I just dicovered that if you want a category to show up in the category list you have to actually have posted something in that category. So, I thought I’d write a post and put it into all the various categories I have just recently added, so those categories will show up in my category list! Here are my new categories:

1. Gerard Manley Hopkins – One of my life goals is to write a devotional commentary on the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins. There is no writer in any language in any genre with whom my spirit resonates more. I look forward to a lifetime with Hopkins, and sharing the significance of his work.

2. Bart (the devil) Ehrman – OK, I don’t really think he is the devil, well, maybe sort of…I just think he has a chip on his shoulder and is taking his personal faith problems out on a huge number of unwitting college students and uncritical readers, and I want to do what I can to stick up for the integrity of the New Testament. I hear Ehrman is a really nice guy and quite a debater, though Steven Colbert put him in his place, not just once, but twice.

3. Being Human – It is a personal pet concern of mine that Christians not lose sight of the significant “humanness” of the Christian life and Christian spirituality. I also want to uphold  God’s concern for the physical created order. Thanks for the title goes to Ranald Macaulay and Jerram Barrs, and their great book “Being Human” which had a significant impact on my life.

4. Grappling with Genesis – I’ve thought of naming this category “Creation and Evolution” or “Faith and Science” and maybe I will, BUT, I have wanted for years to write about what I really think of the message and structure of Genesis One, and the concerns I have about evolution on the one side and intelligent design theories on the other. Now I get to.

5. Old Stuff – This is a new category containing all sorts of devotions, homilies, and Q and A’s I did as part of my role as a local church pastor. I don’t wish to present myself as a local church pastor now, and so I am sticking these together in a sort of archive category.

6. Politics – Ah, this will get me in trouble. Mainly I want to share thoughts about our form of government and the privilege we have in particupating in it, and maybe along the way try to debunk some political nonsense from the progressive left and the religious right.