23 Dec 2020

Merry Christmas

C.S. Lewis once wrote that the Feast of the Incarnation is the “grand miracle” of the Christian faith, the central chapter on which the whole Biblical plot turns. Christmas, says Lewis, is not a means to an end. It’s not merely a way of getting us to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Christmas has unique revelatory power. Christmas discloses the heart of God. The sadness and fear we have experienced this year can do nothing

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27 Jan 2020

Universal Salvation and the Loss of the Law

In my last article for Conciliar Post, I argued that teaching universal salvation from the pulpit—irrespective of whether one is convinced by the view—would likely have a negative effect on the spiritual well-being of most modern churchgoers. That would happen, I argued, because the logic of sin as harmful in itself to human flourishing has largely been forgotten. Over email following publication of that piece, a fellow CP contributor questioned whether, in making such an

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11 Apr 2015

Weekly Reads (April 11)

Happy Easter weekend, dear readers! And happy Easter to our Orthodox brothers and sisters! Here is a round-up of different religion, theology, and current events articles from our own authors and across the internet. The following articles do not necessarily reflect the views or mission of Conciliar Post. These articles have been selected based on their prevalence across popular blogs and social media and their relevance to current events. We invite you to engage in friendly

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24 Sep 2014

Participatory Community

Community. It’s one of today’s popular catch phrases. Thanks to that popularity, though, its meaning is a bit fuzzy. It usually seems to refer to an ideal interaction with others. What that ideal is, though, is hard to pin down. Recently reading Bonhoeffer and Lewis brought additional clarity to this puzzle for me. This clarity came from their comparison of heavenly and hellish forms of community. Bonhoeffer set the stage with the suggestion that, “The

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