There is a lot of talk about deconstruction of faith. There is a growing movement among notably younger evangelicals in North America who are disenchanted with their faith. The questions...
The Publicness of Christian Discourse As Divine Movement
In this article, I will outline a way how Christianity might regain a public voice and function. While the proposed changes are very drastic, they are deeply rooted in the...
On Faith, Atheism, and Beyond
I always thought atheism was the last and final barrier that I would not cross or that, when cross, would seal me as a non-Christian. And then I realized there...
Footprints In The Sand
One night, a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with God. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed...
What is Faith? Faith As Commitment To Otherness
Faith has become an exclusively religious word. If we want to salvage the Christian faith for a secular age we will need to unpack and reimagine the meaning of the...
Radical Theology and the Theology of the Cross: A Christian Tradition of Subversion
Introduction Martin Luther’s theology of the cross though central to the German Reformation did not manage to remain a big influence in the Protestant tradition. Traditions other than Lutheranism sprang...
Emotional and Spiritual Abuse in the Church: the Systemization of God (Part 2)
The systemization of God leads to harm being done to people in the areas of sexual ethics, emotional dependency, and communal justice. In the previous installmentof my two-part series on...
Emotional and Spiritual Abuse in the Church (I): the Divine Authority Syndrome
Emotional and spiritual abuse in the church often results from wrong ideas about how Divine Authority functions within the faith community. It is often wielded as a tool to suppress,...
Faith Deconstruction: What It Is and How It Works
Deconstruction starts with the realization that all of reality is constructed. This is so because we can only see, i.e. understand, what we can place in an interpretative structure of...
Faith In Secular Times: How to Repent of God in Order to Follow Christ
I sometimes bend over backward to find ways in which faith can still be relevant in our secular post-Christian society (just as I bend over backward to understand why I...
Christelijk geloof en seculariteit: Om Christus te volgen moet je je van god bekeren.
Ik breek me soms het hoofd over hoe het geloof nog relevant kan zijn in onze seculaire post-christelijke maatschappij. (Net zoals ik me soms het hoofd breek over waarom ik...
Capitalism as Divine Necessity: Toward A Political Theology of the Cross
I’ve been looking for ways to describe the current politico-economic order of Western capitalism in religious terms. The task of political theology is to bring theological thought and analysis to...
“I Love Jesus But Not the Church” Means You’re On To Something
An article appeared a few days ago in the evangelical section of Patheos that really irked me. It has the rather nasty title: ‘I Love Jesus But Not the Church’...
OMG! I’m an Atheist Who Follows Christ.
The above line is not me talking. It could have been, but I decided to not become an atheist. No, it sounds more like one of my colleagues and future theological collaborators....
Martyrs, Madmen, and Marauders: Six Ways Christian Missions Needs to Change
There has been much talk about missions lately in the wake of the death of a young missionary, John Chau, who, against government regulation and common sense, went on a...