Those who have been following my work will know that I have been highlighting the concept of “Exile” as a kind of catch-all category to describe ideas like divine weakness, folly, and (what Luther called) the theology of the cross. Further, I am placing Exile in contradistinction from “Empire,” which is the source of ideas […]
WRITING
Religious Trauma: What Does Spiritual Abuse Look Like?
When most people hear the phrase “religious trauma” or “spiritual abuse,” they immediately jump to the conclusion that it denotes some form of sexual molestation. It may, but that doesn’t mean it must. Spiritual abuse certainly (and unfortunately) can take the form of sexual violence or assault. Whether it’s a pastor, priest, Sunday school teacher, […]
Religious Trauma: Its Nature and Symptoms
Various definitions have been suggested for the concept of religious trauma; I’ll offer my own: Religious trauma involves the lingering ill-effects of any type of spiritual abuse, whether physical or emotional. This may sound too broad, but that’s exactly the challenge that faces the sufferers of religious trauma, namely, that the abuse can be subtle […]
Gen-XYL: The Lexicons of Exile & Empire
I concluded my last post by asking some questions that I’d like to unpack here: So given this overarching rubric of Exile and Empire, what familiar terms belong where? Where does church belong? What about kingdom? Into which category should we place ideas like dogma, heresy, canon, and essentials/non-essentials? And what about grace, weakness, and the folly of the cross? Where do they fit? And […]
Gen-XYL: Exile vs. Empire
Now that I have whetted your appetite by hinting at various applications of the theme of exile, I’d like to take a step back and consider the idea more broadly. What do I mean by exile? As I pointed out in my first post in this series, “exile” is used in the Hebrew scriptures literally […]
Gen-XYL: The Rending of the Veil
I’d be willing to wager that most Millennials and Gen-Xers have seen the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (well the guys anyway). Perhaps the most memorable scene in the movie is when the Nazis, who had discovered and taken possession of the Ark of the Covenant, decided to open it. But first, some background…. […]