Progressing Spirit

Losing My Place in the Winner’s Inner Circle

Column by Brian McLaren on November, 17 2022

Mainline Protestants were part of America’s most successful form of Christianity until the tide began to turn in the late sixties and early seventies, and now, they are no longer the successful majority.

How can I help my fellow parishioner who, after a long and debilitating health issue, is struggling with feelings of anger and disappointment with …

Answered by Dr. Carl Krieg

What Am I Now?

Column by Brian McLaren on May, 16 2019

In my previous piece, I shared a bit about my past. This piece turns to the present. I’ve just begun work on two books, the second of which is tentatively entitled, Do I Stay Christian? As I sketch out the shape and trajectory of the book, I’m thinking more deeply about why I still identify as Christian and what I think Christian can and in fact must come to mean in the decades ahead.

If our knowledge of God can only be accessed through faith, and if the divinity of Jesus can only be affirmed through faith, why do we …

Answered by Rev. Matthew Syrdal

Column by Brian McLaren on April, 11 2019

Suddenly, I saw in a new light the violence of the modern era, from colonialism to Stalinism to Naziism to nuclear war to the environmental crisis. Smart people, armed with excessive and un-self-critical confidence derived from their absolutized ideologies, could commit unspeakable atrocities without having second thoughts.

I believe in God but not an interventionist God. There is too much suffering in this world both amongst believers and non-believers. If we study cosmology …

Answered by Joran Slane Oppelt

Column by Rev. David M. Felten on March, 9 2017

Bishop Spong’s reputation for expressing unapologetic, sometimes blunt, theological opinions is long-established. While some have accused him of being overbearing or egotistical, others have depended on him for a firm defense of a particular spot on the theological spectrum.