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Mistaking a Lion for the Lamb

[This is a segment of ideas written by Michael Hardin which is helpful for us to untangle the imagery of Revelations' Lion and Lamb. I have reorganized and added to improve flow.] Lion & The Lamb (Rev. 5) Maybe you have heard “He came first as a Lamb, but he is coming back as a…

A Theology of Love: Open and Relational Theology and Spiritual Direction

Open and relational theology is a theological framework that emphasizes the relational nature of God and humans. Open and Relational is a label not unlike Baptist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, etc. It prioritizes the idea that God is not a heavy-handed micromanager or just a distant, aloof observer of human life but is actively and lovingly…

Once upon a time, there were two carpenters; framers to be precise. Each day they would arrive at the building site to pound nails, erect walls. The first, a glum man, was asked what he was doing. “I hammer nails,” he replied, looking sour. “Every day, hammer nails and more nails. Day in, day out,…

You may have heard the phrase Open & Relational Theology more these days, but maybe you aren't sure what it's all about. The following is a good summary of Open & Relational Theology based on the ideas of Thomas Jay Oord. It also does an excellent job of Oord’s solution to the problem of evil.

ometimes, what we generally accept as the loving thing to do (with the best of intentions) can, in fact, be unloving. When we start with what love is, it helps shape the ways we choose to love.

Agape is an interesting Greek term. Ask five people; you'll get seven different definitions. Most agree that it is a unique kind of Love. However, a survey of the New Testament and one soon discovers that Agape wasn’t the special word it would later become. Agape (and its conjugates) were used in various contexts and…

Today’s post explores the Big Idea of Essential Kenosis and what it tells us about the nature/character of God.

Open and Relational Theology has been a life saver for me, To be able to engage God and the world in ways that are consistent with my experience and intuitive sense of the God-who-is-love via the new eyes of good history, scripture, anthropology, philosophy, science and cosmology. It is affording me a way towards a more whole, very human life in the ongoing journey of becoming love.

“What does the helplessness of God’s love mean for us? Simply, that divinity is no longer a power over us but now within us. God’s love becomes the human power to love, and this power to love, welling up from within, can face all obstacles, including the fear of death, because one no longer fears…

The scriptures speak from many voices with different experiences and different contexts. So we need to be careful when we build a cornerstone of our theological worldview on a single verse. One such example is Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Is the heart deceitful?…

Blog

Mistaking a Lion for the Lamb

A Theology of Love: Open and Relational Theology and Spiritual Direction

Faith of the Everyday

What is Open and Relational Theology?

Love Is and Why it Matters

Agape: An Evolution of Love

God Must Love

Still Becoming: Renovation

Helplessness of God’s Love

The Heart is Deceitful? Not so Fast