Thinking About This Blog

When I began this blog, I did so as kind of an intellectual exercise to be very intentional about my theological conversion to a strange mix of Radical Orthodoxy with a certain anabaptist flair (Hauerwasian/Yoderian account of Christian pacifism vs. Milbank's heavily qualified just war position). As a senior pastor, I realized that my theological work did not always come through in my preaching. Instead, I realized how much of Protestant preaching is formed by some variant of fundamentalism or biblical positivism (both of which are strongly related). What I was initially seeking was to begin to think about how preaching should be reconfigured given the theological insights of Radical Orthodoxy. For those of us who seek an escape from the church growth methodologies and incommensurability of comfortable left and right moralities (that essentially say the same thing), is there a way forward that preaching might again make the Word strange, the Word holy, and the Word catholic?

Over the past few weeks, I have been impressed by the number of people out there who are struggling to take theology seriously and look beyond the pitfalls and travails of modernity. On this blog, we have assembled a very diverse theological group (Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans) from across the United States and the world. This is truly an opportunity to practice the Triune practice of a peaceful harmony in the midst of great difference. I look forward to wrestling with theology and life together in our current context. I do want to take a moment to try to cast some vision for the blog (Please feel free to comment on this).

Focusing solely on preaching probably limits the scope of who can participate as not everyone signed on as a contributor preaches every week or at all. At the same time, I want to keep the focus on the connection between the Scriptures (as given by the Revised Common Lectionary) and theology of the RO persuasion (broadly expanded, I think, to include the theologians of the Ekklesia Project and La Nouvelle Theologie). So, what I propose is a theological conversation where we examine the lectionary readings, identify what is at stake theologically, and begin to examine the connections from our different theological perspectives. Towards the end of each week, I hope to offer my sermon for each respective Sunday, as well as focus us on the seasons of the Christian calendar.

I encourage everyone to visit the blogs of our contributors as there are many interesting things going on. I appreciate all of your hard-work and devotion to the Church.

Grace and Peace,
Scott