Latest
10
May
Jesus Has A Bad Day
The Sermon on the Mount thing was just wow. All the stuff about being loving to everyone, even those people who don’t vote like we do? That’s classic you!
But sometimes you’re off-message, cranky, or downright dickish. Here’s an example.
3 min read
09
May
Celsus Couldn’t Stand the Early Christians and Origen Couldn’t Let It Go
Celsus was Rome's sharpest critic of Christianity — witty, erudite, and deeply annoyed. Origen was the scholar-mystic who read his takedown and responded with a doctoral dissertation's worth of controlled fury. Their clash is part theology, part philosophy, and surprisingly hilarious.
7 min read
09
May
What Early Rivals Reveal About Christianity’s Fragmented Beginnings
Before Christianity, there was a tangle of competing movements, rival baptisms, and charismatic teachers. A brief story in Acts about an Alexandrian preacher named Apollos cracks that tidy history open — and asks what if Jesus wasn't the center yet?
8 min read
09
May
Prisca: The Forgotten Woman Who Shaped Early Christianity
So here it is — the same letter that dismantles Leviticus, replaces the Law, and tells us to grow beyond “elementary teachings about Christ” also slams the door on forgiveness for people who stumble after belief.
11 min read
24
Apr
What If Jesus Lost Faith at Gethsemane?
Jesus prayed for a miracle at Gethsemane and didn't get one. What if he lost faith — just like Peter sinking in the waves? A progressive Christian rereading of the resurrection, with less sacrificial atonement and a lot more Mary Magdalene.
9 min read
20
Apr
Who Gets to Be Called a Christian?
The question "who gets to be called a Christian?" is dangerous precisely because everyone who asks it thinks they're the right one to answer it.
9 min read
03
Apr
Who Are You When Your Body Dies?
When my best friend ended up on life support, I finally understood something the Gospel of Mary had been trying to tell me all along — about the soul, and what makes any of us irreplaceable.
4 min read
17
Mar
When The Witch Hunters Use Witchcraft
The New Apostolic Reformation wages holy war against occultists — while practicing prophecy, ritual exorcism, and magical geography themselves. A closer look at the hypocrisy powering Christian nationalism's rise.
6 min read
11
Mar
Paul's Teaching on Sex Liberated Thekla. For the Rest of Us, It's More Complicated.
My women's group read The Acts of Paul and Thekla aloud. My margin notes said "Sex? No sex? WTF?????" This essay is about what happens when a woman with a complicated past finally reckons with Paul.
7 min read
05
Mar
The Rapture Was Invented in the 1830s. Now It's Reached the Pentagon
The prophetic system now being invoked by some commanders took shape in the nineteenth century. The earliest Christian theologians would not have recognized this framework. Their debates about the end of history looked very different.
6 min read