DET

"Sgt. Paul L. Anstine III, U.S. Marine Corps, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the start of the U.S. war in Iraq. (One might better put it: Not the start, but the escalation of a longer running war.) Without trying to analyze geo-political complexities, I invite us to ponder how the world might be different today if that invasion had not happened. The anniversary caught me off guard. As it happened, I had been reading some passages from William Stringfellow’s classic tract on discipleship and resistance, An Ethic for Christians and Others in a Strange Land (1973). He writes of the ubiquity and myriad proliferations of the principalities and powers that vie with each other for survival and ascendency as they afflict and oppress living human beings. Somehow, mysteriously, all these powers that be, great and small, serve one overarching force, which Stringfellow names as Death. [A]gain and again, with nations no less than other powers...

…or, Something to keep you busy over the weekend… …or, The Past Fortnight in the Theoblogosphere. Well, I’m getting back into the swing of these I think. It’s only been two months since the last updates post , which is much better than the nearly two year gap that preceded it. DET has been pretty active once again, as you will no doubt have noticed. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the series – and it’s primarily been series, the past couple months – that we’ve been working through. The links to all these recent posts are below but, as always, you can also access these and other DET series on the Serials Index page . If you want to keep up to date on DET goings on, and you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to use the box at the top of the left menu to subscribe to DET and receive updates in your email inbox whenever we get something posted. And now, without further ado, here’s what’s been happening at DET: §1 Approaching Galatians (session 1, part 1)—Paul’s Letter to the Ga...

"Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple,” by Theodoor Rombouts, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons So Lent (for those who observe it) is about getting one’s inner spiritual house tidied up first so that one might be a more effective disciple and social justice warrior, right? Wrong! Daniel Berrigan, at least, would have demurred. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never really read this notorious Jesuit poet and radical peace activist, so I’m trying to rectify this neglect and make a fresh start during this penitential season of new beginnings by engaging this anthology from Orbis’ superb Modern Spiritual Masters Series . Berrigan (1921-2016), a critically acclaimed poet and biblical interpreter who wrote around 50 books, earned international notoriety -- and FBI surveillance! -- in the 1960s through his trenchant critiques and prophetic actions against the war in Southeast Asia. In 1968, the tumultous year that witnessed the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King,...