Category Archives: Theology and Philosophy

No surprise, but when you peal back the world and try to dig around to see how it works conceptually, it’s a complex place. When you want to know how people and God or people and people, it get’s that much more complex and at moments can move from hideous to beautiful, from gut wrenching to awe inspiring.

Adoption and Identity: A Different Type of Purity

Posted on August 16, 2015 by Sean Smith

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Adoption, Fulfillment, Grace, Happiness, Identity, Jewish, Mechanism of Grace, Pretenders to the Throne, Purity, Sexual Abstinence | Leave a comment

What Should Christians be Reading? A Few Thoughts

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Sean Smith

Reading effects how we view the world. From the fiction of J.K. Rowling to the insidious works of Fitzgerald, from the pages of the Bible to the writings of Thomas Malthus, reading molds our heads. So, what in the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Fiction in Review, Non-Fiction in Review, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Books, Christian, Empathy, pop-christian, reading, secular, Spiritual, Sympathy | Leave a comment

Motivation and Four Types of Fatigue

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Sean Smith

Someone asked me a question about motivation today, and frankly, I have a unique experience with motivation and loosing all motivation only to carry on in some sort of empty way. The daily work of acquiring and spending motivation is … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Fitness, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Dreams, Existential, Fatigue, Friendship, Hiking, Motivation, Muscular, physiology, Psychological, Running, Spiritual, Studying, Support, Swimming | 2 Comments

Backpacking with the Saints

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Sean Smith

Earlier this year I set out planning a liturgical backpacking trip. After spending sometime working up my little project one morning, I escaped for a bit checking the mail only to find one of my favorite corespondents – the Oxford University … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Non-Fiction in Review, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Backpacking, Beldon C. Lane, New Mexico, Oxford Press, Pecos Wilderness, Saints | Leave a comment

Twister, a Swimming Pool, and Prayer

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Sean Smith

Put your hand here, balance there, take one foot into the air… One of the profoundly honest things that I encountered in “Do Your Om Thing” is the concept of physical prayer. When you twist into a pretzel, there is … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Fitness, Non-Fiction in Review, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Ambition, Body positions in prayer, Cycling, Do Your Om Thing, Penitence, Physicality in Prayer, playing, Prayer, Running, Swimming, Twister, Yoga | Leave a comment

Anti-Christ’s in John’s First Epistle

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Sean Smith

Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Non-Fiction in Review, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged 1 John, Anti-Christ, Antichrist, Church, Cohesion, Community, Johannine Epistle, Leavers, Love | Leave a comment

Foundations in Love: Uti and Frui

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Sean Smith

The foundation of any structure keeps it in line – keeps the frame standing. A good architect puts up a building in such an order that the pieces combine together to function in unison. One of the prayers I have been enjoying … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Love, Order, Uti and Frui | 3 Comments

Review – Do Your Om Thing

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Sean Smith

Curiosity drives quite a few of my book choices, and after attempting following the yoga routines on runner’s world made by Rabecca Pacheco and reading a couple of her blog entries, I was favorably impressed with her writing and fitness. … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Non-Fiction in Review, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Christian, Do Your Om Thing, Encountering God, God, gods, Hindu, Hinduism, Om Girl, Rebecca Pacheco, Theology of the Body | Leave a comment

St. Patrick’s Insight into the Love of Christ

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Sean Smith

St. Patty deserves a little bit of love. Not just for his pretty incredible holiday, but also because he put into a prayer a world view that helps us the value in each person – in other words it reframes … Continue reading →

Posted in Church, Practices of Faith, Theology and Philosophy | Tagged Augustine, Bonhoeffer, Ireland, Lorica, Love of God and Neighbor, St. Patrick | Leave a comment

Leave No Trace and the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Sean Smith

Leave No Trace is the ethos of the backwoods…. Ok, it’s just a ‘pick-up-after-yourself’ program for the backwoods. The ethos of the backwoods has to be a bit beyond it otherwise this whole backwoods prayerbook project is just silly. It … Continue reading →