The most basic religious question of all is what it is God wants from us. The Scriptures’ answers to this question were the major focus of the Sunday readings during the season of Epiphany this year, inspiring reflections here on receiving the summons, on the various summaries of the Law from Deuteronomy, Micah, Ecclesiastes and … Continue reading The Light of Love, or How to Please God
One major area of difference among Christians over the past few centuries has been the question of authority. Some have claimed that the Bible is the sole authority for Christian faith, others have insisted that authority lies in the Church and its Holy Tradition. The Deists of the Enlightenment claimed that reason was to be … Continue reading On Authority
Back in 2021, I wrote a series based on the idea that we need to normalize sin without minimizing it. My premise is that so many people have a knee-jerk reaction against talk about sin because it’s been blown out of proportion: When we hear someone say, “I’m a sinner,” we hear “I’m a wretch … Continue reading For Mirth and Mourning
There’s a common truth in the worlds of spirituality and psychology that we can’t go move on in life until we’ve truly learned what our present circumstances have to teach us. This was powerfully shown in Ben Okri’s delightful modern myth Astonishing the Gods, where the hero walks through a city wondering at its many … Continue reading On Paying Attention
In spirituality writ large, it’s common for people to talk about longing for God, or the divine. And certainly the various traditions of Christian spirituality and mysticism are no exceptions to this. But one thing that sticks out about how Julian of Norwich uses this language is that she’s actually far less concerned about our … Continue reading God’s Longing Love
Matthew Root 