Dispatches from the Journey
"God is always at home; it is we who have gone for a walk." Meister Eckhart
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About
When I bungee jumped out of my mom that sultry North Carolina June night so many years ago, I was oblivious to the journey that lay ahead of me. From the moment I became a believer, I have been leaving God. This is not the pilgrimage I anticipated when I was converted into a teen-aged, born-again Pentecostal. Since then there has been so much that I could never have envisioned—ex-con, cult member, United Methodist minister, scholar, university professor, and eyeball assassin. It’s an incomplete list, but it’s a start.
Perhaps, like me, the journey has surprised you as well. This site is for those still on pilgrimage, not satisfied with the easy answers and sloppy theology that avoids the struggle of wrestling with a world where the absence of God seems all too real. So, when I say I've been leaving God, what I mean is my journey has shown me the truth that the German mystic Meister Eckhart had in mind when he suggested that "Man's last good and highest parting is when for God's sake he takes leave of God." Eckhart also said that we love God the same way a farmer loves his cow—because it gives him milk and cheese. But, that's another story.
What I've discovered on this journey is that when we leave the god our fears and desires created for us to cling to, we find a life of freedom.
BOOKS
"Before God, and with God, we live without God." Imprisoned by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced the absence of God, but he never lost faith. This book explores his most controversial prison insights as he wrestles with Christian tradition and theology about how we understand God, even in the midst of darkness.
Ever find yourself wondering about the mystery of the world? For those who think religion and science can have a conversation with one another, this book mines the traditions of Christianity to show how a theology of creation can situate itself nicely in a scientific frame.
Good news! Jesus is not coming back to kill you and all your friends If you've ever wondered about Rapture culture and those who expect Jesus is coming back any minute, this book explores how the apocalyptic imagination was created in the ancient world, and how that carries over into the present one.
