News flash: preaching involves writing. I study writing, and I have studied the writing that preachers do, and I am here to tell you: writing is a huge part of preaching. And writing is really, really difficult. The most difficult thing about writing isn’t always anything in the writing, it’s actually just doing the writing at all. Forcing yourself to…
For a writing scholar and teacher, for a person who more than once a week sits on the carpet writing alongside children, for a person who teaches adults to journal and grad students how to own their knowledge, for a person with a blog (!)…. I have a hard time writing about myself. A really hard time. I’d rather write…
I can’t say enough good things about this list of important women theologians over on Englewood Review of Books. Some I was familiar with, and others were new to me. All are examples of women writing about God, in a diverse array of perspectives. And can I just say, the word theologian hasn’t really kept a lot of currency in the…
Because I’m a writing scholar, I see everywhere the writing of narratives. Of course I mean the literal writing of narratives, as when I tell a story here, in words. But I also see everywhere how we write and revise the narratives of our lives, of identities, of our memberships and intentions. This idea isn’t mine, nor is it new.…
I’ve never been one to have signs in my yard. No “Welcome Spring!” flag; no ads for my political candidates of choice. They seemed tacky to me, like clutter right out front where everyone can see. And they felt like oversharing: Why does some person driving by care who I’m voting for? Without knowing me, what is that recommendation even worth?…
Every once in a while, your varied passions and concerns link up. It’s like a little explosion of coherence, when your different strands of living suddenly line up and start playing together in a single thematic convergence. It happened to me when I heard this “found poem” made from a sermon, in the first episode of a new podcast. The sermon-poem…
My one notebook reflects the integrity across my various gifts and arenas. I think this is how God wants me to be—extending my ministry to all the places I go, as professor, mom, friend, and perhaps pastor. I’m moving forward with candidacy in that spirit of wholeness.