Thomas Bridges

Invisible Children: A Political Theology for Emerging Humanitarians

[Editor’s note: the following is a guest post written by Scott Schomburg, who is an M.Div ’13 candidate at Duke Divinity School, with research interests in political theology and contemporary humanitarianism. A previous version of this was posted here] A new generation of humanitarians is coming-of-age in North America, turned toward an image of Africa in […]

Thomas Bridges

Why is the church important? (A note on the eschatological roots of Christianity)

A friend of mine who serves in a ministerial position prompted me with the question, “Why is the church important?” Obviously this is a very broad and opened ended question, without parameters—other than knowing his purpose was to teach young people in a retreat setting. However, rather than go through a whole proper prolegomena, I […]

Thomas Bridges

We are back!

We apologize for the hiatus from this blog, but things are changing! Due to personal reasons of a different nature for each of us, keeping this blog going and building momentum was not in the cards until now, so we have decided to publish regular pieces this semester and see where we stand this winter. […]

Thomas Bridges

Is The State More than the Power of the Sword? (In Conversation with Yoder)

As is well known, a reading of the New Testament in the Radical Reformation tradition (and, in my opinion, an honest reading of it by anyone) displays a standard for disciples of Jesus the Christ that includes a rejection of the power of the sword. This community of disciples embarked on a trajectory that would […]

Thomas Bridges

Focus on the Family Theology turns into Drug Cartel Political Theology

A friend of mine brought to my attention an amazing example of “political theology” on the ground: La Familia Michoacana, a drug cartel and organized crime syndicate in the Mexican state of Michoacán. I am a doubter when it comes to grand narratives of how political action is the direct development of theological ideas, though […]

Thomas Bridges

Between Old Athens and New Jerusalem—and Outside of Both

Justice outside the city. This title is meant to evoke several things, including irony, for it was outside the city of Jerusalem that the Gospels says Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. For Christians—and we count ourselves among them—it was outside the city that we murdered God, in the ultimate act of injustice. We also read […]