Kristin Swenson

Epiphany’s Choice and the Environment: In Reverence to Honor, or in Fear to Destroy

Bible, Bible and ecology, Blog, Ecology, Holidays, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Politics / By kswenson

Hang on, you there, packing up the Christmas lights, dismantling the tree, boxing up the crèche with its cast of characters and that long-tailed star. Christmas is not over. Sure, come December 26th, it may have been all over for the “Little Drummer Boy,” Bing Crosby, and the Nutcracker; but not quite for Christmas. The …

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Millet’s Calf, a Newborn Jesus, and God of Earth

Animals, Blog, Church, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, religious holidays / By kswenson

Maybe it’s the way the light falls, illuminating the bed of straw like some upside-down and disheveled halo, all gold and shimmery, on which the baby lies – a baby cow, in this case. Or maybe it’s the calf’s beatific face, alert and looking straight out at us from the center of the canvas. I …

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On This Feast Day of the Ass

angels and demons, Animals, Bible, Blog, Holidays / By kswenson

Happy Feast Day of the Ass! No kidding. Animals get short shrift in religious beliefs and practice (apart from the Hindu cow, and sacrifice, of course), so I found it quite wonderful to stumble on an old tradition celebrating the biblical donkey. For a time, Christians seriously honored the animal who brought a pregnant Mary …

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Christmas, Fact and Fiction

ancient Near East, angels and demons, Bible, Blog, Holidays, Inspiration, Writing / By kswenson

*A version of this article is also available on The Huffington Post. “We, three kings of Orient are,” intone the guys in robes and crowns. But were they really three, or kings for that matter, and from where exactly did they come? Every year at this time, questions about historicity – what really happened (and …

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The Radical Vulnerability of God

Holidays, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Peace, religious holidays / By kswenson

As far as religious paradox goes, the radical vulnerability of God has got to take the cake (or the stollen, the bunuelos, the figgy pudding, the buche de noel, the truchas de navidad…). As I’ve lost my grip on all the other Christmas traditions still dear to me — the weekly advent services leading up; …

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Leonard Cohen’s New “Old Ideas”

Animals, Bible and Pop Culture, Music / By kswenson

The bard’s “Show Me the Place” song on his new album titled Old Ideas lent an ethereal air to a prosaic errand this morning. The hound I brought home over ten years ago, starving, cut up, and covered in ticks is aging fast, and we’re trying to keep him comfortable. But about a week ago, …

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Holiday Bible Surprises

Bible, Biblical Literacy, Jesus, religious holidays, Women in the Bible / By kswenson

Some things one might expect to find in the Bible aren’t there at all; while sometimes what we do find is downright surprising. Take Hanukkah, for instance — not there! Ironically, not in the Jewish bible, but it is in the Orthodox Christian bible (in part — 1 Maccabees, if you’re looking). Meanwhile, the Christian …

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Tech Stress

Work, Writing Process / By kswenson

I love technology… when it helps me. I do not love tech for tech’s sake. So when things go wrong, I get really stressed out. I have a new computer, the old was running slower and slower and was awfully heavy to tote. But switching to the new required hours and hours under Best Buy’s …

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Cherubic Cherubim

angels and demons, Bible and Pop Culture, heaven and hell, religious holidays, Supernatural / By kswenson

Out of the heaps of snow we’ve been getting lately, someone in my neighborhood has fashioned a great big Cupid in her front yard…or is it a cherub? Shoot, is Cupid himself some kind of cherub? I stood contemplating those questions for a minute or so until my dog started snuffling about at the smooshed …

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Upside Down to Right the World

religious holidays / By kswenson

The Christmas story, whatever one does or does not believe, is a story of reversals. It’s a story of tipping things over to set things right. Yet it all seems so familiar that we forget how much it requires wild imagination. The starring actors a poor family, the grand setting a tiny backwater town, heavenly angels …

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