Jordan Lenaghan

Contemporary biblical scholarship, history, and science need to be taken-for-granted parts of the homily or sermon, not hidden from the congregation out of fear of scaring the horses. liturgy.co.nz/the-sermon-thi…

The European mind can absolutely comprehend and recognize this for what it is: the personalization of power, the desacralization of democratic institutions, and the institutionalization of corruption.

After clash with Trump, Pope Leo sets new goal: to stop settler violence haaretz.com/israel-news/isra…

Pope Leo XIV Accepts Resignation of Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Albany; Appoints Bishop Mark O’Connell as Successor Read the full release at: ow.ly/Y31B50XeBKv

Horrible! 🙏

Since I started at Edinburgh, I've noticed a pattern that’s as humbling as it is concerning. I receive regular emails—usually from young Muslims between the teens and twenties—asking about belief in God, science and religion, evolution, miracles, and suffering. But beneath these questions lies something deeper and more structural. Many of these students are attempting to address contemporary theological issues without having studied the foundational tools of theology. They seek answers to complex modern problems, which exist within a specific matrix of history and development, but without exposure to the classical frameworks that give those answers their roots and coherence. This leads to an inversion: instead of starting with foundational theological training (ʿilm al-kalām), they’re thrown straight into the deep end. For some, the result is confusion, disconnection, sometimes despair. They’re hearing responses that assume a prior grounding in concepts they’ve never encountered, e.g., concepts like divine action, causality, substance, divine attributes, or the difference between necessary and contingent existence. This is part of the maze that many students find themselves in today. They are not just asking difficult questions, but doing so without a clear sense of how those questions fit within a broader theological framework. It is not that they lack sincerity or access to information. The problem is that the sequence of learning has become disordered. Foundational concepts are often unfamiliar, yet the challenges they face rely on those very foundations. This creates a disconnect between the level of the question and the ability to engage with it in a meaningful way. I do not have a straightforward answer to this. But the pattern has become difficult to ignore. It highlights a broader concern about how theological literacy is developed today and how students might be better supported in approaching complex questions with structure and clarity. It is something we should take seriously and think through carefully as a shared concern. God knows best.

Taybeh ist das einzige Dorf in der Westbank, in der ausschließlich Christen leben! Es gibt dort drei sehr lebendige Pfarreien: eine Griechisch-Orthodoxe, eine Melkitische Griechisch-Katholische und eine Lateinische. Wann endet dieser unfassbare Hass?