Chasing Belief: Engaging Transformative Spirituality

Every day the sun rises and the sun sets. The inconceivably immense cosmos goes on without stopping, taking no notice of our life, our death, or our quest for meaningfulness. Humans have always "chased belief," sought meaning in the world transcendent to the personal and particular, amid the ambiguous mixture of beauty and horror all around us. But the traditional symbols and concepts--the narrative roadmaps that once sustained and directed belief--have changed and are increasingly seen as meaningless, divorced from the reality of the physical world in which we live, especially in the West and for many within Western Christianity. It is time to create new, transformed concepts for those moral and ethical religious teachings compatible with our modern self-understanding. We need "new wineskins" that remain faithful to important traditions but also find a basis beyond the personal and preferential, a transcendent perspective that thinks and believes both scientifically and religiously, as we "chase belief." Chasing Belief challenges traditional models and thought patterns of religious language and ideas to plant the seeds of a new transformative spirituality that gives meaning and hope to the life we share on this mote in the cosmic sea.

Wayne L. Krefting, a graduate of Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota (MDiv and MTh degrees), continues to "chase belief" and its efficacy for our modern world. Foregoing pastoral call, Wayne spent over a decade in social work before becoming a stay-at-home dad and professional puppeteer, performing locally, nationally, and internationally over the past thirty years. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Peggy, his wife, and "a lot of books."