Posts By This Author

The Ground is Shifting

by Glen H. Stassen 11-02-2012
Excerpt from "A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in a Secular Age," by Glen H. Stassen

OURS IS AN age of interaction, mobility, and change. Unlike most of our grandparents, many of us have moved several times in our lifetimes and have seen our neighbors move in and out. We are more intensely aware, even in our own neighborhoods, that our kind of faith is not the only kind. We see how others have been shaped by very different histories than our own. It becomes clear to us that we, too, have been shaped—and continue to be shaped—by our own history.

Fuller Theological Seminary, where I teach, is in California. Every now and then we feel the ground shifting. The chandelier in our dining room swings or the bed on which we are lying begins to rock. The whole world may not be experiencing little earthquakes as we are, but people are surely experiencing change and variety in faiths and ideologies. This change and diversity can rock a person’s faith. We ask, How do we validate the truth of what we perceive and what we believe? In our time of pluralistic encounter with multiple ideologies and religions and with rapid social, economic, and political change, people search for what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called solid ground to stand on.

Philip Clayton teaches at Claremont Theological Seminary in California. He attended the mainline Presbyterian church that had been his church home since elementary school, plus an evangelical Bible study group, a charismatic prayer meeting once a week in a Pentecostal church, the Assemblies of God church, and a community of “Jesus People.” He writes:

Most of us know friends, colleagues, or acquaintances who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim; Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist; atheist, agnostic, “doubting believers”; pantheist, panentheist, neo-pagan; Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Church of God; Baha’i, Zoroastrian, perennialist—the list goes on and on. Faced with such a confusing array of options, more and more Americans are choosing not to choose ... You have to admit, pretty much everything these days is up for grabs. We are in the midst of the most rapid social and technological change that our species has ever undergone.

Stassen and Gushee: An Open Letter to Christian Zionists

by Glen H. Stassen 09-20-2011

American Christian Zionism is pushing the U.S. government to support Israeli policies that our international friends find immoral and illegal.

We have come to believe that Christian Zionism underwrites theft of Palestinian land and oppresses Palestinian people, helps create the conditions for an explosion of violence, and pushes US policy in a destructive direction that violates our nation's commitment to universal human rights.

We write as evangelical Christians committed to Israel's security. We worry about your support for policies that violate biblical warnings about injustice and may lead to the destruction of Israel.

What Actually Works?

by Glen H. Stassen 06-01-2009

The right supports can reduce abortion rates.

Challenging Obama on Abortion

by Glen H. Stassen 05-18-2009

This is a challenge to President Obama and Congress written in light of his commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame.

A Manual for Living

by Glen H. Stassen 08-01-2006

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the gems of the New Testament, comprised as it is of the spare beauty of the Beatitudes and the solemn pleas of the Lord’s Prayer.

Winning The Peace

by Glen H. Stassen 01-01-2005

For peacemaking to be effective, we must not only say no to war, but provide viable alternatives.

Ten Practices of Just Peacemaking

by Glen H. Stassen 01-01-2005

1. Support nonviolent direct action.

How Christian is Zionism?

by Glen H. Stassen, by Leslie C. Allen 07-01-2003

What the Bible says about

Back to Jesus' Way

by Glen H. Stassen 11-01-2000
How the church became entangled in death—and the way out.

Nonviolence in Time of War

by Glen H. Stassen 07-01-1999

10 principles for peacemaking in Kosovo.

Incarnating Ethics

by Glen H. Stassen 03-01-1999
We're called to faithful discipleship, not creedal rigidity.

Disciples of the Incarnation

The witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Christian rescuers of Jews informs our discipleship today.

God's Transforming Initiative

by Glen H. Stassen 04-01-1992

Turning toward the Sermon on the Mount

Petitioning God For Peace

by Glen H. Stassen 04-01-1981

How churches are beginning to pray on Memorial Day