Catalyst Publications
Publications by Category
Just recently, in my eighth year as a pastor, serving my fourth congregation, for the first time, I found myself in one of the most stereotyped pastoral circumstances: the middle of the night phone call to tell me that a congregation member…
Nov/14/2022
"In a revealed religion, silence with God has a value in itself and for its own sake, just because God is God. Failure to recognize the value of merely being with God, as the beloved, without doing anything, is to gouge the heart out of Chr…
Nov/09/2022
“To teach is to create a space where obedience to truth is practiced.”
(Parker Palmer, To Know as We Are Known)
Despite all anecdotal evidence to the contrary, traffic circles do not exist to test the skill of drivers or the agility of th…
Nov/07/2022
When I first drafted my proposal for the book that would become Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (Baker Academic, 2022), my literary agent had some feedback.…
Nov/02/2022
When most Christians think of worship and liturgy, mission is not the first thing that comes to mind. We mostly agree that worship is central to who we are and that it is an essential aspect of what it means to be a believer. But while we m…
Oct/26/2022
In various contexts, I often hear or read the word biblical. In my experience, it’s typically used in reference to theological perspectives, moral decisions, or worldviews in general. One might, for instance, refer to biblical views on weal…
Oct/24/2022
Systematic theology is a vast field with a wide range of sub-disciples and a seemingly endless number of scholarly approaches. It is nearly impossible to keep up with the number of publications annually, so a list of recommended books in sy…
Oct/19/2022
It may come as a surprise to the uninitiated in United Methodist history that the word United was not originally, formally associated with “the people called Methodists.” When and why did United come into the denomination’s name, and does i…
Oct/17/2022
“You want me to finish this book,” I said to my husband. It was early in March 2020—just one month before my manuscript deadline and just days before COVID-19 shut down the world. At the time I was an associate dean in the Graduate School a…
Oct/12/2022
When I was young, my grandmother had strict rules against working on Sundays. We were not allowed to do household chores, work in the yard, or do other such jobs. She insisted that we remember the day as one to rest from our work. She was s…
Oct/10/2022
One of the prominent movements influencing American politics today is Christian nationalism. This is not a new phenomenon. Christian nationalism in one form or another has existed throughout American history. Nor is it uniquely American, as…
Oct/05/2022
“Belonging” seems to be a new buzzword. Everywhere I turn at my university people are talking about how students leave because they don’t feel that they belong, or we come up with new programs to help students feel that they belong here (so…
Oct/03/2022
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A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE) John Wesley Fellowships have been awarded to three doctoral stud…
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Announcing that 2026 John Wesley Fellowship Scholarship Applications are now being accepted. Please see the at…
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JWF and Friends of AFTE, we look forward to you joining us Thursday-Sunday, January 15-18, 2026, for the AFTE …
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Twenty John Wesley Fellows, spouses, and friends were able to experience a trip of a lifetime. The travel itin…
"The John Wesley Fellowship provides not only financial support, it is an extraordinary community of Christian scholars — and friends."