When we think about how Christians have historically sought to discern truth, this is really quite remarkable. But, according to Jesus, truth is to be judged not by fidelity to tradition or to the letter of Scripture, but by the fruit it bears, by its consequences in and for the world.
I wrote earlier this week about my concerns about what I’ve seen from the Church’s attitude to religious ‘nones’, and more specifically to those who identify as ‘spiritual-but-not-religious.’ In this post I’d like to take a more positive approach, and look at some of the important lessons we might take from the rise of the … Continue reading Questions from the Nones
Hardly a week goes by when I don’t see a new think-piece on the rise of the so-called religious ‘Nones’, our neighbours who claim no affiliation to any religious tradition. Their numbers have been steadily rising in North America: According to a study by Pew released in 2013, religious Nones increased in Canada from 4% … Continue reading I ♡ Nones
Last week, I wrote about the problems we have in our culture talking about sin. I ended the post saying that I think a helpful way forward in developing our ability to talk about it is to reclaim the biblical metaphors that underlie unhelpful translations like ‘sin’ and ‘wickedness’. As I was contemplating this, I … Continue reading Living and Effective
This week was the first full week of Lent, and so I wanted the practice for this week to be a specifically Lenten practice. And, since I first encountered it twelve years ago, no practice has jumped out at me as being ‘more’ Lenten, than the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian. The famed … Continue reading Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
Matthew Root 