The Center for Open and Relational Theology exists to promote… open and relational thinking, networking among like-minded people, projects that build upon or advance open and relational ideas, announce news, and provide open and relational theology resources.

Womanist Sass and Talk Back is a contextual resistance text for readers interested in social (in)justice. Smith raises our consciousness about pressing contemporary social (in)justice issues that impact communities of color and the larger society. Systemic or structural oppression and injustices, police profiling and brutality, oppressive pedagogy, and gendered violence are placed in dialogue with sacred (con)texts.

Much has been written about Reincarnation and previous lives.  I think a current summary discussion of life after death would be beneficial from a scholar who has studied the authoritative reincarnation stories. 

Building on the enthusiastic reception of and critical acclaim for The Peoples’ Bible, hailed as “a rich resource” (Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza) that “will empower people to reclaim the Bible as a multicultural, dialogical, and living tradition” (Kwok Pui-lan), this colorful and engaging biblical textbook brings those same new perspectives in biblical studies to the college classroom.

I come from a traditional evangelical upbringing and have embraced catholicismCatholicism. However, I am also exploring the more modern Christian concepts as related by Bishop Spong and Rev. Matthew Fox. I am very attracted to those concepts and want to incorporate them into my spirituality, along with Buddhist and native American wisdom.

I grew up as one but like to ask questions and realize you are all on the right track. I along with my wife attend an Evangelical church nearly every Sunday and wonder the best ways to talk about science, global warming, the age of the earth, evolution, biblical errors and so on, of which Evangelicals seem so terrified.

There was a time when neither Jesus nor his followers thought of or described him as God. Why is it that so many Christians are now required to confess that Jesus was always God?

PATHWAYS Theological Education, Inc., is a Progressive Christian learning community seeking to empower transformative leadership for justice and peace within and beyond the church by engaging heart and mind to consider what it means to know, love and serve God in today’s changing world. 

Is it not possible that Jesus did not die on the Cross, but merely passed out, coming to in the cave and making those appearances described in the New Testament? There are many instances of such “miraculous” recovery even to the present day and many of His miracles can be explained scientifically.

Popular translations of the Bible are too generic for anyone to reach a definitive interpretation and often perpetuate old concepts. Tim Seid takes a bold approach to Christian origins and offers fresh translations of the earliest of the New Testament authors.

What is “evidence based faith” and how does it inform the progressive faith movement? This important lecture was delivered in April at the Anderson SC Progressive Theology Forum and in June at the Secular Liturgies Conference in Exeter, England. This recording was made at the Annual Conference of the Emerging Church in Springfield, MO.

Imagine how your own relationship with the divine might evolve if you stopped worrying about believing in God and began to belove the DIVINE MYSTERY we call God. What might it look like in your life to belove the DIVINE that lives and breathes and has BEING in, with, through, and beyond you; in, with, and through, and beyond your neighbours?

Sermon Video: Scripture Reading – 1 John 4:7-21

The right-wing media has been making a big “gotcha” deal out of the claim that Nancy Pelosi’s “favorite Bible verse” isn’t even in the Bible. What’s the story here?

Sermon Video: Scripture Reading – Luke 10:1-11 – Allysene Watson

Throughout his time on Earth, Jesus makes it very clear that riches should be stored in Heaven, not during this lifetime. He makes several references to rich men and poor men and tells us exactly how we’re supposed to give up everything for Him.

About 600 years before the writers of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke penned Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed, Buddha told a parable of a mustard seed.

What we know about the gospel-storyteller that we call Luke is that he wrote close to the end of the first century. Some 50 to 60 years after the life of Jesus of Nazareth; a time when the full force of the mighty Roman Empire was being brought to bear upon the Jewish people and upon the followers of Jesus’ Way of being in the world.