We humans seem to have a neighbor problem. It’s an ancient problem. As old as our stories of belonging and exclusion, of insiders and outsiders, of who counts as us and who can safely be regarded as them. The ancient
Christian Nationalism Is Not the Only Story Christians Can Tell An invitation to rediscover the Jesus Way—and imagine a more courageous, compassionate, & credible public witness in a fractured world. Something is happening to Christianity in America. Or perhaps something
What Is Work For? AI, Human Dignity, & the Audacity of Shalom Pope Leo XIV, the future of labor, and why the real question is not how much more we can produce, but what kind of world our work is
What Is a Human Being For? AI, Work, and the Future of Flourishing A conversation with Pope Leo XIV, New College Berkeley, and the question of what we dare to become Tonight (Wednesday, October 14), I have the privilege of
If you’ve noticed a drought in my posting, there’s a reason. I’ve been spending much of my discretionary writing energy listening to the past, attending to the present, and wondering about the future of a community that has profoundly shaped
I have been learning so much about Dolly Parton since her death. The more I have learned, the more taken I have become by a life invested in something I can only describe as a beautifully holistic vision of flourishing—the
Today we began another academic year at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. Not with syllabi. Not with enrollment numbers. Not with strategic plans or learning outcomes. We began by gathering. Each year, before our new and returning students
Yesterday, Wendell Berry died. He was 92 years old, at home in Port Royal, Kentucky—the place to which he had given so much of his life, attention, labor, and love. There seems something fitting about that. Wendell Berry spent a
Topsy-Turvy by Dwight J. Friesen Something has gone topsy-turvy.We have put our shoes on our hands,our hats on our feet,and somehow are surprisedthat walking has become difficult.We have begun loving things that cannot love us back—flags, borders, institutions,the carefully guarded
Beyond the Ruins: Building Communities Without Rebuilding the Walls Why the future of faith requires more than reconstruction—it requires practices of re-membering One of the unexpected gifts of publishing my recent long-form essay, “After Deconstruction,” has been the conversations it
Thirty Years in Seattle On immigration, belonging, faithful presence, & the slow education of beauty. In the first days of August, thirty years will have passed since Lynette and I loaded everything we owned into a moving truck, hitched our
Every August, something remarkable happens over Seattle. The shores of Lake Washington fill with families. Boats gather in anticipation. Conversations pause. Children cover their ears while simultaneously looking skyward. Then, with a deafening roar, six blue-and-gold fighter jets streak overhead,
After Deconstruction: Re-membering an Ecology of Shalom Introduction… “I think I’m Deconstructing” She knew the stories before she learned to read. Noah’s ark hung above her crib. Bible verses adorned the hallway. Sundays meant polished shoes, potlucks after church, and
A few weeks ago, I hung up the phone after a difficult conversation with my mother. It wasn’t our first. It probably won’t be our last. Nothing particularly dramatic happened. No shouting. No final rupture. Just that familiar feeling of
Yesterday morning, July 23, 2026, Christ’s church—and so many of us who loved him—lost one of its great prophetic imaginations. Tom Sine died at the age of ninety. Author, Christian futurist, mentor, practitioner, and faithful friend, Tom spent a lifetime
The churches of North America stand at a theological crossroads. Whether they possess the courage to choose a different path may depend, in part, on whether they are willing to receive books like Randy Woodley’s How Western Christianity Got It
‘...love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Jesus Christ
Jesus, properly understood as shalom, coming into the world from the shalom community of the Trinity, is the intention of God’s once-and-for-all mission. That is, the mission of birthing and restoring shalom to the world is in Christ, by Christ, and for the honor of Christ.”
Randy Woodley
Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat."
Audre Lorde
I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.”
Cornel West
Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone."
Margaret J. Wheatley
You can't have unity without diversity."
Richard Twiss
While good theology does include academic debate, it never stops there. Good theologians discuss intellectual questions and concern themselves with academic debate because their chief concern is life. They want to know the truth not merely so that they might think properly, but so that they might live..."
Stanley J. Grenz
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Martin Luther King Jr
Faith is not settled belief but living process. It is the very edge and opening of life in process. To live is to step with trust into the next moment: into the unpredictable."
Catherine Keller
If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Salvation fits into a unified view of the entire world, and yet it is also gritty, localized, and contextual. It is grounded in concrete experiences of the world. It must always look, feel, and taste like something."
Monica A. Coleman
They bound themselves covenantally to the yet-to-be-known, in their growing expertise, to invite its gracious disclosure of deeper meaning. They bound themselves to that as-yet-unknown reality in taking up such a journey. What they actually found surprisingly transformed their half-understood inquiries as reality swept in and swept them up.”
Esther Lightcap Meek
Dwight is looking forward to hearing from you! He is available for Zoom conversations, in fact you can click here to schedule a conversation right now. Whether something came intrigued you as you perused this site and you'd appreciate more resources, or if you have a question or an idea, or if you'd like to explore collaborating in some way; or if you sense that he might be able to support your local community of faith & practice toward a better urban future for all and everything.
