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by Brian Niece
Something Beyond Nothing?
The God We Don’t Yet Know
most recent posts
Unscripted Faith
Certainty may have little to do with the life of faith. Maybe that's why it's called "faith" and not "absolutely sure beliefs." [featured-image single_newwindow="false"] If you are traveling in a place you've never been, do you always have your map app of choice open...
Why Must Ignorance Be Bliss?
Why do so many of us prefer to remain willfully ignorant or at least blissfuly unaware? We develop assumptions. These assumptions, or opinions, are formed over years, through experiences, through what we are taught, through how we are shaped by our societal, cultural,...
Is Knowledge Different from Opinion?
[callout]A version of this post also appears on ALTARWORK.com.[/callout] Too often in Western public discourse, I think we do not delineate rightly between knowledge and opinion. Political talking heads, religious leaders, and "experts" of many stripes offer us all...
The Metaphysics of Eating, Listening, and Leisure
If you happen to be part of typical North American organized church you have rather limited options for activities to engage in that announce God's Kingdom: weekly "worship services," maybe some Bible study classes, perhaps a big service project once in a while. You...
Why a “Perfect” God Can Only Lead to Atheism
There is a popular but superficial understanding of God that argues God is perfect. Of course, there are many definitions of "perfect." But most of these definitions give us a God that is immutable. "Immutable" is a churchy word that means "unchanging over time and...
The Gift of Leisure
We often think of "leisure" as laid back time, nothing to do, nothing to worry about. But leisure is not idleness. A more robust understanding of leisure is informed by classical Greek and Roman thought which sees leisure as an attitude of the mind or condition of the...
God’s Authority
Authority tends to be asserted in two broad ways: coercion or persuasion. If someone uses coercion to exercise authority it would involve violence enacted upon another in relationship. If someone uses persuasion to exercise authority it would involve non-violent...
A Meditation Regarding Change
Change is a natural and constant part of life. Change happens on the individual level and the communal level. Change is something we create and something that happens to us. [featured-image single_newwindow="false"] The following is a simple prayer I've revisited in...
Glimpses of the Good
Too often, I think, we forget that we all desire the good. Sometimes it takes tragedies, like the recent spate in Orlando, to remind us of our first love. [featured-image single_newwindow="false"] In recent years, I've realized that all my vocational endeavors have...
Tragedy and Humility
Tragedy in the form of this past weekend's mass shooting in Orlando, has become entirely too common. And the "public discourse" (a phrase I'm using ironically) that follows is so often disheartening. [featured-image single_newwindow="false"] My social media streams...
Exile, Grief, and Hope
The Hebrew word for exile is galah which means “to strip naked or bare.” Our ancient spiritual ancestors experienced this, and we have the strange opportunity to experience it now. [featured-image single_newwindow="false"] A Brief Survey of Biblical Exile The people...
The “What Is” of Wisdom
If we want to be wise, then we must view the journey toward wisdom as a time-involved process. We must make the effort to trek to the waters of understanding and, once at the riverside, spend significant time on its banks, occasionally even wading out into the deeper...