This page will feature lighter and shorter pieces on a variety of topics
THINKING SALVATION: Salvation in the Real World
SAVED FROM WHAT? I’ve been thinking lately about salvation. “Salvation” is an odd sort of word. We rarely use it outside the church. Certainly, in a setting like this—a blog entitled The Peripatetic Pastor—you would expect any discussion of salvation to be biblical and theological, something perhaps in answer to the question: What must I do…
RESISTING INTERPRETATION
For my on-again, off-again, series of posts on renewing theology, I have been thinking lately about salvation. Salvation is at the heart of Christian theology, but what does it mean? How should it be understood? There’s much to consider in those questions. But sitting in church this morning past, the lectionary and the sermon turned…
THE P0SSIBILITY OF CALVINISM
PONDERING DOUGLAS STUART’S JOHN OF JOHN Calvinism is often misunderstood—even by Calvinists. Consider Douglas Stuart’s new novel, John of John (2026), set on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, off the coast of Scotland. Famous for its tweeds with their intricate combinations of natural colors, Harris is a hard, stony place. The local crofters eke…