Fleming Rutledge reflects on Christian life as a time of waiting, doubt, and preparation. In the last week of his life, Jesus went to the temple every day to teach. He was engaged in a fight to the death, literally, with the religious leaders. This whole section of the Gospel of Matthew is always read …
Fleming Rutledge on the value of considering the incarnation of Jesus after considering the second coming: Does Advent run backwards? The movement is from the second coming to the first coming; it doesn’t seem to make sense. The season begins with the last things and ends with the nativity in Bethlehem. Shouldn’t it be the …
I’ll be working through Fleming Rutledge’s just released collection of materials gathered together in book form and titled Advent. From her introductory essay: Because the church in modern times has turned away from the proclamation of the second coming, which Jesus repeatedly says will come by God’s decision at an hour we do not expect, …
Fleming Rutledge skewers the central conceit behind the supposed superiority of being ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘religious’: they’re both manifestations of the same condition. Humans need neither. What they need is justification through Christ. From Rutledge: Spirituality, too, like religion, is essentially a human activity or trait that stands in stark contrast to faith. To put …
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