Posts from Mike Morrell

Can you tell me what you think? (First annual readers’ survey!)

by Mike Morrell

June 23, 2019

Hi friend, Thanks so much for reading this humble blog. With everything you else you doubtless receive and could be reading, I don’t take it for granted that you let me visit your screen. I’ve come to realize that the weeks in wh...

Discovering Our Inner Nobility | Matthew Fox

by Mike Morrell

June 05, 2019

Today we have a beautiful guest-reflection from Matthew Fox: The Hebrew Scriptures speak of royal personhood being a sign of the messianic times.  For example, Psalm 2 sings: “You are my son, today I have begotten you.” Psalm 110...

Grace Revealed | Fred Sievert

by Mike Morrell

May 25, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Grace Revealed by Fred Sievert. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. My prayer is that every child would grow up in a l...

Where the Colors Blend | Stephen Copeland

by Mike Morrell

May 22, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Where the Colors Blend by Stephen Copeland. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. From Chapter 16, “Fog” in Where the Co...

The Feedback Loop of the Mystic | John and Christine Brighton

by Mike Morrell

May 21, 2019

The following is an excerpt from The Feedback Loop of the Mystic by John and Christine Brighton. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. We are given a pre...

A Good Look at Evil | Abigail Rosenthal

by Mike Morrell

May 15, 2019

The following is an excerpt from A Good Look at Evil by Abigail Rosenthal. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. A GOOD LOOK AT EVIL takes a view of good...

If you’re sad about Rachel Held Evans (and other un-answered prayers).

by Mike Morrell

May 05, 2019

If you haven’t heard, or if you need confirming that it wasn’t all a terrible dream, Rachel Held Evans—beloved author, truth-teller, and icon for a generous Christianity—passed away yesterday morning, after a brief and unexpected...

Catching Your Breath | Steve Austin

by Mike Morrell

April 29, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Catching Your Breath by Steve Austin. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. My 5th-grade teacher, Terri Nobles, had a 2×...

Chasing My Father | Agatha Nolen

by Mike Morrell

April 24, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Chasing My Father by Agatha Nolen. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. It was another great Christmas, serving at the ...

I Know What Heaven Looks Like | Lawrence T. Richardson

by Mike Morrell

April 23, 2019

The following is an excerpt from I Know What Heaven Looks Like by Lawrence T. Richardson. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. From chapter 1 of I Know ...

Something Strange Is Happening (Holy Saturday)

by Mike Morrell

April 20, 2019

I slept, but my heart was awake. Listen! my beloved is knocking. “Open to me…” (Song of Songs 5:2a) It’s the saturday after Jesus’ crucifixion. His body lies in the grave; his apprentices are devastated or in shock. But what else...

The Interfaith Family Journal | Susan Katz Miller

by Mike Morrell

April 03, 2019

The following is an excerpt from The Interfaith Family Journal by Susan Katz Miller. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Introduction I come from a gre...

Psychedelic Christianity | The Unforgivable Sin? | Jack Call

by Mike Morrell

April 01, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Psychedelic Christianity by Jack Call. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. We are all sinners because there are always...

Why Does Christian Music Suck? | Impolite Questions for a Generous God | Jeremy Armstrong

by Mike Morrell

March 28, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Impolite Questions for a Generous God by Jeremy Armstrong. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. As a one-time Christian...

Finding God in the Margins | Carolyn Custis James

by Mike Morrell

March 25, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Finding God in the Margins by Carolyn Custis James. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Unlocking the Power of the Boo...

A Resurrection Shaped Life | Growing Beyond Our Past | Jake Owensby

by Mike Morrell

March 19, 2019

The following is an excerpt from A Resurrection Shaped Life by Jake Owensby. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Despite the heat and humidity of late-...

Putting on the Breastplate of St. Patrick: A 21-Day Challenge

by Mike Morrell

March 17, 2019

Today is the Feast of Saint Patrick—or Lá Fhéile Pádraig, “the Day of the Festival of Patrick.” It’s a time many around the world celebrate by wearing green, eating and drinking terribly-dyed green things. But on a deeper level, ...

Love, God | Deborah J. Simmons-Roslak and Linda J. Orber

by Mike Morrell

March 14, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Love, God by Deborah J. Simmons-Roslak and Linda J. Orber. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. “Happiness is our natur...

When Straight Christians Reject our LGBTQ Siblings: An Open Letter to the United Methodist Church

by Mike Morrell

March 04, 2019

Dear United Methodist Friend, I’ve never been one of your number, though I’ve always been a fan. I grew up Pentecostal (among other things), where we found your personal and social holiness traditions to be fertile soil to grow o...

Good Blood | K. C. Pastore

by Mike Morrell

February 05, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Good Blood by K. C. Pastore. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Five men dressed in black suits lounged at the far en...

When God Was A Bird | Mark I. Wallace

by Mike Morrell

January 22, 2019

The following is an excerpt from When God Was A Bird by Mark I. Wallace. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. The Singing Monk of the Crum Woods Today t...

Future Facing Faith: From Overwhelm to Insight

by Mike Morrell

January 22, 2019

Life is hard. If I want to relate to life’s spiritual dimension in a way that embraces—rather than evades—life, generative spirituality unfolds for me along three axes: Generative spirituality is rooted in the past. Those who hav...

Jewish And Christian Views On Bodily Pleasure | Robert Cherry

by Mike Morrell

January 17, 2019

The following is an excerpt from Jewish And Christian Views On Bodily Pleasure by Robert Cherry. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. The Religious Sett...

The Disfiguration Of Nature | James G. Krueger

by Mike Morrell

January 08, 2019

The following is an excerpt from The Disfiguration Of Nature by James G. Krueger. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Preface An addicted man has littl...

Feast of the Epiphany: What Will You Manifest?

by Mike Morrell

January 06, 2019

If you found yourself over-extended in a holiday rush this year (as I did), skipping right over the usual New Years’ ‘resolutions,’ consider this your invitation to a sacred pause. Dreams, signs in the heavens, intuitive gifts an...

The Grace of the Present Moment: Talking to Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

December 25, 2018

I hope you’ve been having a restful and reflective season. And, I realize that, for many of us, this has been a difficult season – whether simply feeling the weight of national and global tensions and tragedies, or the pain often...

Personal God, Loving Evolution: My Conversation with Ilia Delio

by Mike Morrell

December 20, 2018

As part of our prelude to the Cosmic Campfire Gathering this February 1-2 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (co-hosted with Tripp Fuller of Homebrewed Christianity and ‘Science’ Mike McHargue of The Liturgists), I got to sit down wi...

The INTRAfaith Conversation | Susan Strouse

by Mike Morrell

December 18, 2018

The following is an excerpt from The INTRAfaith Conversation by Susan Strouse. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. What is an intrafaith conversation a...

The Seventh Story | Gareth Higgins and Brian McLaren

by Mike Morrell

December 10, 2018

The following is an excerpt from The Seventh Story, a brand-new release from Gareth Higgins and Brian McLaren about the six stories that divide us and the Seventh Story that unites. It’s paired with a unique, beautifully-illustra...

Atonement and the New Perspective | Stephen Burnhope

by Mike Morrell

December 06, 2018

The following is an excerpt from Atonement and the New Perspective by Stephen Burnhope. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Salvation through the atoni...

All Creation Radiant: My Conversation with Matthew Fox

by Mike Morrell

December 02, 2018

As part of our ongoing Cosmic Campfire Book Club with Tripp Fuller of Homebrewed Christianity and ‘Science’ Mike McHargue of The Liturgists, I got to sit down with one of my all-time heroes, Matthew Fox: In our conversation, Matt...

God: Ever-New And Ancient (Naming the Unnamable) | Matthew Fox

by Mike Morrell

November 15, 2018

How many names for Divinity are there? Do the names for God change? Ought they change as humans evolve and as circumstances of life evolve around us? Matthew Fox reveals the urgent need for ancient-future names of God.

Re-Thinking Hellfire for a Christianity Without Insanity | Boyd Purcell

by Mike Morrell

November 10, 2018

In religious literature, suffering and punishment in fire are symbolic of the spiritually corrective nature of metaphorical fire. A literal interpretation of the symbolism of fire is a major cause of fear, spiritual insanity, and...

God in My Head? | Josh Grisetti

by Mike Morrell

November 09, 2018

The following is an excerpt from God in My Head, Josh Grisetti’s divine dialogue memoir with blunt comic undertones. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers...

Our Resistance, My Resistance: Enough for the Whole World | Making America Great Again | David N Moore

by Mike Morrell

November 06, 2018

  The following is an excerpt of Making America Great Again, a winsome and prophetic text by David N Moore. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review copies available for qualified reviewers. Our Res...

What Is Christian Mysticism? | Matthew Fox | The Lotus and the Rose

by Mike Morrell

November 01, 2018

What happens when a Tibetan Buddhist lama and a Christian minister sit down to talk? And not just any lama and minister, but a renegade Catholic priest silenced by the Church for his progressive and inclusive beliefs and an Ameri...

An Immanent God Meets Us in Our Pain: Science Mike & ‘Mystic’ Mike Mix it Up!

by Mike Morrell

October 29, 2018

A few days ago, before the sold-out Evolving Faith Conference kicked off at Montreat, ‘Science’ Mike McHargue and I were able to grab an hour together to talk about some of our most vulnerable experiences with God, and how these ...

When You Quote the Bible At Me | Leatherbound Terrorism | Chris Kratzer

by Mike Morrell

October 26, 2018

The following is an excerpt of Leatherbound Terrorism, Chris Kratzer‘s incisive and confessional memoir-manifesto about life in Christ after evangelicalism. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited review ...

Are you Kidding Me? | A Gracious Heresy | Connie Tuttle

by Mike Morrell

October 24, 2018

Becoming a prophet is not a career option. Children will tell you they want to be a teacher, doctor, lawyer, or firefighter when they grow up but never, as far as I know, a prophet. When you get right down to it, there is nowhere...

Brother John: A Monk, a Pilgrim and the Purpose of Life | August Turak

by Mike Morrell

October 18, 2018

The following is an excerpt of Brother John: A Monk, a Pilgrim and the Purpose of Life, an award-winning true story about the surprising power of generosity – now beautifully illustrated in an all-ages rendering. It’s a featured ...

Making All Things Whole through Love | Ryan Kuja (From the Inside Out)

by Mike Morrell

September 28, 2018

The following is an excerpt of From The Inside Out: Reimagining Mission, Recreating the World, Ryan Kuja’s potent critique of missionary colonialism envisions a hope-filled future. It’s a Speakeasy selection, and there are still ...

The ‘Lost’ Colony of Roanoke: A 400-Year Coverup? | Andrew Lawler

by Mike Morrell

September 01, 2018

In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, their colony was to establish England’s first foothold in the New World. But when the colony’s leader...

The Urgent Need of Our Time: An Order of the Sacred Earth | Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson & Jennifer Berit Listug

by Mike Morrell

August 28, 2018

The following is an excerpt of Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action, a compelling anthology of Creation Spirituality, applied. It’s a featured Speakeasy selection, and there are still limited ...

Mustard Seeds and Storied Soil | Andrea Lingle (Credulous)

by Mike Morrell

August 02, 2018

There were a million reasons to leave. But she didn’t. Faith deconstruction—asking questions and finding that religion doesn’t do a good job of answering them—has become a well-documented phenomenon within Christianity. Studies s...

Crying Out for Love: Life in the Overflow | Chuck Ammons

by Mike Morrell

July 01, 2018

Mike’s note: The following guest-post by Chuck Ammons is excerpted by his heart-felt exploration of abundant living, Life in the Overflow – a Speakeasy selection. If you review books for your blog, podcast, or are an Amazon/Goodr...

Blessed are the Bucket-Poopers: Life at the End of Us vs Them | Marcus Rempel

by Mike Morrell

June 27, 2018

Mike’s note: The following guest-post by Marcus Rempel is excerpted by his eclectic collection of delightfully subversive essays, Life at the End of Us Vs. Them: Cross Culture Stories – a Speakeasy selection. If you review books ...

Occult Christianity? The Western Mystery Tradition and Esoteric Protestantism | Jason Louv

by Mike Morrell

June 22, 2018

Mike’s note: The following guest-post by Jason Louv is inspired by his ground-breaking historical tome, John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magick and the Occult Roots of the Modern World. Here Jason looks at how Christia...

Consciousness or Collapse? | A New Republic of the Heart | Terry Patten

by Mike Morrell

June 18, 2018

Mike’s note: The following is inspired by Terry Patten’s gripping, visionary volume, A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries – A Guide to Inner Work for Holistic Change – still available in limited quantities to...

A Spirituality of Wildness | The Great Re-Imagining | Theodore Richards

by Mike Morrell

June 11, 2018

Mike’s note: The following is inspired by Theodore Richards‘ haunting, insightful tome, The Great Re-imagining Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse – still available in limited quantities to qualified reviewers via Speakeasy! Amo...

Hamilton the Musical: What Hath God Wrought? | Kevin Cloud

by Mike Morrell

June 09, 2018

Mike’s note: The following is based on the introduction of Kevin Cloud’s insightful, multi-layered book, God and Hamilton – still available for a limited number of reviewers via Speakeasy! Our collective cultural ignorance about ...

The Words Of The Candle | Naim Frashëri

by Mike Morrell

May 07, 2018

Here among you have I risen, And aflame am I now blazing, Just a bit of light to give you, That I change your night to daytime I’ll combust and I will wither, Be consumed and be extinguished, Just to give you brightness, vision, ...

Heart and Mind Key 5: The Four-Gospel Journey & Sunday Reading Cycle | Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

February 22, 2018

Mike’s note: This is part of a guest series by Alexander John Shaia, sharing his insights gleaned from a lifetime of studying (and living) personal transformation, closely based on his explosive book Heart and Mind. Want to meet ...

What I’m giving up for Lent this year.

by Mike Morrell

February 14, 2018

  Lent falls on Valentine’s Day this year in the Western calendar, and Easter falls on April Fool’s. This feels about right for our current cultural moment, no? I don’t always observe the liturgical calendar of “church seasons”: ...

Heart and Mind Key 4: The Way—A Fourfold Journey of Transformation | Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

February 13, 2018

Mike’s note: This is part of a guest series by Alexander John Shaia, sharing his insights gleaned from a lifetime of studying (and living) personal transformation, closely based on his explosive book Heart and Mind. Want to meet ...

Heart and Mind Key 3: Four Historical Dilemmas + The Gospel of Here and Now | Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

February 11, 2018

Mike’s note: This is part of a guest series by Alexander John Shaia, sharing his insights gleaned from a lifetime of studying (and living) personal transformation, closely based on his explosive book Heart and Mind. Want to meet ...

Heart and Mind Key 2: Paul’s Eternal Witness | Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

February 05, 2018

Mike’s note: This is part of a guest series by Alexander John Shaia, sharing his insights gleaned from a lifetime of studying (and living) personal transformation, closely based on his explosive book Heart and Mind. Want to meet ...

Heart and Mind Key 1: The Great Name—Jesus The Christ | Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

February 02, 2018

Mike’s note: This is part of a guest series by Alexander John Shaia, sharing his insights gleaned from a lifetime of studying (and living) personal transformation, closely based on his explosive book Heart and Mind. Want to meet ...

A Whole New Devil | Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew (Living Revision)

by Mike Morrell

February 02, 2018

Mike’s note: This month, Speakeasy is highlighting the release of spiritual memoirist Elizabeth Jarrett Andrews‘ beautiful, illuminating guide to writing: Living Revision. Enjoy this excerpt as you reflect on the ways to revise y...

Holy Heretics, Batman! (Two Opportunities to Get Together Soon)

by Mike Morrell

February 01, 2018

Two spiky-haired dudes (one of whom being the incomparable Jon Scott) get together and talk about the collapse of empathy in America, the remedy of authentic connection, practicing the presence of each other, and doing what makes...

Heart and Mind: Five Keys to Unlocking Gospel Transformation | Alexander John Shaia

by Mike Morrell

January 30, 2018

Mike’s note: This is part of a guest series by Alexander John Shaia, sharing his insights gleaned from a lifetime of studying (and living) personal transformation, closely based on his explosive book Heart and Mind. Want to meet ...

Rethinking the Bible – Faith, Doubt, and Seven Nonviolent Stories | Anthony Bartlett

by Mike Morrell

January 25, 2018

Mike’s note: This is a Speakeasy-inspired guest-post from Seven Stories: How to Study and Teach the Nonviolent Bible, by my dear friend Anthony Bartlett.  Many Christians have to go through a time and experience of atheism, becau...

A Chance to Redefine

by Mike Morrell

January 01, 2018

It’s a new year, friend. And what a previous year it’s been. I, for one, resolve to remember the lessons of this past year while letting go of their trauma, Savoring the relationships while releasing the heartbreak; Celebrating t...

Posts from Mike Morrell