Forging Ploughshares

John, Jim, Brian, and Paul discuss how Japan reversed western notions of orientalism, particularly in psychology, so as to create a unified national identity dealing in death in both inward self-iden…

In Philippians 2 Paul spells out an alternative picture of God and reality which is often thought to be an exception, but God poured out in Kenotic love on the cross is an alternative conception of G…

Matt explains to Jon, Tim, Simon, Jim and Paul how Sergius Bulgakov's sophia provides and explanation for the wisdom to be found in the Gita and world religions.

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Christian nationalism, the Trump Bible (including the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence in the Bible), and Christian Zionism, confuse the City of God with the city…

Matt Welch, explains to Simon, Jim, Tim, Matthew, Jonathan, Brian, and Paul the work of Sergius Bulgakov on sophiology and how this provides an opening for understanding world religions. 

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Christianity is proven in a lived faith, obedience, and love and does not depend upon arguments or evidences other than those living proofs of the embodied faith.

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Jonathan, Matt, Jim, Brian, Matthew and Paul review the development of Girard's picture of the development of sacrificial religion, the darkness of human desire and rivalry, and tie this into shame a…

Apologetic arguments often implicitly misconstrue the nature of Christian truth, which John describes as being witnessed to by the Trinity and this divine Testimony, John says, is present within the …

Paul, Tim, Jim, Matt, and Simon discuss how it is that Rene Girard's theory explains and exposes myth and how this applies to the human condition in general.

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The only route to knowing God as Abba, according to Jürgen Moltmann, is through the crucified God on the cross. This God displaces the oppressive law-giving God of wrath, the God of paganism, but als…

Jim, David, Tim, Simon, and Paul discuss the work of Rene Girard and its unfolding in the novel, as illustrated in both Western and Japanese literature. 

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Tim, Simon, Matt, and Paul discuss how a practical salvation is a 4th category, distinguished from inclusivism, exclusivism, and pluralism in that it is simultaneously universal and specific to the s…

Jordan Peterson is not simply promoting conservative values but is setting forth his  own notion of truth, which has captured many Christians. This sermon sets forth the alternative in which Christ i…

Simon, Tim, Matt, Jim, and Paul discuss how narrative theology or what is known as the Yale School or postliberalism defines Christianity as a community of practice, which can serve as entry into und…

In Philippians Paul portrays kenotic love as the very substance of divine reality, power, and truth, and it is in imitating this self-emptying love and not grasping after life that we become imitator…

Trent Maxey, Professor at Amhurst College and author of "The Greatest Problem" runs down how Shinto as a native religion is an invention of the modern state in Japan, and how the "secular" state has …

God is love is definitive of God's personhood and the opening of his personhood in Kenotic Love is the possibility of personhood. This personhood of knowing God is definitive of the personal and of w…

Trent Maxey, of Amhurst College and author of "The Greatest Problem" on delineating the role of the secular, political and religious in Japan, continues to address the problem of a too simple narrati…

Acknowledgement of God and access to wisdom, reason, and understanding of the self and the world are synonymous. Where Kant and the modern age deny access to God as foundation to reason, and attempt …

Trent Maxey, Professor at Amhurst College and author of the book, "The Greatest Problem" describes the amorphous nature of Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam in connection with culture, econom…