Maggi Dawn

Descending Theology: The Resurrection. Mary Karr

One of the tasks given me when I arrived to teach in the USA was to include more American writers in my course work. So I started by working up some thoughts on various American poets, most of whom I knew already but had never taught about. Here is the ...

No Condemnation

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2" No condemnation. What does that mean? No guilt, nothing to pay, nothing to ...

Intimate Supper

I love this poem by Peter Redgrove. He switched on the electric light and laughed, He let light shine in the firmament of his ceiling, He saw the great light shine around and it was good He spun the great winds through his new hoover And let light be in the kitchen and that was ...

Naming God

I published this essay earlier this year in Yale Divinity School's "Marquand Reader" Naming God: Inclusive and Expansive language Maggi Dawn “Like the nine billion names of God Don't bring you any closer To anyone you can simply set eyes on…” (Bruce Cockburn, One of the Best Ones) Language is a powerful tool. How ...

Summer Study at Yale

Do you have a free week in June? We have summer schools at Yale, including a symposium on the Environment, a week of courses focused on the Bible, and a week of classes on practical ministry tools. June 11 - 15 I'm teaching a course called "Reading the Bible through Literature, ...

Good Friday

What's good about it? From three o'clock on Friday until sunrise on Sunday - this is the one day in the year when - liturgically speaking at least - we contemplate the absence, the silence of God. Where is God when everything goes catastrophically wrong? That's what the disciples and friends ...

I have a dream

A few weeks ago my son and I spent a few days' break in Washington DC. Spring was early, and we walked in the shade of the blossoming cherry trees around the tidal basin, viewing the monuments to various leading figures in US history. At the far end we ...

Blogging and theology

In my class on theology and literary form, we have included a component that looks at blogging from a literary point of view. Blogging, and other related social media, are often analysed from the point of view of sociology, marketing, business, design, etc., but not so often by comparison to ...

you’ve only got 100 years to live

The Place where we are Right. Yehuda Amichai

The Place Where We Are Right by Yehuda Amichai From the place where we are right Flowers will never grow In the spring. The place where we are right Is hard and trampled Like a yard. But doubts and loves Dig up the world Like a mole, a plow. And a whisper will be heard in the place Where the ruined House ...