Over the past year or so I have been working on and with a metaphor for how I read the Bible, understand the message of Jesus, and embody out my spirituality.

This metaphor may well be established somewhere already and I would greatly appreciate any one to point me in that direction. This metaphor is built off of my understanding of the work of Rene Girard as well as Charles Bellinger and James Alison; all three of which had some of the greatest impact on my seminary experience.

The following posts are going to outline, briefly, this metaphor in hopes that I might begin to receive feedback. It is my hope (dream) one day to have this put into a format for others to share or add to.

Without getting into the entire Girardian lens, I will say perhaps the dominate issue I struggle with in spirituality is dealing with violence. How do we resolve violence in the world? Is violence good? Is violence bad? What does Jesus or the Bible reveal to us about the human condition and the role of violence within that condition?

Basically, I desire to share with others something that has changed my life over the next several posts.