Marginal Christianity

Posted by PeteEnns on October 26, 2015 in Christianity and evolution The Evolution of Adam 1 Comment Last Friday I gave the Religion and Civil Society lecture at the annual meeting of the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Culture at Michigan State University on “Reconciling Human Origins and Religious Faith: Thoughts from a Christian Evolutionist.” (Go Wolverines . . . uh, I mean Spartans.) Many thanks to Malcolm D. Magee (director of ISCC) for the invitation to speak and to his assistant Kristin Whitwam for making everything run smoothly despite my best efforts to be difficult. Thanks, too, for all the wonderful people who came out to dialogue about evolution and Christian faith.  You remind me why I do this and why this is anything but a dead topic! I spoke for an hour from a manuscript, which I almost never do (the manuscript part . .. going on for an hour is easy peasy for a wordy guy like me), and complete with all s...

December 2, 2012 By peteenns Leave a Comment http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2012/12/st-nicholas-what-can-i-say-he-was-a-beast/ In church today, our rector handed out a card with a icon of St. Nicholas, similar to the one on the left. On the back of the card read the following: Nicholas was born in the 3rd century in Asia Minor. He used his entire inheritance to help the poor, sick, and children in need. He gave in secret, expecting nothing in return. He attended the Council of Nicea in AD 325. Greatly loved for his faith, compassion and care, he is venerated in both East and West. OK., that’s pretty cool. He gave away his entire inheritance to those in need. I never knew that. I thought he had elves helping him or something, but I guess I got that part wrong. The rest of the card really hit me and made me feel stupid and cheated for never having been taught this as a child. Nicholas saved young women from slavery, protected sailors, spared innocents from excecution, provided gr...

September 12, 2012 By peteenns 2 Comments http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2012/09/dear-christian-if-the-thought-of-either-romney-or-obama-getting-elected-makes-you-fearful-angry-or-depressed-you-have-what-we-call-a-theological-problem/ Before we get going here, let’s be clear on what I.am.saying. and what I.am.not.saying. This is not a cynical, “I’m above it all,” anti-political rant. I am not telling you both candidates are the same. I am not telling you not to vote. I am not telling you to stop arguing about politics and coming to strong convictions. Have at it. I am saying that if you get so worked up about it that you become really angry, or you actually “fear for our country,” or are thinking of moving to Greenland or freezing yourself if “that guy” gets elected, you may need to step back and think about what’s happening inside of you. You can and should be genuinely concerned about health care, our economy, and many other issues–there are issues of justi...