Author: Darryl Williams

Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Minister

Post author By Darryl Williams
Post date December 20, 2012
Categories In Bonhoeffer, Books, Christian Living
2 Comments on Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Minister

Looking through some old stuff from my seminary retirement hobby I found this paper on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It was an assignment for the History of Christianity course taught by Dr. Mary Havens. Bonhoeffer is an especially interesting character because of the inherent contradiction of a minister with a reputation for pacifism both entertaining thoughts […]

The (Holy) Bible and (Christian) Theology

Listening to the Gospel reading this morning from Mark 10 about the young man who went away sad after Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give to the poor inspired some reflection on the difficulties we have understanding scripture and formulating a cohesive theology from it. A couple of things I learned […]

Stinginess Not Only Alternative to Philanthropy

Note: The material below was posted originally on permanentfixes.com but seemed to be of interest also to all of us who give to and through our churches and take tax deductions for such gifts. I have come to believe that is not a good thing and should be given up, along with other “sacred” tax […]

Comment on Ross Douthat’s “Bad Religion”

Maybe it is the journey beginning in the Southern Baptist Church of my youth and early adulthood, progressing through middle age commitments to a couple of “mainline” churches, and recently moving to the Catholic Church, hopefully for my remaining senior years, that caused me to enjoy so much Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became […]

Returning Thanks

If our power grids were to fail and our fuel supply chains were to be destroyed, we would, in just a few days, become a hunter gatherer society, foraging for food and drink, probably even without cash since the bank computers and ATM’s would be out of commission. We would stop obsessing about obesity, and […]

Church Labels and Modifiers: Liberal, Conservative, Etc.

Post author By Darryl Williams
Post date July 16, 2012
Categories In Church, Government, Theology

A Ross Douthat column in the July 14, 2012, NYT is titled, “Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?” It includes interesting data on trends in membership of the Episcopal Church and how those trends may be related to shifting positions on theological and social issues. The bottom line is that, while there is no proof of […]

Gifts, Beatitudes, Fruits, and Happiness

I have been following some pastoral advice and meditating on The Beatitudes for the past few weeks. I read Living the Beatitudes Today by Dodd and Heaven in Our Hands by Groeschel. And I actually read The Beatitudes in Matthew 5 a few times. Immersed in today’s goal-oriented American culture, it is easy to read […]

Love Means Having To Say I Am Sorry

Post author By Darryl Williams
Post date May 16, 2012
Categories In Theology
2 Comments on Love Means Having To Say I Am Sorry

As a recent Catholic convert, I’ve been thinking a lot about confession lately. It has been almost a year since being confirmed at St. Peter’s in Columbia, SC, and Catholic faithful “go to confession” at least once per year. I did it just prior to the confirmation, dumping on the priest a bunch of shameful […]

A Holy Week Meditation

Post author By Darryl Williams
Post date April 1, 2012
Categories In Bible, Theology

134 All sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, “because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ” – The Catholic Catechism The diagram below started with one I published earlier, Chaos to Church. I had some feedback and suggestions on that one, and […]

Chaos to Church

Below is an early version of a diagram which I developed a few years back after first hearing the term “henotheism” in a theology course at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and after some discussion of ecclesiology at that same institution. Who else but me is going to try to express in a simple diagram on […]