Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God.

Civil religion is the attempt to empower religion, not for the good of religion, but for the creation of the citizen.

My father was a better bricklayer than I am a theologian. I am still in too much of a hurry. But if the work I have done in theology is of any use, it is because of what I learned on the job, that is, you can lay only one brick at a time.

I am often criticized, or at least questions are raised, about what appears to be the absence of the Holy Spirit in my work.

Jesus is Lord, and everything else is bullshit.

Advent is patience it's how God has made us a people of promise, in a world of impatience.

I fear that much of the Christianity that surrounds us assumes our task is to save appearances by protecting God from Job-like anguish. But if God is the God of Jesus Christ, then God does not need our protection. What God demands is not protection, but truth.