Description: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Echoing Hosea, Jesus defends his embrace of the "unclean" in the Gospel of Matthew, seeming to privilege the prophetic call to justice over the Levitical pursuit of purity. And yet, as missional faith communities are well aware, the tensions and conflicts between holiness and mercy are not so easily resolved. At every turn, it seems that the psychological pull of purity and holiness tempts the church into practices of social exclusion and a Gnostic flight from "the world" into a "too spiritual" spirituality. Moreover, the psychology of purity...
Description: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Echoing Hosea, Jesus defends his embrace of the "unclean" in the Gospel of Matthew, seeming to privilege...
About the Contributor(s): Richard Beck is Professor of Psychology at Abilene Christian University. He is the author of Unclean (2011) and The Authenticity of Faith (2012). Richard also writes about the intersections of psychology and theology at his popular and award-winning blog Experimental Theology.
About the Contributor(s): Richard Beck is Professor of Psychology at Abilene Christian University. He is the author of Unclean (2011) and The Authenti...
