Then the remaining volumes of Systematic Theology as soon as they appeared. Opening an ordered system to God. Then the sermons. Pungent, but less demanding. Then came On the Boundary: An Autobiographical Sketch. Points of identity. I picked up Kegley and Bretal's collection of critical essays and pored over it. He had me. People nowadays put NASCAR drivers' numbers on their pick-ups. I took a different path. I wrote to Tillich's publishers and asked if they had a photograph of the great theologian they could send to me. What had happened was simple. His creative mind had cleared the way for me to think. Then I started on Brunner. Volume after volume of his dogmatics. Each one searing together Christian doctrine and spiritual immediacy in ways which I found unbelievable. How could he know so much? How could he speak so profoundly to a generation for whom the terminology of Christian doctrine had once seemed remote? Working the boundary between existentialism and belief, … [Read more...]

Ministering is "quilting a life in relation to God and God's creation," which includes gathering fabrics, imagining the design, cutting patches, stitching patches and basting on a backing (pp. 171-198, p. 20 et passim). Ministering is a collection of insightful stories, episodes, thoughts, sermonettes, pastoral ideas and opportunities. The virtue in the book is its diversity and inclusiveness. To choose another metaphor, here is a smorgasbord. There is something here for everybody. "Stitching the patches" (p. 21) is not easy to keep under logical control. But perhaps concern about an integrated, reasoned account is misplaced. Ecosystem science now teaches that ecosystems are more patchy than we once thought. One reaction is to enjoy the richness of the quilt. Another reaction is worry whether there is enough patterned connection. The piecemeal plurality overwhelms any overarching unity; there is little sense of theoretical principle, lawlike regularity. There is useful … [Read more...]