Permit me to stay with the book, A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community (2017), by John Pavlovitz, a little while longer.
One of the biggest barriers to a deepening spirituality is a lack of authenticity. Not being openly honest with oneself and with others about our doubts, fears and visions has a similar effect as throwing a wet blanket over a small fire.
Once I had laid to rest the notion of hell as conscious, eternal torment for the unbelieving masses, I naively assumed that my journey with hell was over.
Over the past decade or so I have documented my theological journey away from a belief in hell defined as conscious, eternal torment for the vast majority of humans who have ever lived.
In his book, Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr contends that in order to develop a deep and comprehensive spirituality it is essential that we learn to “live in the now”.
In 1965, Bill Bright of Campus Crusade was looking for a tool to assist his organization carry out evangelism on college campuses and beyond.
During the past few years I have been invited to walk the labyrinth a number of times as a means of connecting with my true self and with God; that is to experience a personal and spiritual transformation.
If it is true, as we have asserted earlier, that we all begin life in a state of “original blessing” instead of a state of “original sin,” we could say that our default orientation in life is to live out that true identity as created by God.
About a year ago, I wrote a series of essays on the topic of original sin, based on John E. Toews’ book, The Story of Original Sin.
If one remains in the realm of Biblicism, as we have defined it earlier, one can only trust the Bible to be true – and thus a guide for true spirituality – if in fact it is entirely accurate according to modern understandings.
