One reason many sincere Jesus followers spiritually peter out is that their lives resemble Sisyphus fighting gravity to roll the boulder up the hill. The Christian life, as it's been taught to them, is an unsustainable exercise of exhausting willpower. Is that The Way of Jesus, though? What if Jesus followers were instead mostly taught to put up their sails and channel the … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Prefers Unforced Rhythms of Grace to Spiritual Disciplines
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Beatnik Christianity Ain’t Afraid of Influence from Other World Religions
Alan Race first articulated the exclusivist-inclusivist-pluralist trichotomy model in 1982. This framework proposes three broad outlooks for how Jesus followers perceive other world religions. Each model contains nuanced permutations, but in the streamlined sense Exclusivism maintains there's no salvation possible in other religions, Inclusivism holds open the possibility that … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Ain’t Afraid of Influence from Other World Religions
Beatnik Christianity Reimagines and Recycles the Word Heretic
Right belief (orthodoxy) is to heresy as right conduct (orthopraxy) is to... what? The very fact that Christianity doesn't have an obvious correlative term tells you all you need to know. Instead of coining a new term, however, a more subversive path forward may be to sync belief and conduct by broadening out heretic to include any professing Jesus follower who severely … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Reimagines and Recycles the Word Heretic
Beatnik Christianity Refrains from Using the Word “Biblical” As A Divine Rubber Stamp
The comedian, Mike Birbiglia, has a hilarious bit about how everyone tries to get you to dance at clubs. With an intonation reflecting a complete lack of self-confidence he says, "They come up to you and say 'You gotta dance! you gotta dance!' And then I dance, and they're like, 'Not like that!'" That's precisely how I feel about the Bible. I grew up in churches that revered … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Refrains from Using the Word “Biblical” As A Divine Rubber Stamp
Beatnik Christianity Affirms the Mystical Interconnectedness of All Things
Have you ever heard of the Overview Effect? It's a cognitive shift reported by astronauts while looking at the Earth. It's a state of awe infused with a sense of self-transcendence. Astronaunt Mae Jemison reflected, "When you look at the Earth from space, you realize that our planet is a beautiful, interconnected system. We are all in this together." That's a powerful … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Affirms the Mystical Interconnectedness of All Things
