×

Influencer des Jahres 2025: Jesus Christus

Das prognostiziert jedenfalls eine der am wenigsten christlichen Institutionen des Landes: Das schwedische Fernsehen SVT. /// At least that's the prediction of one of the country's least Christian institutions: Swedish television SVT.

Read out all

Homo Deus without vibrancy

Hartmut Rosa's "Resonance" and Harari's "Homo Deus" help me to have a better understanding of the turn of the year.

Read out all

Der Mann, der (fast) alles voraussah

Anstelle des üblichen Weihnachtskitsch gebe ich heute - passend zur literarischen Reise, auf der ich mich befinde - lieber ein Porträt des Autors, Soziologen, Historikers, Philosophen und Theologen, der meiner Meinung nach besser als jede andere Person beschrieben hat, was die Fleischwerdung des Himmels im Westen des 20. Jahrhunderts konkret bedeutet.

Read out all

The man who foresaw (almost) everything

Instead of the usual Christmas kitsch with aspic and gravy, and in keeping with the literary journey I'm on, I'd rather give you a portrait of the author, sociologist, historian, philosopher and theologian who, in my opinion, has described better than anyone else what the incarnation of heaven actually means in the West of the 20th century.

Read out all

Wüstenstimme 🕯️🕯️🕯️Desert voice

Der heutige dritte Advent steht hierzulande im Zeichen des Vorläufers Jesu, Johannes des Täufers. 🕯️🕯️🕯️Here in this country, the third Sunday of Advent is celebrated under the motto of Jesus' forerunner, John the Baptist.

Read out all

Not in God’s Name

The last blog entry was about the expedition I have embarked on to uncover subconscious thought patterns. It takes me away from social media and into the world of good books. This entry is from the first part of this journey.

Read out all

Nicht im Namen Gottes

Der vergangene Blogeintrag handelte von der Expedition, auf die ich mich begeben habe, um unterbewusste Denkmuster zu entlarven. Sie führt mich weg von sozialen Medien in die Welt der guten Bücher. Dieser Eintrag ist von der ersten Reisetappe.

Read out all

Big Doubts

Not about faith. About the 'enlightened' West.

Read out all

“Jesus never came with blatant propaganda”

Christian dialogue with those who think differently serves our own strength, maturity and credibility. Above all, however, it prevents the extinction of the European church. “I agree with atheists on a lot, basically almost everything, except that God doesn’t exist,” says Czech priest Tomáš Halík. I found this statement so beneficial that I keep picking […]

Read out all

Ash Wednesday 2022

It feels gloomy, despite the approaching spring. No matter who you talk to, there is always this uncertain something in the room, a latent restlessness, as if we had just discovered a sleeping monster that might just be waking up. Yesterday we were still firmly convinced that monsters didn’t exist at all, because after all, […]

Read out all

ὁλόκαυστος

Painting by Paul Gauguin: The Devil Speaks (1894). If non-Germans ask me outside Germany about Hitler and the extermination of the Jews, I can take it as a personal honor: They obviously feel safe enough to discuss this dark chapter of German history with me (others prefer to avoid the topic in the presence of […]

Read out all

How does Climate Change Affect the Human Soul?

Over the past year it has become increasingly challenging for me to observe how evangelicals are way too busy with their own little church activities while being perfectly equipped to help the world tackling the climate crisis. This lecture, taught at Communitas virtual Europe conference in 2021, is an attempt of connecting classical free church […]

Read out all

What if this was a war?

Actually, I shouldn’t be writing blog posts at all right now. I rather should be sitting in our garden, enjoying a glass of juice, or at least bringing the garden back into shape, which we have let overgrown for far too many years. But gardening is torture in this scorching heat, the dripping sweat is […]

Read out all

Matters of Power

Before my annual missiology lectures begin next week, I don’t just have to update my lessons and presentations this week. I also need to sort my thoughts on what happened last week, and my blog is a great place to do so. On Thursdays, when I usually work for ALT* a maximum of four people […]

Read out all

Ekklesia – Heavenly Politics In this World yet Not Of this World

It was the German lawyer, politician and revolutionary Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker who came up with a quote that can be pretty disturbing. He emigrated to the USA – twice. He fought diligently for the improvement of the political systems of Prussia but he also ran into some frustration. It was after his second journey […]

Read out all

Thinklings

I’m very proud to announce that we’re having a second round of Thinklings this year, starting today. This is our guiding topic: How do we give order, meaning, and resilience to Christ-communities under what are likely to be increasingly stressful circumstances? How shall the church maintain the integrity of our witness to the living God […]

Read out all

The Futures

Recently I’ve started to immerse myself a little more academically into the subject of future studies. Some might consider this subject as odd as laying Tarot cards, reckoning the whole future thing a pseudo science. And yet we all have to admit that man’s desire for a better understanding of the future is as old […]

Read out all

Eine Theologie des Mundschutzes

(de/en [page 2]) Jahrelang trieb ich mich in diversen OP-Sälen herum, wohnte Gefälligkeiten wie Schädelöffnungen oder Amputationen bei. Obwohl ich wusste, wie die Luft eines OPs verteilt und gefiltert werden muss, um den Saal so sicher und keimfrei wie möglich zu halten, trugen alle im OP ein Ding im Gesicht, das uns alle gleichmachte: Einen […]

Read out all

Pandemic Prayer

(en) For several weeks our European Communitas* community have held Monday afternoon meetings for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the unusual times we’re finding ourselves in. One thing we identified is the weak theology of suffering we find in many contemporary free churches. God, the Bible, and Life almost always needs to […]

Read out all

Let’s get serious! (en)

From a missiological point of view the time has come for the Wesern church to be a much more convincing witness. In the West, Christians are losing increasingly more ground. We simply could deny that fact, we also could mourn it, or we can see it as an opportunity. Personally I’m regarding it as an […]

Read out all
Faith and Doubt

What is Freedom? -Featuring Bruxy Cavey, Canada (se/en)

Tro & Tvivel (Faith & Doubt) podcast 5 This episode is a liverecording from the Faith & Doubt Event in August 2018. The Canadian theologian and Pastor Bruxy Cavey shares thoughts and answers to questions about what freedom is, among other subjects. Introduction in Swedish.

Read out all

Treacherous friends (3): Plato (en/de)

GERMAN TRANSLATION HERE / ZUR DEUTSCHEN ÜBERSETZUNG The student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle is one of the greatest Greek philosophers. But allowing him to become a main theologian was a huge mistake. It’s the cause of many problems and soon it could even end in death. My first approaches to girls happened during […]

Read out all

Treacherous Friends (2): Status Quo (en/de)

GERMAN TRANSLATION HERE / ZUR DEUTSCHEN ÜBERSETZUNG No, I’m not talking about the band. I’m talking about our present state of development, our way of life, our condition, shape. A dirty cunning lad, this Status Quo. He tells us the tale of eternal growth, new opportunities, valuable increases in sales or breasts. He promises updates […]

Read out all

Treacherous Friends (1): Liberalism (en/de)

GERMAN TRANSLATION HERE / ZUR DEUTSCHEN ÜBERSETZUNG Christians are called to be “in this world” yet “not of this world”. That is what Jesus prayed the fateful night before his execution. And yet, Christians have been tempted by some mysterious forces to be more “of this world,” but not really “in this world.” One of […]

Read out all

Love the God of the Future! (en)

In March 2019 the first European Future Church Symposium ever took place in Amsterdam. The second out of three plenary talks presents God as the one who constantly challenges us to look into the future by using our imagination – as opposed to constantly looking into the past what many churches usually do. (Speaker: Marcus […]

Read out all