Ember Letter: Pentecost 2011

Dear Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno, I pray that you are having a transformative and inspiring Pentecost in sunny Los Angeles. And in the spirit of Pentecost, I hope that this Ember Letter captures some of the energy of my spiritual journey the way an “ember” contains the energy of a fire. I have been […]

Receiving the Hyssop: Reading the Johannine Passion as Pastoral Theodicy

My spiritual journey has been both plagued and propelled by the question of suffering. The theological dilemma posed more than 2000 years ago by the Greek philosopher Epicurus still baffles theologians today: How do we reconcile an all-loving and all-powerful God with a world of suffering? My call to the priesthood and to pastoral ministry […]

The ‘Winnowed’ and ‘Gathered’ Community: Reading John 11:45-53 in Light of Mimetic Theory

This paper was presented at the College Theology Society Annual Meeting at Iona College on June 4 2011 in the section Spirituality: Contemporary Conversations with Classic Texts. On my first visit to the Holy Land, I often found myself wanting to linger over sites after the tour guide moved on. One time, after the guide […]