Ask not:  How can I combine intellectual curiosity and religious faith?
But perhaps:  Is there some deep desire within me that works its way out as curiosity about the world and as spiritual faith?

My answer to that question is yes.  I have worked for years to think through that question and I think so.  I have listened with care to Jesus and to spiritual teachers and I have prayed and I believe so.

Ask not:  Is there some deep desire within me that works its way out as curiosity about the world and as spiritual faith?
But perhaps: How can I explore this desire and the ways it works in my life?  And how find and encourage and learn from others on that same quest?

This website and blog and twitter feed are attempts to answer those last two questions.

Where do you go when you are incurably curious about the world, when you long for a (spiritual) connection with something universal and unfathomable, and when you desire to know others and be known by them?

I have always been a mix of these three desires.  In my teens my spiritual longing and my desire to know and be known led me into the church; I gave all that I knew of myself, confessed my faith to become an active member.  But I soon discovered that the church wasn’t able to connect me to something deep enough or universal enough to satisfy my longing; and quite a few religious people were uncomfortable with my questions and my curiosity.  After about a year I left with the belief that I had given church a fair try and found it lacking and was done with it forever.  However, I took along with me an admiration for Jesus that has never left me.

In my early twenties, my wife “dragged” me back to a small church in a small town.  There I met some people who welcomed me and began to satisfy my desire to know and be known.  The preacher at that church, who had been called back out of retirement, welcomed my questions and even answered a few of them to my satisfaction.  The god of that church was bigger and more mysterious, and I was able to focus my curiosity into studying the Bible.  This time it stuck.