Sublime

The Pastor’s Personal Experience with Spiritual Decline

It may be that, subconsciously, we all settle for explanations we are predisposed to accept, and reject those we are predisposed against.

side had been originally predisposed to respond in a particular way to the problem posed by our existence and reject other solutions, another example of how we bring ourselves to the table whenever we debate these issues.

It put the Church on an unnecessary collision course with science and suggested to people that to be a Christian they had to screw themselves up to believe things they knew were not true and deny things they knew were true.

myth of American exceptionalism

if everyone must suffer, in order to buy eternal harmony with their suffering, pray tell me what children have to do with it?

Auschwitz God died, and we are alone in a pitiless universe.

liminal space where people are still exploring, examining the faith, and in community with those with deep faith is important.

The project of providing a rational vindication of morality had decisively failed; and from henceforward the morality of our predecessor culture—and subsequently of our own—lacked any public, shared rationale or justification. In a world of secular rationality religion could no longer provide such a shared background and foundation for moral