When it was discovered that I had colon cancer in 2006 my primary care physician said, “You will face your mortality and survive.” He was right. In my year-long chemotherapy protocol I witnessed my body dying. I will spare readers the details, but once my year of chemotherapy was complete my body bounced back—within a […]
Archives for January 2015
Yoga and the Theology of the Body
Yoga in America: The New Wave
Originally published on May 6, 2007; revised with additions on April 1, 2013 In February 2007, a reporter from the New York Times interviewed me and my now-wife Lela Schneidman for an article about “young yoga teachers”. We were 26 and had been teaching for under two years. It was exciting – they even sent […]
A Primer for Presiders: Your Body in Worship
I. A Body’s Language I once saw a man with his right hand raised, a woman’s high-heeled shoe in it, and with his left hand was holding the woman by her throat. I was a passenger in a van full of college students from North Dakota State University and that day we were somewhere south […]
A Forgotten Body of Knowledge? The Earth as Tutor in Prayer
In January 2013, I led a class from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago on a wilderness travel seminar to study the role of earth’s natural cycles in Christian prayer. Specifically, we explored classic patterns of Christian daily prayer and the liturgical year.1 The course, “Liturgy and the Cycles of Creation,” was held at […]
Book Review: When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even in the Church
When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even in the Church by Lillian Daniel. New York: Jericho Books, 2013. Pp. 215. Back in September of 2011, Lillian Daniel published two pieces poking fun at American DIY spirituality, a longer piece in the Christian Century called “You Can’t Make This […]
TV Review: The BBC Two comedy Rev.
Rev. BBC Two, 2010 to present, three seasons (series) 19 episodes (including the still-to-air third season) Where to watch in the US: Series (seasons) 1 and 2 available for free at Hulu.com The award-winning British comedy Rev. is the brainchild of Tom Hollander, who co-created and stars in the series as The Rev. Adam Smallbone, […]
Harnessing a Musical Tidal Wave
On July 1 of this year I began my new career as a retired pastor. My first retirement assignment was giving three days of lectures to the pastors and church workers of the Lutheran Church of Singapore, two open lectures to lay people, a lecture at the Church Music School of the Methodist Church, and […]
City of God, City of Man
During the summer of 2002 I owned neither watch nor cell phone. Indeed I mocked the notion: “Look at me, I need to know what time it is!” I would say in the voice of my pretentious watch-wearing alter ego, while in reality I was just out of college, unemployed, and rather short on social […]
CROSSwalk: Stepping Toward Transformation
“We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.”1 © Vincent D. […]
Healing Our Vision in the Sorrowing City
It’s been over twenty years since the journalist Alex Kotlowitz published There Are No Children Here.1 In truth, Chicago has been in an undeclared state of emergency for decades, along with other cities like Oakland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Newark. The murder rate in Chicago in 2012 was over 500, including at least 297 youth age […]
Mission Communities: Seeking a Fresh Approach
It is no secret to anyone in North American Christian circles that Christianity specifically, and organized religion in general, have fallen on hard times, from an institutional development point of view. In many rural communities the decline is part of a general demographic shift caused by the substitution of agri-business for family farming and the […]
Lutherans in Hyde Park: An Historical Analysis
Hyde Park is very much a company town,’ said Peter Cassel, director of community development for Antheus Capital, which owns more property in the neighborhood than anyone except the University of Chicago. ‘As the University grows, so too does the neighborhood.’”1 Company Town is the leading motif for this reflection on the rich history of […]
Leading From the Middle
“Where is the moral voice in Chicago?” That question was raised by an occasional attender of worship who is a key player in the not-for-profit world of the city. Where is the alternative vision to challenge the granting of privileges to corporations, selling off public services to private companies, hiring and appointing for political gain, […]
Concrete Jungles and Revolving Doors
For about four years now I’ve had a recurring dream. It’s a dream where I’m sitting in the dentist’s chair. The lights are bright; I can’t see very much. But I can see the mirror that the dentist is holding up in front of me. And in that mirror I see the reflection of what […]
Living Grace in the City
For Jesus the city was a place not of grace but of conflict. According to the Gospels, during his ministry in Galilee, Jesus avoided the cities in the region entirely. While they mention the names of numerous towns and villages that Jesus visited, the Gospels never speak of him going to either of the main […]