Gary Neal Hansen's Blog, page 52
April 23, 2015
My Guest Post on “Adulcia–Beneath the Surface”
This week I have a guest post on Claudia McFie’s blog down in New Zealand. Claudia became a friend back in 2012 when she posted on her favorite Christian books and included my Kneeling with Giants in her top ten. I found myself in some very fine company. Since then I’ve done a Skype session with her small group […]
April 15, 2015
Why Easter Eggs? My “AHA!” Moment
Ever since I was a kid, long before I had much of an active Christian faith, I wondered: Why do we use eggs to celebrate Easter? Why Easter Eggs? It is not at all obvious. There is only one mention of eggs in the whole New Testament, and it isn’t about Easter. Unless we paint Christian […]
April 3, 2015
Vocabulary Lesson: And Why Do We Call it “Good” Friday?
For a lot of people Good Friday brings one question to mind. Why ‘Good’? If I love Jesus and want to follow him, how can I say that the day he died was ‘Good’? It sounds like I should be jumping with joy. I can’t read the Gospel accounts without tears. English speakers have called […]
March 12, 2015
Lent 4: On Sex, and Being a Seaworthy Ship
Like food, sexual activity is necessary for survival. But while food is needed for each individual, in the case of sex the need is for the species. Nobody, as they say, ever actually died of chastity. The understanding of many Christian centuries that chastity is actually better for you may seem at least foreign. In our society we equate sexuality with […]
March 9, 2015
Lent 3: Food as Food
Evagrius Ponticus (d. 399), the great Desert Father with whom I’m spending this Lent has a has a way of pointing out obvious things that I’ve spent a very long time not noticing: biblically speaking, food has a long history of getting us into problems. Desire for food gave birth to disobedience and a sweet taste […]
March 6, 2015
Lent 2: Lenten Fasting and My Potato Chip Problem
Once upon a time, a marketing genius thought up a great slogan for Lay’s potato chips: Betcha can’t eat just one.” My waistline has testified to the truth of this for decades. They are right. I can’t. My conversation partner for Lent, the great Desert Father Evagrius Ponticus, had the same insight back in the […]
March 4, 2015
My New Book! “Love Your Bible” is HERE!
I am THRILLED to announce that my new book, Love Your Bible: Finding Your Way to the Presence of God with a 12th Century Monk is now available! Love Your Bible introduces 21st century readers to classic lectio divina–an approach to Scripture that has shaped the lives of disciples for well over a thousand years. Love Your […]
February 26, 2015
Lent: Taking Stock with Evagrius Ponticus
Lent is a season for self-examination. It is not mainly about feeling guilty. It is more like a chance to check the GPS (that might be “God Positioning System” if you like acronyms) and figure out exactly where you have come and where you still have to go. We often describe this life as a spiritual journey, […]
February 10, 2015
Saint Scholastica: Role Model for Holy Assertiveness
Christians celebrate the memory of St. Scholastica today. She’s remembered primarily for the moment captured in this painting from the monastery at Subiaco. She was the sister of St. Benedict (the “Father of Western Monasticism”). Both died a bit after 540. He was a monk. She was a nun. Rules prevented them from getting out much. They could meet […]
January 28, 2015
Deep Church Rising: A Book Review
The twenty-first century churches have a problem. Maybe more than one. We also have more than a few people providing analyses and solutions. Deep Church Rising: The Third Schism and the Recovery of Christian Orthodoxy by Andrew G. Walker and Robin A. Parry (Cascade Books, 2014; $22.00) is a helpful corrective to the culture-bound, superficial diagnoses and prescriptions that get […]
