I know, I know, you all have been waiting, with baited breath, for me to get back to posting things that are far more interesting and substantive than my recent my new book project. As interesting as some of my new book’s prayers might be, I understand that even some book reviews would have been more interesting than my latest blogging pimp job. Well have no fear, two things have changed that will get us back to our regularly scheduled blogging program:

First, I handed in the final draft of my thesis over a week ago—I’ll accept boxes of cigars and bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon to celebrate. Most of you don’t know this, but after I finished my MDiv a year and a half ago, I continued on with a ThM (Master of Theology) in Historical Theology. For a number of reasons I’m very glad I did, not the least of which is everything I’ve learned over the course of that program. It was a great, growing opportunity that climaxed with my thesis, a 3-month long, full-time project that culminated in a 104-page thesis on the development of Kingdom of God language in Protestant liberalism from Friedrich Schleiermacher to modern day Brian McLaren. It’s titles Reimagining the Kingdom: The Generational Development of Liberal Kingdom Grammar from Schleiermacher to McLaren. I’m waiting to get edits back so I can publish my research as a print and ebook for around $15. (hey—I’m ever the opportunist!) In light of that research, I have a lot of thoughts on the use of “Kingdom of God” in evangelicalism that I will be sharing over the coming weeks, which will make this an interesting place over the coming months  because of some of my conclusion!

Secondly, I think the content-tide will turn a bit here because I think I actually have some things to say again. About a lot of things, actually. I’ve been passively observing a number of conversations—in blog and book form—on a number of important topics in the Church of late: whether Adam was a literal human being; how to reconcile the Science Story (evolution and the Human Genome Project) with the Scripture Story (Creation, Rebellion, Rescue, Re-Creation); the role of the Bible and meaning it inherently carries, if any; the quadannual Church/Politics discussion; neo-fundamentalism and the rise of fundamentalist reaction to modern liberalism; and modern day polytheism (i.e. pluralism) and the Church. These topics on top of some observations about the rise of neo-liberal definitions of the Kingdom, Jesus, and the nature of salvation have given me some things to say again. Now, that’s not to say anyone necessarily needs what I, Jeremy Bouma, have to say. All I mean to say is I’d like to work through these topics. Through writing. Publicly. And if you’d like to join in, great. If not, no matter. I just know I need to put finger to keyboard in order to work through some thoughts and some important theological issues.

Nearly six years ago I began this thing called blogging. I started because I needed an outlet to work through a season of theological and spiritual angst, and writing in this public, participatory way seemed like a good way to do that. Although I’ve changed quite a bit from that original context, the reasons for continuing to write and pontificate here at novus•lumen remain. Hopefully, I can add my voice to countless conversations happening around the country over these and other important topics. At minimum, I hope I can serve my local Grand Rapids community as a curator of theological and spiritual discussion. If nothing else, blogging here will help me work through these issues for myself, and I may make some friends (and probably enemies!) along the way.

So if you’ve taken part in the discussions around n•l before and have left because you’ve been left wanting—and now are somehow reading this because you’re still my Facebook friend or still have my RSS feed—I hope you’ll consider coming back and re-bookmarking this site, because I’d love to hear your voice again.

PS—Some of my first posts will focus on some of my thesis research, addressing the harm that recycled liberal Kingdom of God language is bringing to evangelicalism, not to mention the Christian faith. That’ll begin this week.