encrusted words

Tag: God

  • Kierkegaard’s God, in the Pandemic

    Kierkegaard’s God, in the Pandemic

    My column in the Christian Courier for November 2020.______________ Do you have an author you regularly return for insight and wisdom? A voice you’ve come to trust, with a gift for making sense of our lives, our world, and perhaps also for making sense of God? The Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has become…

  • The God of Silence – reflections on Endo’s novel, Scorsese’s film

    The God of Silence – reflections on Endo’s novel, Scorsese’s film

    My latest column for the Christian Courier, can be found here, or below. How is it possible for the ocean to be silent? Can the sea lose its voice? On the face of it this seems impossible. The waves come rolling in with rhythmic constancy – breaking and pounding against the shoreline. Even on those…

  • Kierkegaard – God – Movement

    Kierkegaard – God – Movement

    The second of two reflections I offered on the prayers of Kierkegaard at the retreat of The Presbyterian College this year. Like everything, Kierkegaard looks “slant” at the idea of God’s immutability. — If there is anything that gives the impression of unchangeableness, it is perhaps the towering and intimidating mountains that populate the face…

  • what we wear – who we are

    what we wear – who we are

    Clothing has always been a significant part of human identity. Historically human clothing has been particularly significant in terms of our shared or our collective identities. In particular cultures there was always a similarity of dress; our clothing marked us out as belonging to a particular culture or community. So there has been a style…

  • Atheism and Morality – Can they meet?

    If you want to infuriate an atheist, here’s a quick and easy solution: offer the opinion that atheists can’t be morally good. Even more, if you want to lead an atheist right up to the edge of apoplectic infuriation, tell him or her: “You can’t be good without God.” The science vs. religion debate can…

  • Losing Self? — Faith, Memory, Identity

    We’ve all had that feeling of disorientation at some point. Perhaps you are staying in a hotel somewhere, or visiting family for a few days. You wake up in the middle of the night and don’t know where you are. The room is unfamiliar. You feel lost. You look for points of familiarity to locate…

  • when Facebook dies

    What happens when Facebook dies? Of course it isn’t a question of whether Facebook will die – only when. It might happen slowly as users gradually migrate to other social media platforms, or suddenly in the wake of some technological or financial meltdown. Either way, Zuckerberg will probably be safe with his millions (billions?!). But…

  • So angry he could die #jonah #GodAsksTheQuestions

    He is so angry, he could die. He is so angry, he wants to die. Last week in our reflections on Jonah we ended on a note of mercy and grace. Jonah had made his declaration: 40 days and Nineveh will be overturned. 40 days and Nineveh will be smashed. But it turned out that…

  • tested by God

    So we are in the final week of this short sermon series. Over these few Sundays of summer we have been looking at call narratives in the Old Testament – these moments when God draws near to someone – encounters someone – these moments when God comes close to call someone to a particular task.…

  • in the mind of God

    In the Old and New Testament, there are many instances when God draws near and speaks to someone. And very often when God draws near to speak with someone, God does so in order to call that person to a particular task or activity. In the Old Testament, these stories are known as call narratives.…