Identity and Purpose

I am a Christian.

What does that mean? One of the purposes of this blog, a minor one, is to answer that question. What am I? How do I classify myself? Unfortunately, most of the descriptors I can use for myself are negative: I am not a fundamentalist, I am not a literalist, I am not an atheist, nor am I a relativist. Surely there is some description that deals with what I am, rather than what I am not.

The primary purpose of this blog is to explore what it means to live in a world where there does exist a thing called the sacred. Being a Christian myself, I will primarily discuss Christianity here, but it may not be the only thing I talk about. Posts will often concern Biblical text, and there will be at least one post on Sundays and Thursdays that will always concern Biblical text. Other posts may deal with other aspects of religion or spirituality. Most will probably be related to Christianity, but everything will be related to humanity as a whole.

This blog is not discriminatory. Fundamentalists, literalists, atheists, and relativists are free to read and comment. It should go without saying that I welcome discourse from adherents of other religions, but I'll say it anyway. Agree or disagree with me, I don't mind. Feel free to argue with me, or if I'm factually inaccurate, even correct me.

I am not a professional Biblical scholar, though I am a student of religious studies. I do not profess to know "everything there is to know" about the Bible. I am a scholar, however, as is anyone who wishes to join me in this endeavor. The first time a person opens the Bible to read it in a scholarly fashion, they are a Biblical scholar. So join me; let’s learn something.