For years, I existed at the borderlands of the Christian faith. My faith in the core creeds of Christianity was dying, but I continued to love the many streams of tradition, symbolism, story, and community. Most of all, I loved the person of Christ, even as he became more myth than man.
Continue reading “War At the Christian Borderlands”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I’m joined by author, theologian, and musician Jack Holloway to discuss his new book Hands of Doom: The Apocalyptic Imagination of Black Sabbath. We discuss what theology means for the nontheist, how to relate to people with radically different spiritual beliefs, the significance of Biblical stories, and much more.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Theology for Nontheists | Jack Holloway”
For as long as I’ve been a nontheist and someone who does not believe in the supernatural, I’ve been hesitant to retire the word “God” from my vocabulary.
Continue reading “The Nontheistic Experience of God”
In last week’s article The Motte and Bailey of Christian Belief, I commented on a trend I’ve noticed among Christians to make bold, hard-to-defend claims (the resurrection of Christ) and then retreating to broad, easy-to-defend claims (God is the ultimate mystery or “ground of being”) when pushed to defend the former.
Continue reading “Are the Truth Claims of Christianity Literal?”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Buddhist Minister Levi Walbert about his recent thesis on the theology of The Satanic Temple. We discuss the similarities between Buddhism and Satanism; Satanic aesthetic, practice, and philosophy as vehicles for transcendence; the nature of religion, and much more.
Levi Walbert is a Minister with the Bright Dawn practicing Jodo Shinshu.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Vehicles of Transcendence | Levi Walbert”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with sociologist and Christian LGBT author Bridget Eileen Rivera about her new book Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBT People Experience Harm in the Church.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Bridget Eileen Rivera On How the Church Crushes LGBT People”
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Christian podcaster and Youtuber Mason Mennenga about purity culture, surviving evangelicalism, and the intersection of Satanism and Process Theology. Find Mason Mennenga here.
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In this episode of Sacred Tension I speak with Christian author, professor, and theologian David Dark. We discuss Satanism, our interactions with the Bible, how we engage with the cultural religious lore we are given, and David’s never ending fight against Christian theocracy. Find David Dark on twitter here.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Overcoming the Faith Cartel with David Dark”
I live in a strange, interstitial space between atheism and theism. While I no longer consider myself a Christian, I refuse to cut ties with the Christian world and my progressive Christian community. At the same time, I feel a great deal of kinship with the pagan and witchcraft communities, as well as the atheist and skeptical communities. My own religious home is The Satanic Temple, and I consider myself a practicing Satanist. I call myself a nontheist and reject unverified claims of the supernatural.
To many people, the question of God’s existence is simple: either there is a magical sky daddy or there isn’t. For me, however, this question is getting increasingly complicated. God is about more than just existence or nonexistence: it is also about definitions, worldview, and culture.
Continue reading “Breaking Down God”
I hoped that I was done commenting on David Bentley Hart’s tiresome book The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss, but as I’m nearing the end of the book I think I have one more complaint that I need to put to writing. It’s a complaint that I’m starting to have with a great number of more “progressive” or “sophisticated” theologians. While I do generally think that their vision of God, humanity, and the cosmos is better than most of what’s out there, I find this particular trend aggravating.
Continue reading “David Bentley Hart and Theological Gaslighting”
Stephen Bradford Long 