Latest Posts
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Swifty(ie) Biblical Reception in the Song, ‘But Daddy, I Love Him’
In this essay, I demonstrate that pop artists and the general public who engage with US pop culture understand Christian theological constructions better than biblical scholars might expect. To illustrate this, I examine the mainstream Christian purity theology captured in… Continue reading
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A Listening Heart
This is a sermon I preached yesterday, November 1, 2026 at Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church in Orinda, California. It was All Saints’ Day. We follow the Narrative Lectionary, and the Scripture for the day was 1 Kings 3:4-9 [10-15] 16-28.… Continue reading
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The Bible and Me
For the first time in my career, I am teaching a course devoted to the study of Scripture. Titled “The Bible and Its Interpreters,” the course introduces students to the field of biblical hermeneutics. After a couple of weeks sketching… Continue reading
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Research Projects, Reading, and the “Movements of Divine Grace”
To the readers of WIT, I ask: What are your reading practices? Especially those who are academic theologians, what do you read? How often to you read outside of your own research area? Continue reading
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Teaching and Voting with the Preferential Option for the Poor
The main point to take away from all this is that voting with a preferential option for the neediest in society—not just our own needs—is foundational to Catholic social teaching and is rooted both in the writing by various popes… Continue reading
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Held in the Memory of God
Part of the spiritual care work that I do is with people who have dementia. Different stages, different diagnoses, different ways that people are living with changes in memory and language. Since getting more deeply into this work, I have… Continue reading
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An Ecofeminist Read of John 4:1-30
In the early to mid 1970’s, Françoise d’Eaubonne and Vandana Shiva coined the term Ecofeminism. Ecofeminism was introducing a “theory and praxis that has committed to coming together with the conviction that dialogue will enrich both [feminism and environmentalism]”. Both… Continue reading
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Let us be Egyptians, Like Shiphrah and Puah
This is a sermon given at St David’s Uniting Church, Newtwon, Victoria, Australia, August 23, 2026, based on the reading Exodus 1:8-2:10. Shiphrah and Puah. I have said before that women often don’t get a starring role in the Hebrew… Continue reading
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‘Death of The Pastor’s Wife’
Have you ever known that a man was bad news, but you watched him enter relationship after relationship never saying a word as an unsuspecting new woman becomes part of his life? Maybe you didn’t say anything because of who… Continue reading
