So I’m at a dinner party chatting with the guy sitting next to me, and he asks me what I do for a living. I tell him all about ministry, and then I ask him what he does for a living.
Articles
The Color of Judaism: A Cultural Reflection and Plea for the New Year
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No matter what I am wearing, what is covering my head, or what color my skin is, I am Jewish. But being Jewish does not take away the fact that I am a person of color either.
2014
Thinking Anew About God: An Introduction
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Many liberal and progressive people continue to be unaware of the truly radical notions of God that progressive theologians and believers are exploring.
Articles
High Holiday Repentance Workbook 2014 / 5775
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To acknowledge our own screw-ups is an important first step. But the High Holidays are not about getting ourselves to feel guilty, but rather engaging in a process of change. If we don’t make those changes internally and in our communities and in our society, all the breast-beating and self-criticism become an empty ritual.
Articles
The Joy of Yom Kippur: A Conversation Between Dovid Gottlieb and Michael Lerner
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Yom Kippur engages in honest, wrenching self-evaluation. Read Rabbis Dovid Gottlieb and Michael Lerner’s discussion of the twenty-five hour fast.
2014
Names of God
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Fourteenth-century mystic and activist Meister Eckhart says “all the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves.” If he is correct, then as humanity’s self-understanding and understanding of the cosmos evolve, then clearly our God-names will evolve in response. Rabbi Arthur Waskow reminds us that the Book of Exodus is also known as the Book of Names because God goes through two name changes within its pages. Why is this? In his article “When the World Turns Upside-Down, Do We Need to Rename God,” Waskow suggests it is because “the old Name cannot inspire a new sense of reality … God is different when the world is different.”
So where do we go for new names for God? The ancient texts of Buddhism say: “God has a million faces,” and ancient Hindu texts discuss “the one Being the wise call by many names.” Thirteenth-century Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas is much wilder—he says that every creature is a name for God—and no creature is.
2014
Two Feminist Views of Goddess and God
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Feminist theologians agree that the old view of a male God has got to go. But the debate gets heated when we talk about what should take its place.
2014
Embracing and/or Refusing God-Talk
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The most mature faith is not all “sweetness and light”—it is a grappling with holiness that also addresses the abrasiveness of the biblical God.
2014
What Takes the Place of What Used to Be Called God?
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We often mean different things when we say “God.” Distinguishing between theistic, pantheistic, and panentheistic notions can clarify our discussions.
2014
The God of Process Theology: An Interview with John Cobb
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If we could liberate science from the shackles of an outdated metaphysics, the line between physics and spiritually would be radically blurred.
2014
A Beaked and Feathered God: Rediscovering Christian Animism
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Contrary to public opinion, Christianity is an animist religion that celebrates the enfleshment of God in many forms. Sometimes, the Spirit is a dove!
2014
Ideality, Divine Reality, and Realism
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At its best, theology begins with the experience of the Holy and then presses to a prophetic demand for justice and the good.
2014
God and Goddess Emerging
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In this historical moment, we need to blend a panentheism that recognizes humans as in and part of God with the radical visions of God as YHVH (source of transformation) and El Shaddai (a love-oriented Breasted God).
2014
A Buddhist God?
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Is it right to describe Buddhism as atheistic? Many people do, pointing to the fact that Buddhism doesn’t refer to a creator God. Yet it’s not so simple.