Against Christian Misanthropy: Why Following Jesus Means Embracing Human Flourishing

According to David Gushee in After Evangelicalism, “Christian humanism” basically means “orienting our lives by a version of Christian faith that is compassionately realistic about the human condition, reflects the best of human knowledge, and enables all kinds of human beings to truly flourish. It’s humane and for human well-being.” If this is the case, then the opposite of Christian humanism might be called Christian misanthropy (misanthropy: “a hatred or distrust of humankind”). ...

August 6, 2025 · 7 min · joshuapsteele

No Kings

No kings, save One, the King of Kings, whose kingdom peace and justice brings. No kings, but He who blessed the poor, and binds their wounds forevermore. No kings, except the Crucified, who, on a tyrant’s cross, died – No kings! – to save the last, the least, and bring them to His wedding feast. No kings, save One, who wore a crown of bitter thorns upon His brow. No kings, but He who rose to save, to lift the outcasts from their grave. ...

June 14, 2025 · 1 min · joshuapsteele

Taking Scripture and Women’s Ordination Seriously: A Response to Blake Johnson and Lee Nelson

Editor’s Note: Thank you to the Rev. Dr. Emily McGowin for writing this rejoinder to Fr. Blake Johnson’s and Fr. Lee Nelson’s responses to her original blog post about the in persona Christi argument against women’s ordination. While we invite this conversation (about McGowin’s original blog post) to continue in our comments section and elsewhere—and we plan to publish more about women’s ordination in the future—we will not be adding surrejoinder blog posts. ...

November 18, 2019 · 15 min · Emily McGowin

If Women Can Be Saved, Then Women Can Be Priests: A Critique of the 'in persona Christi' Argument Against Women's Ordination

Editor’s Note: The piece below represents the opinion of the author. Anglican Pastor does not take a site-wide position for or against women’s ordination. We do, however, require both clarity and charity. We ask that your responses to it do so as well. After reading this piece, please see Lee Nelson’s response and Emily McGowin’s rejoinder. The connection between christology and soteriology A cornerstone of orthodox Christian theology is summed up in the phrase “what is not assumed is not healed”. The phrase is echoed by many early church fathers, but it is credited to St. Gregory of Nazianzus. ...

September 26, 2019 · 10 min · Emily McGowin