Forging Ploughshares

Paul Axton preaches - The satanic version of theosis is not displacement of God with self but a loss of self under the weight of sin sickness, violence and fear. True freedom does not pertain to reli…

In this discussion of Hans Jonas' picture of Gnosticism, Jim, Tim, Janice, Brian, David, and Paul consider how the Gnostic problem characterizes the human tendency toward dualism expressed in modern …

Paul Axton preaches - The early church term, found in Ignatius, Irenaeus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the Confessor, for being partakers of God, or being made God, is theosis, which is anot…

Tim, Brian, Matt, Mathew, David, Dan, Janice, Jim, and Paul discuss the key difference between a gnostic and Christian conception of the Logos and tie in the gnostic antagonism to the darkness descri…

Paul Axton preaches - Jesus quotes Psalm 82, "You are Gods," to explain his own claim to deity and his extension of eternal life to his disciples, which restores humankind to the reign assigned to Ad…

In this opening series on the Gospel of John Jim, Janice, Brian, Tim, Matt, Dan, and Paul, discuss the prologue of John and the meaning of the Logos, not as the pre-incarnate Christ but as the histor…

Paul Axton preaches - God's Word is world constituting, self-authenticating, and a repetition of God while the human word may attempt to constitute a world in its own self-authenticating repetition -…

Jim, Janice, Matt, David, Brian and Paul discuss how gender, race, ethnicity, or simply language can become an oppressive tool of the culture or of the symbolic order and how the Christian community …

Paul Axton preaches - Donald Trump has promoted the big lie that he did not lose the election, but this lie is a type of the big lie challenged and exposed by Christ which pictures the human, the pol…

Janice, Jim, Brian, David, and Paul discuss how the theory of Rene Girard fits with the Bible, but how it points to the benefits of sacrificial religion over uncontrolled violence, and how the end of…

Paul Axton Preaches - The truth of the Trinity, or Truth, unfolds historically with the realization of God as Father, the incarnation and recognition of the Son, and with the giving of the Holy Spiri…

Jim, Janice, David, Brian, Matt, Dan and Paul discuss the various ways that the matrix of bondage grips us (e.g., through capitalism, sexism, religion, ontotheology, dualism, psychology, and time) an…

Paul Axton preaches - The now and not yet of the process of salvation can be split and made static and exclusive, missing the unfolding of entering this rest on a daily basis. This failure gives rise…

Paul Axton preaches - In this second sermon developing an allegorical reading, the specific displacement of a violent God through the God of peace revealed in Christ, including freedom from the law o…

Paul Axton preaches - There is a spiritual or allegorical reading of Scripture which interprets through Christ and there is the fleshly reading concentrating on the letter or on history, which accord…

Matt, Jim, Janice, David, Brian, Dan and Paul discuss the origin of evil in the human unconscious and the presumption of life through the law apart from the body - the lie displaced through participa…

Paul Axton preaches - In John atonement or salvation is new creation, a new humanity, a new birth, a redirected desire, a reorientation to death, recapitulation, Christus Victor, or simply creation c…

Jim, Janice and Paul review the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and biblical picture of death denial as constituting sin and discuss how the Cross of Christ defeats death denial through death acceptan…

Paul Axton preaches - The trial of Jesus is the centerpiece of John, and the entire Gospel is framed as a trial, with witnesses and evidence presented against God/Christ and against the world, echoin…

Matt, from an Eastern Orthodox tradition, and Jon, from an Episcopalian tradition, and Paul, discuss the spiritual life, prayer, and the experiential difference available in active spiritual practice…