Peripatetic Pastor
Reflections from Clay Libolt
Picture of Mt Baker
Dear readers, my posts are divided into five streams available in the menu at the tops and bottoms of the pages. The latest addition is a page from the “Theses on Denominational Life” posts. I also have pages from my Biblical Reflections (biblical studies of various sorts), Thoughts and Reflections (one off musings), Riffs on Genesis (studies of the Genesis materials), and the original posts in response to the report of a denominational study committee on human sexuality with which I began this blog. As always, the latest posts also appear on the home page. I hope in all of that you will find something that fits your fancy. Thanks for reading.
Clay
The latest posts:
A WORD FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT BELIEVE: FAITH AS ENCOUNTER
In the Bible “faith” rarely means “belief”—at least, not in the sense that “belief” has come to have in popular Christianity: what I will call “belief about.” We are not saved by belief. This is not what the Bible teaches. But if my experience is at all representative, this is what many in church think…
THE BOOK OF JOB AND A DEEPER ECOLOGY
By any measure, Job is a brilliant book. It’s also something of a mess. Allow me to page you through it. I’m particularly interested in the speeches of God that come near the end of the book and the relationship of those speeches to how we might think about life on earth. The speeches develop…
A Meditation for the New Year: Melancholy and Hope
For an aging boomer like myself, the years now come around far too swiftly. We are on the cusp of the year of our Lord 2023. If you were born, as I was, sometime before the midpoint of the previous century, 2023 seems hardly imaginable. And worse, as the years go by, they seem increasingly…
Introduction
I am a retired pastor living in the Pacific Northwest (and sometimes in Arizona). Actually, I’m intermittently retired. Since my retirement, I’ve served as interim pastor four times in three churches (one twice) and once as a high school principal. I have launched this website and the accompanying blog because I love the Bible and because I believe what’s best about the Bible is often lost in the theological welter of our age. I bring to this task and to this love not only seminary training (Calvin Theological Seminary) but a Ph.D. in Ancient Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. You may at first find my approach to the Bible different from the approach you were taught–more literary, more embedded in ancient culture–but press on. There is much to be gained and little to be lost by reading the Bible in this way.
6 responses to “HOME”
Just found your blog. I’m in.
Put me onl your list of people to receive your blog.
Daniel, at the bottom of the blog page, in the middle of a lovely picture of Fairhaven harbor, there’s a place to insert your email and sign up.
Clay
Thank you for sharing your reflection on Genesis 3. It helps me understand elements of the story that have always puzzled me in typical explanations from my tradition.
First time to read your blog. Found it on an FB post of a friend. Thank you for writing. Looking forward to reading more of your blogs. Keep well and God bless!
Good stuff and at a needful time