Modern Christianity has, for better or worse, largely become hyper-fixated on what happens to us after we die. Whole denominations and doctrines have been constructed around the idea that those who hold the right beliefs about Jesus will enjoy eternal reward, while those who don’t will face eternal punishment.

In that light, Jesus’ mission becomes focused only on spiritual teachings. But what if Jesus came not to show us how to be more spiritual, but how to be more human?

According to Franciscan Friar, author, and public theologian Richard Rohr in our discussion video this week, viewing the resurrection as the one-time reanimation of Jesus’ physical body as a symbol of the post-mortem heaven awaiting our disembodied spirit misses the point entirely. Instead, Rohr claims, we should see the resurrection as a sign that nothing dies…it merely changes form.

Please join us in the Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom this Sunday, May 25, as we wrap up our Easter season series on various theologies of resurrection with a conversation about how the cross shows us the path not to spiritual perfection, but to becoming fully human in the way of Jesus the Christ.

6:00pm ET: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm ET: Presentation & conversation begin

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Check out this week’s discussion video!

Click here to view this week’s discussion video on The Work of the People (email address required, no subscription necessary)

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Join us for our summer book study: Braiding Sweetgrass

We’re going to try something new this summer!

Instead of our regular weekly gatherings through the summer months, we’re going to do a monthly meeting to discuss Robin Wall Kimmerer’s runaway bestseller, Braiding Sweetgrass.

As a botanist, teacher, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Kimmerer infuses her storytelling with indigenous wisdom to help us see how all things are connected, and how our own destiny as the human species is intricately interwoven with our planet and its non-human inhabitants.

From the book’s page on the Milkweed Editions website:

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.

This June-September, we’ll meet on the first Sunday of every month to discuss pertinent selections and overall themes of Braiding Sweetgrass as we seek to further our spiritual formation as a community through Kimmerer’s compelling narrative.

Here’s our Summer Book Study schedule:

Sunday, June 1: Setting the stage: introduction to Braiding Sweetgrass (no reading required)

Sunday, July 6: Sections 1 & 2 (Planting Sweetgrass, Tending Sweetgrass)

Sunday, Aug. 3: Sections 3 & 4 (Picking Sweetgrass, Braiding Sweetgrass)

Sunday, Sept. 7: Section 5 & Epilogue (Burning Sweetgrass, Returning the Gift)

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