American society has officially accomplished the impossible. Against all odds, we've somehow managed to become both prudish and licentious, stoic and hedonistic, stifled and boisterous in our sexual expression. I don't know whether to be impressed or annoyed. Personally, I wish we didn't have to worry about Victoria's Secret commercials that teach little boys to objectify women … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Disavows the American Legacy of Puritanical Erotic Suppression
Stoicism
Beatnik Christianity Is Sex-Positive
Christian culture has long taught an unhealthy, unnatural, androcentic, and repressive view of human sexuality that appears blissfully unaware of Song of Songs. I'm not denying that Christians ever say positive things about sex, but even when they do the ratio is usually all wrong. The enculturated formula tends to prescribe two-thirds negativity to one-third positivity. If … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Is Sex-Positive
Beatnik Christianity Supports An Unapologetically Positive Theology of Pleasure
After 2,000 years of avoidance, it's high time that Jesus followers develop a holistic, nuanced, and overtly positive theology of pleasure. This whole time Christian culture has been, at best, dubious because of the precedents established by Stoicism's ethical influence upon the emerging Christian community in the Greco-Roman world. There's a reason we've got a word for the … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Supports An Unapologetically Positive Theology of Pleasure
Beatnik Christianity Rejects the Obsession with Outward Appearances of Piety
The 19th century Holiness Movement has been largely forgotten outside of Wesleyan circles, but its permeating influence upon global Christianity continues. The movement called for the "consecration" of a Christian's whole life and the pursuit of "entire sanctification" that purged sin from one's soul through a "second work of grace." The ultimate goal being not only intimacy … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Rejects the Obsession with Outward Appearances of Piety
Beatnik Christianity Minimizes Polite Gentility And Maximizes Robust Civility
In an interview with On Being's Krista Tippett, Richard Mouw suggested, "A lot of people today who have strong convictions are not very civil and a lot of people who are civil don't have very strong convictions. What we really need is convicted civility." In that same interview, the former president of Fuller Seminary also observed, "Too often in life we proceed with a … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Minimizes Polite Gentility And Maximizes Robust Civility
