Category Archives: Faith

Wednesday with Michael Spencer “The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction.”

Wednesday with Michael Spencer “The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction.”  From a 2007 post: “Mother Teresa and the Mystery of God’s Absence” Christianity’s promises of the present presence and apprehension of God are not simple. In many ways, it seems to me that neither scripture nor recorded experience gives a coherent, teachable viewContinue reading “Wednesday with Michael Spencer “The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction.””

Sunday with Michael Spencer: The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction

Sunday with Michael Spencer The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction I remember the depths of my own dark night in September of 2001. I was at the point of breaking down and being unable to preach or teach, a condition I had never faced before. I was as far from God as itContinue reading “Sunday with Michael Spencer: The lived spiritual life is a frequent contradiction”

Sunday with Christian Wiman: No half-remembered country

Sunday with Christian Wiman No half-remembered country In fact, there is no way to “return to the faith of your childhood,” not really, not unless you’ve just woken from a decades-long and absolutely literal coma. Faith is not some half-remembered country into which you come like a long-exiled king, dispensing the old wisdom, casting outContinue reading “Sunday with Christian Wiman: No half-remembered country”

Made in Canada, eh? “Respect” and a Summer Jobs Program

This is somewhat old news, but a story that Internet Monk readers may find interesting. The government of Canada had a complaint they had to deal with: If they were as committed to women’s rights as they claimed, then why were they allowing grant money for summer jobs to go to funding graphic protests atContinue reading “Made in Canada, eh? “Respect” and a Summer Jobs Program”

iMonk Classic: I Have My Doubts

Note from CM: Here is one of Michael’s all-time best posts, a classic example of why people loved and listened to him. He spoke as a human being to other human beings. Our Christian faith doesn’t permit us to skip the “human” part, though many of its practitioners advertise it in precisely those terms. InContinue reading “iMonk Classic: I Have My Doubts”

Another Look: Luther on Good Works

Note from CM: I was going to save this post for October, when we will focus almost exclusively on the Reformation, this being its 500th anniversary. But right now, as I posted last week, I am reading Inhabiting the Cruciform God, by Michael J. Gorman, a book that reorients the whole idea of justification aroundContinue reading “Another Look: Luther on Good Works”

Losers Who Just Keep Walking

Triumphalism is a terrible thing. I heard an unexpected sermon yesterday from a guest preacher in a church we visited. The church is a traditional old Midwest Protestant congregation, not known, at least in recent memory, for their religious enthusiasm or expressiveness. Sunday’s speaker was from a quite different ecclesiastical milieu. The congregation seemed toContinue reading “Losers Who Just Keep Walking”

Frances and Lenny: When All That’s Left Is Love

Frances died last week. Her family all said she missed her husband Lenny since his death a few years ago, and would be happy to be at peace and reunited with him. Frances and Lenny were faithful Roman Catholic members of a city parish. At her funeral, the priest said Frances especially loved to shareContinue reading “Frances and Lenny: When All That’s Left Is Love”

Another Look: Luther on Good Works

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. • Galatians 5:2, NRSV For Christ at the last day will not ask how much you have prayed, fasted, pilgrimaged, done this or that for yourself, but how much good you have done to others,Continue reading “Another Look: Luther on Good Works”