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Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Dion Forster receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF).The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. […]

My mom was the one who told me to watch The Big Bang Theory. It was a show about nerds—and I was a nerd. She thought I’d enjoy it. A friend had already mentioned that the main character, Sheldon Cooper, was “exactly like” me. After I watched the show, at Mom’s encouragement, I joked that I had mixed feelings about the comparison.The Big Bang Theory was extremely popular and not […]

Bill Hwang brought a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to court to read during jury selection.And during opening arguments on Monday, his Christian connections from New York packed out a courtroom to support him.He had given his investment firm a Christian name, held Wall Street Bible readings, and distributed millions to evangelical charities.But federal prosecutors at Hwang’s highly anticipated criminal trial are accusing the billionaire of being a mob boss mastermind […]

The film was familiar but the language was new for Come and See CEO Stan Jantz.As he sat in a theater in Warsaw, he looked around the room and saw people laughing and crying in the same places he had laughed and cried when he watched The Chosen, the popular streaming series that tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of the disciples. That was the moment of truth […]

Yesterday at church we enjoyed our biggest Good Friday service yet. That’s not a message for boasting, but rather one of thankfulness. Other churches are reporting similarly.Over this Easter weekend, our friends at The Age newspaper decided on taking a different angle. They want readers to feel a disenchantment over Christianity and the merit of alternative faiths.One of Australia’s worst-kept secrets is how nominal Christianity is declining. Naturally. Even the […]

Part of the process toward being ordained in the Episcopal church is clinical pastoral education (CPE). I have long thought it would be profitable for clergy who have recently gone through CPE to reflect on their experience and put it in writing. Every experience of CPE is particular, and so it is difficult to offer a far-reaching general narrative about it. However, my suspicion is that with the exception of […]

Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Dion Forster receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF).The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. […]

A recent advertisement from Apple for the new iPad Pro has somehow managed to existentially disturb me. Titled “Crush!” it shows an ominous hydraulic press above a platform filled with symbols of humanity, creativity, and joy: a metronome, guitar, classical statue, piano, analog cameras, books, paint, and more.The metronome starts, and the press descends to Sonny & Cher’s “All I Need Is You,” slowly obliterating everything in high-def slow motion, […]

Some people have put it bluntly: If you follow organized religion, you must be deluding yourself, living with severe cognitive dissonance or cherry picking to only accept ideas that make you feel comfortable. You are either not really intellectual or not really religious — you must be lacking in one or both of those areas. “As for what little religious belief remains among their colleagues, most professional philosophers regard it as […]