting beliefs about Jesus for the way (his virtues, values, and practices) of Jesus that he taught us by word and deed.
A Study of His Biblical Masterpiece as an Act of Rebellion
It is widely known among biblical scholars that The Book of Job is an outlier among other biblical books in that it provides overt criticism of established Ancient Hebrew beliefs and doctrines.
Year B - Set 1
This RBTL resource follows the Revised Common Lectionary with text selections for Year B - Set 1. There are 52 lessons the year.
Year C - Set 1
This RBTL resource follows the Revised Common Lectionary with text selections for Year C - Set 1. There are 52 lessons for each volume/year.
Years A, B and C - Set 1
This RBTL resource follows the Revised Common Lectionary with text selections for Years A, B and C - Set 1. There are 52 lessons for each volume/year.
Year B - Set 2
This RBTL resource follows the Revised Common Lectionary with text selections for Year B - Set 2. There are 52 lessons the year.
Year C - Set 2
This RBTL resource follows the Revised Common Lectionary with text selections for Year C - Set 2. There are 52 lessons for each volume/year.
A Critical Examination of the 'He Gets Us' Superbowl Commercial
The Superbowl Commercial "He Gets Us" misses the mark by presenting a narrow view of Christianity where narcissism is disguised as altruism.
I’m not sure why we can be so idealistic about human love when human love is profoundly imperfect and so often unreliable.
Patriarchy probably started about 12,000 years ago. If you google the word, there’s a good chance that you will be more confused than before you started.
The Second Coming of Christ is an erroneous idea that developed among Christians in the last third of the first century AD. It weakened the assurance that the first Christians had that the kingdom of God had come.
A Primer for the Christian Homosexual
Things They Never Told You in Sunday School took what had been explained in rather complicated detail by some others and organized the information into a layperson’s, easy to understand journey that walked simply through the Bible explanations, and scholarship.
The Bible is a very human book with differing positions on who Jesus was and what he said. The result is you can find a passage in the Bible to support any political position you choose to take.
There is no question that the voices of marginalized people are found in the Bible if you look carefully. The New Testament also presents a picture of a beautiful man who talked about a God of love and forgiveness and who urged his followers to create communities that practiced nonviolence, inclusion, and the pursuit of social and economic justice.
"The Way" integrates religion and science and reconciles Eastern and Western worldviews, confirming with the mystics and the scientists that everyone is related, and everything is connected.
Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines sat down this week for an interview with Ciprian Khlud about the basics of Progressive Christianity.
The second in the series that looks at the life of Jesus.
Some of the most important aspects of Jesus teachings were repressed from the beginning. The Hebrews started the repression. The Roman Catholic Church expanded it. And by and large the Protestants followed.
One of the things I’ve gathered from reading scholarship about the historical Jesus is very little about him can be said with certainty. Historians generally agree he existed and was crucified, but, beyond that, almost everything is debated.
Part Two
The four searchers now realized that there were two Jesus stories, one pervasive across the Christian churches, the other hidden in the background.
Today’s “Ask a Progressive Christian” with ProgressiveChristianity.org Board Member Rev. Roger Wolsey explores the question: Which version of the Bible is best for Progressive Christians?
The four gospels all tell a different story with regard to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The facts are all different, but the essence is the same: something divine was present in Jesus.
Video Response by Pastor Adam
Whenever a Christian says that there are three categories of laws in the Bible, you should have big red flags because they are likely (mis)using laws as a weapon against vulnerable people.
Unlike many would-be messiahs who took up arms to evict the Romans, only to be crucified for their efforts, Jesus proposed and lived a path of peace and love.
Uneasy about religion but not sure why? A God of Our Invention will make it clear.
If Jesus had been asked to summarize the Prophets, as Hillel had done for the Torah, his reply would probably have been something like this: “Wake up, open your eyes and ears, repent, and start treating others with compassion and justice!”
I believe neither that Hades exists nor that anyone would be sent there even if it did. But as a critique of the manner in which wealth neglects the poor, this is pretty powerful.
A “humane, thoughtful, and intelligent” (The New York Times Book Review) bestselling Biblical scholar reveals why our popular understanding of the Apocalypse is all wrong- and why that matters.
Following his life in Nazareth that possibly included day trips to Sepphoris looking for work, the next training ground for Jesus was a brief time with this same John the Baptist in the wilderness, hearing again that injustice is not the way of the Lord.
The early Christians looked to Abraham as their progenitor – even if they weren’t Jewish Christians. They remembered the words attributed to John the Baptist: “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. “ (Matt 3: 9)