A blog about our lives as strangers in this world
A Traveling Theology
What if this world is not our home? What if we are tourists, visitors, travelers on a long journey towards our true home, Heaven?
These are the basic questions that this blog explores, inspired by Philippians 3:20-21 and Psalm 90. These verses, among others (e.g. John 17, Ephesians 2:17-22, Romans 12, Hebrews 11:13-16…) will appear many times. In A Traveling Theology, I explore through Scripture, the Church Fathers, and personal experiences what it means for us to live life as a long voyage. I consider how lessons from long-term travel can help sustain us on this journey now.
Every metaphor has its limits – and Christians have historically focused on our lives as one of exile in this world. This is just one way of imagining the Christian life. But this exploration takes seriously this one theme in Scripture, through exegesis, travel stories, and historical research.
E Komo Mai, and los geht’s!
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A Servant of Two Masters
Jesus says: “No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24) I: Premise There are many things that make me realize I do not live up to the…
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A Cold Lent: Abishag the Shunammite
The weather in North Carolina has been confused these first few weeks of 2025 – one day might be in the 70’s (F, 20’s C) and the next might be in the 30’s (F, 0’s C). The trees don’t quite seem to know if they should bud. Today is splitting the difference: a crisp 46…
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638, The End of the World (Again)
(Monothelitism, part 3 – how it ends – see part 1 and part 2) “Therefore, my beloved ones, the end- times have arrived,” wrote one anonymous Byzantine in the 640’s (Homily on the End-Times, trans. Shoemaker). But wait, you should be saying, I thought we already did this back in 614. The end times were…
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628 – Who Can Put the Church Back Together Again?
(Monothelitism, Part 2 of 3) For the context and my first post on Monothelitism, see here. As far as the Romans were concerned, there was more than an incidental connection between the divine and mundane boundaries of the roman empire: God had, in fact, revealed the proper boundaries of the empire to Constantius II…
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614, or the Year the World Ended
(Monothelitism, Part 1 – The Context) Many people who have studied the history of Christianity have never heard of Monothelitism or the Monothelite Controversy. My students in Church History at Duke skip right over it. At Princeton Seminary, Church History didn’t mention it. I tutored a student at Yale, it wasn’t on their syllabus either.…
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Eternity Syndrome
So many of my friends were long dead before I was ever born. I interact with them through their words, left behind. Some of them are mysteries: their treasures, their thoughts, might come down to us with no realistic name attached. Some of them left copious notes, thousands of pages, which I will never finish…
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Why did Elijah Run?
The Hard Journey to Heaven, according to Jacob of Serugh (Part 1) Many people are familiar with the harrowing and adventure-filled story of Elijah in 1 Kings. King Ahab of Israel marries Jezebel, and then BOOM, Elijah shows up: Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbite in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God…
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Things Will Go Wrong: Missing Passport and Wallet Edition
I’m waiting for a courier to deliver my passport (and maybe my wallet too?) to a hotel room in the middle of Lisbon. It’s the first time I have ever been properly stranded: no passport, no driver’s license, no credit cards, no insurance cards, no phone that works internationally. I’m still not entirely sure how…
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There Won’t be any Night: Tromsø and Gregory of Nyssa
Summer in the Arctic In the last chapter of the last book, there is vision of a completely changed world. John of Patomos writes in Revelation 22:1-5: 1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the…
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Humanity’s First and Worst Journey:
The Life of Adam and Eve 🍎 Genesis’s account of what happens to Adam and Eve directly after they are cursed for eating forbidden fruit is tantalizingly sparse. Genesis 3:20 – 24, the entire section between the curse and the conception of Cain, already east of Eden, reads: 20 The man named his wife Eve…
All Bible citations are in the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
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