Posts Tagged ‘Theology’

Today, unfortunately, we’re quick to leave and go find another church or let our theology divide us. That’s what’s different today about reconciliation. We’re trying to reconcile the church today; in the first century, the church was reconciling the world.

Rather, the opposite seems to be true, as, throughout history the church has found itself pointing the sharper rather than the blunt edge of the sword, many times using violence in the name of God. Following closely behind has been mission and theology – either justifying it or keeping silent.

In this short video, Tom Porter gives a summary of Matthew 18, a Gospel that is a book of instruction to the early church. Here is where the scripture puts flesh and blood on the bones of the Great Commandment and on our calling to be reconcilers.

As a Jesuit, I have another strong anchor drawing me toward respect for persons, even those most opposed to me and all I hold for true, and recognition of their dignity.

After thirty years of teaching Christian ethics I felt a deep need to build a communion table for my seminary’s chapel. The words of ethics had to find expression in the wood of a table. For many years we ethicists had assumed that people could work off of a spiritual capital derived from worship, but [...]

Dorotheos responded by asking them to visualize the world as a great circle whose center is God, and upon whose circumference lie human lives.  ”Imagine now,” he asked them, “that there are straight lines connecting from the outside of the circle all human lives to God at the center.  Can’t you see that there is [...]

70 x 7: A Theology of Reconciliation Matthew 18:15-17 is well known in some Christian settings as a text that summarizes a process for handling conflict within the church or between church members.[i] These verses, however, are too often interpreted in isolation. When understood in the context of the entire chapter, we see an unfolding [...]

Provided by the Conflict Transformation Team of the Balitmore-Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, this website highlights the biblical foundations of conflict transformation.