I started this series on sin and salvation with a perhaps controversial suggestion: that we normalize sin — and specifically our own personal and corporate sins — not to minimize them, but in order to be able to talk about them and their impact more honestly. As a culture, so much of how we think … Continue reading Sin and the Fullness of Salvation
One of the reasons I wanted to tackle this series looking at different Biblical metaphors for sin and salvation is that Western Christianity has, over the past thousand years, come to ignore a lot of this diversity. The ancient abundance of images has been replaced with an almost singular focus on a criminal justice metaphor … Continue reading Bondage and Freedom
Last week, I wrote about what I see as a need to normalize sin without minimizing it. If we want to have better relationships with ourselves, creation, each other, and God, we need to be able to talk about the ways in which we harm those relationships, 'in thought, word, and deed,' 'by what we … Continue reading Debt and Forgiveness
Last week, many Christians (myself included) were thoroughly saddened to learn the news that Jean Vanier, the founder of the l'Arche communities and a man revered by many as next thing to a saint, was found to have been a serial sexual predator. It's a sad statement on the state of our institutions that, while … Continue reading Saints Behaving Badly
In my study of 2 Kings 9-10 the past few weeks, I found myself coming back time and again to the character of Jezebel. She is unquestionably a villain, but she is one of the most compelling figures in the Hebrew Bible. In the Deuteronomistic history, she is treated less as a person than as … Continue reading Justice for Jezebel?
Matthew Root 