From Bruce Epperly, author, on YouTube.
Category: Books
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Dr. Bruce G. Epperly: Office Stock Specials
These specials are currently 50% off on a selected list of books. Dr. Bruce G. Epperly is author of a number of titles with Energion Publications.
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Product on sale
Piglet’s ProcessOriginal price was: $12.99.$8.99Current price is: $8.99. -
The Energy of LovePrice range: $4.54 through $6.99 -
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Spiritual DeclutteringOriginal price was: $12.99.$7.99Current price is: $7.99. -
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Process and Pastoral CarePrice range: $4.99 through $6.99 -
Process and MinistryPrice range: $4.54 through $6.99 -
Process Theology and Celtic WisdomPrice range: $4.54 through $6.99 -
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One WorldPrice range: $3.24 through $6.99
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Dr. Robert D. Cornwall – Office Stock Specials
The following books by Dr. Robert D. Cornwall are currently 50% off while in-office stock lasts.
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The Letters of JohnPrice range: $8.44 through $12.99 -
The Triune Nature of God$6.99 -
Worshiping with Charles DarwinPrice range: $6.49 through $9.99 -
Out of the Office$9.99
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Dave Black: Quench Not the Spirit
8:45 AM As a kid growing up in Hawaii, I cut my eyeteeth on the old King James Version Bible. Even today, when I quote a verse of Scripture, the first rendering that comes to mind is the KJV. One such verse is 1 Thess. 5:19:
- Quench not the Spirit.
Most of us doth not speaketh this way anymore, so you’ll find more colloquial renderings of this verse, such as:
- Do not quench the Spirit.
- Do not extinguish the Spirit.
- Don’t stifle the Spirit.
- Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.
- The Spirit quench not (Yoda Standard Version).
1 Thessalonians has an enormous amount to say to our contemporary church situation, not least in the area of Christian living. That’s one of the reasons I chose it as the focus of our Greek 4 class. The way in which Paul handles the “stifling of the Spirit” in Thessalonica has a curiously modern ring to it. Here I think of books like Strange Fire and its response Strangers to Fire. Both of these books call us to reexamine some longstanding assumptions about church life and the role of the Spirit in our daily lives. I want my students to examine for themselves the role that charismatic Christianity plays in today’s world. Hopefully we won’t duck out of the more controversial issues Paul seems to be dealing with in 1 Thessalonians 5. We are far too prone to view the Holy Spirit as a doctrine to be discussed. Alas, He is far more than that. We need constantly, as Paul reminds us in 1 Thess. 5:19, to examine ourselves and check up on our relationship with the Spirit, otherwise for all our preaching and teaching we ourselves might prove to be reprobates. It if could happen in Thessalonica, it can happen in Raleigh and Roxboro and in your hometown. The one lesson from 1 Thessalonians we must all take away is that the Christian life is one of suffering. Holy Spirit power is not always displayed in the miraculous. More often than not, “We have this treasure in jars of clay so that the surpassing greatness of the power might be of God and not of us.” This is Paul’s famous “power-perfected-in-weakness” doctrine, a topic I studied in some detail in one of my books.
The Master suffered. So will we. We are not called to be successes. We are called to obedience. Heirs of the age to come, we are still heirs to all the fallennness and frailty of the present age. I suspect that the young church at Thessalonica struggled with this doctrine, as do some of us today. But a truly apostolic church is nothing if it isn’t a church that carries with it the dying of the Lord Jesus. It’s authenticity is drawn from its identification with the poor and downtrodden, from suffering, from enduring mockery and persecution. That’s why when someone this week belittled the African nation in which my wife grew up, my mind instantly went to a time when someone said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” What a ridiculous idea that the Gospel produces weaklings! Many of us grew up “on the other side of the tracks.” But through His Spirit, Christ makes His followers strong, regardless of the place of their birth or their background. The power of His name is available through faith to all who call upon Him. We read in Hebrews of those who “out of weakness were made strong” (Heb. 11:34). A sickly Christian is subnormal. We can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
The apostles of the New Testament provided the norms of doctrine. A writing such as 1 Thessalonians shows us how newborn Christians sometimes need a bottle. Eventually, however, they also need to be fed meat and to begin to discern the mind of God for themselves through the indwelling presence of the Spirit and through the Scriptures. It is to that measure of maturity that Paul was calling the Thessalonians. And it is to that measure of maturity that he is calling the church of today. There is, perhaps, no higher calling in all the world. -
Introducing Reiki Healing Touch as Prayer with Your Hands
Spirituality takes many forms – silence, breath prayer, visualization, and healing touch. Authentic spirituality embraces the body as well as spirit and mind. When you experience healing touch, your spirit is also transformed. Our cells and souls experience healing when God’s energy flows in and through us.
In addition to my daily practices of centering prayer, prayerful walking, and breath prayer, I have practiced a form of healing touch, known as Reiki. Reiki has become an essential part of my prayer life and a way that I can reach out to others in a loving way. When I practice Reiki, whether hands-on or at a distance, I embody Jesus’ healing ministry in the twenty-first century.
Reiki, or universal energy, has its origins in the healing work of Mikao Usui, whose mystical experiences enabled him to discover a way to mediate divine healing energy. The origins of Reiki are uncertain: some narratives maintain that Usui was a Christian who sought to recover the healings of Jesus for the modern world; others believe that Usui was a Buddhist and that his connection with Christianity was intended to make Reiki more palatable to Westerners in the wake of World War II. Regardless of its origins, Reiki healing energy is as old as creation. I believe Reiki joins East and West in the quest for a holistic spirituality for our time. It is the same energy that flowed from Jesus to cure a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. (Mark 5:25-34) My recently-published text, The Energy of Love: Reiki and Christian Healing integrates Christian healing and Reiki healing touch. I wrote this to enable pastors and laypersons to join their spiritual lives as Christians with their personal practice of Reiki.
Reiki is “still touch” or hands-on healing, similar to the liturgical practice of “laying on of hands.” When I lay hands on a person in the spirit of Reiki, the healing energy of the universe, revealed in Jesus’ healing ministry, is awakened in myself and others. While Reiki practitioners speak of the energy flowing from one person to another, the energy of love, God’s healing energy, is present in all things. God’s healing energy is the reality in which “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Moving through all things, it can be focused to promote the well-being of ourselves and others.
Jesus once said “I am the vine and you are the branches….connected to me, you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:1-9) Jesus transformed persons by his touch and we can be God’s partners through divine energy, mediated through Reiki healing touch. When I practice Reiki, I experience God’s energy flowing in and through me, bringing wholeness to myself and others.
In addition to hands-on Reiki, I give Reiki from a distance. In the spirit of “quantum entanglement,” distant Reiki witnesses to the interconnectedness of God and all life in the body of Christ. I share God’s healing energy with persons across the globe to aid their healing in mind, body, spirit, and relationship. Reiki connects us, as members of the “divine vine,” regardless of how far away we may be. God’s energy of love flows through us and all things, giving birth to whole persons and whole communities.
In the hospital setting, Reiki provides comfort, reassurance, and connection, and enhances the patient’s sense of well-being. Reiki often reduces the side effects of medical interventions and promotes the well-being of those who receive treatments. I regularly give Reiki healing touch to persons receiving chemotherapy treatments as a way of promoting healing and reducing the symptoms of chemotherapy.
Reiki is a way of life. I give myself a Reiki treatment as a daily practice in order to promote feelings of wholeness, peace, and physical well-being. When I give myself a Reiki treatment, I feel myself connected to God’s ever-present healing energy.
Reiki has an ethical side. Persons who are attuned to Reiki make a commitment to use their bodies – and their hands – only in healing ways. Those who practice Reiki commit themselves to practicing peace and being God’s partners in healing the earth.
As a spirit-centered Christian, I believe wherever there is truth and healing, God is its source. God heals through prayer, liturgical laying on of hands, and anointing with oil; and God also heals through Reiki healing touch.
(If you are beginning a reiki healing group at your church, I commend to you both The Energy of Love: Reiki and Christian Healing and Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus. If you have questions, please contact me at drbruceepperly@aol.com.)
Dr. Bruce G. Epperly, pastor, professor, retreat leader, and Energion author of The Energy of Love: Reiki and Christian Healing, Healing Marks: Healing and Spirituality in Mark’s Gospel, Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God, Galatians: A Participatory Study Guide, Angels, Mysteries, and Miracles, Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job and more. -
Can Christians Use Reiki?
Recently, as our congregation’s sexton was changing the sermon title on the congregation’s marquee, a woman drove up and asked him, “Are you the new age church?” He responded, “We’re part of the United Church of Christ and our pastor is a biblical preacher.” She continued, “But, how can you be Christian? You’re celebrating earth day and have reiki group meeting at church on Saturday. This isn’t Christian; it’s pagan.”
My sexton was surprised at her comments. When he reported them to me, I was equally surprised, although I understood where she was coming from. I realize that many Christians have narrow views of healing and inspiration, and limit God to their own doctrinal or liturgical orthodoxy.
This woman is not alone. I have heard a similar critique leveled by many other conservative Christians. They assume that because reiki isn’t described in scripture or doesn’t emerge from their brand of “orthodox” Christianity or has Buddhist roots, reiki should be abandoned, if not denounced, by those who uphold what they believe to be authentic Christianity. A number of years ago, even the USA Roman Catholic Bishops deemed reiki incompatible with Catholic beliefs and challenged its use in Catholic hospitals. In all these cases, I believe such judgments come from failures to adequately research reiki and the medical studies indicating its health benefits as well as theological viewpoints that narrow Christian healing to the recitation of certain words or the utilization of certain liturgies.
Theology matters, and what we believe about God, the scope of Jesus’ ministry, and the nature of truth and healing shapes how we understand medical practice, science, bioethics, and the use of reiki healing touch and other complementary forms of health care.
In two books, The Energy of Love: Reiki and Christianity (Energion Publications) and Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus (Northstone Books), I have argued that reiki healing touch is congruent with Christian faith and reflects the spirit of Jesus’ healing ministry. In the spirit of John’s Gospel, I affirm that God’s light shines in all things and that divine wisdom is available to everyone. The true light of God shines on everyone. Grounded in John’s vision, early Christian theologians proclaimed the university of the Divine Logos, or Sophia, and asserted that wherever truth is found, God is its source. To this, I would add, wherever truth and healing are found, God is its source, even if Christ’s name is not spoken. God is present and at work in the operating room, the pharmaceutical laboratory, the chemotherapy clinic, and in the practices of those who give reiki healing touch and other complementary medical treatments. Jesus came that we might have abundant life, and whatever authentically contributes to abundant life participates in Jesus’ healing ministry. Reiki complements Christian faith in the same way as counseling, psychotherapy, and pharmacology share in Jesus’ aim at wholeness, most of which are utilized by more conservative Christians.
I recognize the need for critical theological thinking. In fact, my two books on reiki healing touch present sustained arguments for the integration of Christianity and reiki healing touch. Jesus himself recognized the efficacy of healers outside his immediate circle of disciples (Mark 9:38-41) and invited his followers to be open to “greater things” in their ministries. (John 14:12) The Reality in whom we live and move and have our being surely embraces a wide variety of healing practices, including liturgical laying on of hands as well as complementary healing practices like reiki.
As a Christian minister, I join reiki with my faith in Jesus and see reiki as an extension of Jesus’ healing ministry, in the same way as the Healer from Nazareth used a variety of methods himself from touch and exorcism to anointing, forgiving, and welcoming. I use the name of Jesus when I apply reiki healing touch and assume that God’s energy of love flows through me whenever I give a treatment. Just as “energy” or “power” flowed from Jesus to a woman experiencing hemorrhages (Mark 5:30), this same energy flows though us, whether we use reiki, laying on of hands, or anointing. Thus, when someone asks, “Can Christians use reiki?” my response is a resounding “Yes.”
Dr. Bruce G. Epperly, pastor, professor, retreat leader, and Energion author of Healing Marks: Healing and Spirituality in Mark’s Gospel, Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God, Galatians: A Participatory Study Guide, Angels, Mysteries, and Miracles, Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job and more.
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A Different Kind of Liberal
Allan Bevere posted a link to three posts by Roger Olson, in which Roger successively defined Fundamentalist, Evangelical, and Liberal. Now Energion author, United Church of Christ pastor, and theologian, Dr. Bruce G. Epperly, responds to Roger Olson’s definition of Liberal.
A growing number of liberal Christians are rethinking what it means to be liberal. Many of us are choosing to call ourselves “progressive” as testimony to our dynamic, energetic theological naturalistic vision of reality. We don’t see ourselves or our theologies as “shallow, insipid, plastic, and fuzzy,” as Olson suggests. In fact, despite the inherent limitations of every theological vision, theology is important to us – a lively, well-articulated theology that privileges the love of God, the partnership of God and humankind in healing the world, original wholeness rather than original sin, the affirmation of science, interdependence, and spiritual practices that are both heavenly minded and earthly good.
For the most part, we are universalists, but our universalism joins heaven and earth and this world and the next and joins grace and judgment in a realm where “love wins.” What we do matters as we seek God’s vision “on earth as it is in heaven.” God will not rescue us, nor can God violate the laws of nature just to get us out of a jam, personally or institutionally. The world process is such that God cannot stop nuclear warheads originating in either North Korea or the United States.
God needs us to be companions in healing the earth. We don’t wait passively for a long-expected Second Coming nor do we create universally-mistaken time tables of Jesus’ return. God comes to us – and all creation – in every moment, inviting us to choose life for ourselves and our descendants. We look forward to the afterlife, but affirm the holiness of embodiment, the non-human world, and the creative process. To progressive Christians, these this-worldly affirmations are at the heart of historical dynamism of biblical theology.
And, we affirm the spiritual, miraculous, and paranormal without reliance of supernatural interruptions of the predicable patterns of nature! While “old school” liberals may have minimized – even denied – anything spiritually-oriented, such as the healings of Jesus, contemplative practices, or accounts of interactions with angels and demons, our naturalistic theism sees divinity embedded in every moment, joins spirit and flesh, and affirms leaps of energy often identified with the miraculous. In contrast to the three-story universe, still affirmed in much popular theology and its historical antecedents, our world is multi-dimensional and spirit-filled. We can affirm the existence of “higher beings,” both positive and negative in spirit, just as we recognize in everyday life beings less complicated than ourselves. Our faith tells us that although we are created in God’s image, we are not the crown of creation.
Old school liberalism is often accused of being purely horizonal, with no room for dramatic acts of God. While both liberals and progressives see God’s presence as primarily contextual, immanent, and relational, many of us believe that there are also decisive moments – often identified with spiritual and physical healings and mystical experiences. These moments are not “supernatural,” that is, disruptive of the trustworthy patterns of nature, but reflective of the gentle, and sometimes lively providence of an ever-present, always active God, whose power is relational rather than coercive. In certain moments, there is a congruence between God’s graceful aim at wholeness and our openness to divine healing and inspiration. While answers to prayer may be unexpected and surprising, our prayers, or better yet, God’s prayers within us in terms of “sighs too deep for words,” create a field of force in which God’s “working for good” can be fully realized. The healings of Jesus involve life-transforming manifestations of what is present at the depths of creation.
I have tried to articulate a robust, open, well-grounded, and clear theological vision throughout my teaching and writing career. I believe that progressive Christianity, with its vision of naturalistic theism, divine-human partnership, and global interdependence can be a catalyst for personal and social transformation, inviting us to expect great things from God and great things from ourselves as God’s companions in healing and wholeness.
(For more on this progressive vision, I recommend a number of my books – Angels, Mysteries, and Miracles: A Progressive Vision; Healing Marks: Spirituality and Healing in Mark’s Gospel; From Here to Eternity: Preparing for the Next Adventure; Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus; The Energy of Love: Reiki and Christian Healing; God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus; Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God; Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed.)
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