Timothy Stoner

Flattening Crowns or Casting Them Down

Posted on 20. Apr, 2011 by Tim Stoner.

I wonder why we have such trouble taking the biblical depictions of heaven seriously. It seems to frighten and shame us somehow. Whether conceived as place or state, it is weightier and infinitely more substantial than ours. So we must fold, flatten and reshape it. Do we find it embarrassing because it exposes our smallness and lightness of being? Admittedly, it is too bright and too concentrated by far. After all, it is where saints live, and maybe this is why we dislike the shattering images, because it reminds us that that is precisely what we are not. But, there is hope that we still can be.

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Loving the world too much or too little?

Posted on 11. Apr, 2011 by Tim Stoner.

A friend asked me a question about my disagreement with Love Wins. I have to admit it kind of rankled me. It implied fear, inadequacy or inferiority. So, yes, it stung my pride. Though it had a bite to it, it forced me to uncover the motivation for my negative response to Rob’s core message. And in doing so I had to confront the masks we wear: misdirected love, reactionary love and, more to the point, a cold and careless apathy hiding behind proclamations of love.

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Does Shakespeare Always Get What He Wants?

Posted on 04. Apr, 2011 by Tim Stoner.

Rob Bell asks good questions. In the middle of Love Wins he devotes a whole chapter to one of his better ones: “Does God Get What God Wants?” On the surface this appears to be a simple, straightforward question with an obvious answer. Despite misunderstanding the complexity of the question, Bell, surprisingly, gets the answer right, but for the wrong reason. And he proves that love does indeed win, but not in the way he thinks

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