joshuago’s religion Bookmarks

Rebellion without a rigorous alternative vision is just a feeble spasm.

God could make everything, but instead he says, "I bestow upon you the gift of free will so that you can participate in making this world. I could make everything, but I am going to give you some spark of my genius. Surprise me with something truly good and beautiful."

Stay focused and don't make it about you; pursue the tone of the text. But let it be informed and colored by the tone of the bigger picture. Written for Christian preachers, but principles are generally applicable.

Blocking off enough alone time is an important component of a well-functioning social life. If we want to get the most out of the time we spend with people, we should make sure we’re spending enough of it away from them.

The beautiful classic editorial piece published in the WSJ every Christmas.

The call to help the needy plays a major role in Christianity's history and is utterly central to its message. This should never be forgotten. The way to do something is to see the needy as people first, not projects.

Why does it matter whether we get the Puritans right or not? The simple answer is that it matters because our civil society depends, as theirs did, on linking an ethics of the common good with the uses of power.

The tension between good and plenty, God and mammon, became the central tension in American life, propelling ferocious energies and explaining why the U.S. is at once so religious and so materialist. Americans are moral materialists, spiritualists working on matter.

Every era has its heresies, and if you don't get imprisoned for them you will at least get in enough trouble that it becomes a complete distraction.

The first America tends to make the finer-sounding speeches, and the second America often strikes cruder, more xenophobic notes. But both understandings of this country have real wisdom to offer, and both have been necessary to the American experiment’s success.