Showing results by author "Chris Highland" in All Categories

The Message on the Mountain, commonly known as “The Sermon on the Mount,” was more a lecture than a sermon. Tradition tells us it was spoken by Jesus of Nazareth to his disciples as presented in the gospels of Matthew and Luke (possibly alluded to in Mark). Among the most famous passages in Christian history, it may be the least taken to heart by those who call themselves his students (“followers”). If these ancient instructions that have inspired social reformers for centuries, were indeed taken seriously and practiced today, it is possible that the Church as we know it would look ...

Chris Highland continues his friendly style of freethought in this new collection of essays (not published in his weekly columns) circling the theme of Nature. Chapters include:Pathfinding; Dirty Glaciers;; Eulogy for a Pond; I Sing the Body Electricity; The Phone Tree; Lessons from the Treetops; Nature’s Scripture; Natural Economics; Life is Too Short; By the Hands of Nature; How Green is God?; Green Village; Touch of Death; Wonder and Wildness; Living Bridge; Ancoutahan; Nearer to Wonder; and Mini-Migrations.

A novella that celebrates one day and the encounter of two great storytellers. Two people who find that an intimate relationship with wild Nature can revolutionize their lives. “I met someone out there. He was no angel or prophet. I don’t think he was. He became my teacher, my rabbi, as no other rabbi. His name is John, and he comes from a green, rocky island, laced with rivers and lakes—“lochs” he calls them—far across the Great Sea. He taught me to learn from the land, from the earth. He got me to swim again! Then, he left me with a sadness I hadn’t felt since ...

Essays from humanist freethinker, Chris Highland, explore the boundaries of belief. Includes chapters on: Freedom of Thought is Good for All; Who Builds and Buttresses the Boundaries of Belief?; Can You Be evangelical without being an Evangelical?; Sacraments, Screens and a Spirituality of Separation; Love the Believer, Hate the Beliefs?; Shining a Light on the Good Things We Do; Not for the Faint of Faith; Crazy for God; African Nativity: Stories of Refuge and Refugees; Pickpocketing, Freethinking and Breaking a Leg; Spinning with Spinoza; Charles Chesnutt’s Vision; Temple of Science, ...

A natural selection/collection of essays on Religion, Nature, Humanism and Secularism from a former minister who is now a freethinking humanist, educator and columnist.

For nearly thirty years Chris Highland sauntered the rivers and streams of poverty and homelessness as an interfaith chaplain, teacher, shelter director and housing manager. His "practice of presence" among people who find themselves stuck on the muddy banks or in the swirling eddies of financial, housing or mental insecurity revealed something surprising. He discovered gifted ability among those who have disabilities, the meaning of freedom among incarcerated people and a profound sense of home among houseless women, men, youth and children. "Chaplain Chris," as he was affectionately known...

Essays exploring the edges, and edginess, of faith and freethought. Former minister Chris Highland presents another collection of essays primarily drawn from his weekly columns in the Asheville Citizen-Times (North Carolina).

Chris Highland, a freethinking former minister and chaplain, leads readers on a hike along his winding trail emerging from faith. Without being anti-religious, and seeking to be honest but not disrespectful, he uses analogies from the natural world to frame his exit from a supernatural worldview. Chapters include: Forests of Freethought; The Broken Cross; Surviving the Shipwreck; Toward a New Island; The Way of the Pathfinder; A Map to Heaven on Earth. The Afterword is his essay: Why I’m Not an Evangelical Atheist. The book concludes with a concise outline of his trail beyond tradition: ...

Thoughtful reflections for active humanists from a freethinking former minister.

Freethinking essayist Chris Highland presents a new collection of his latest columns from the Asheville Citizen-Times, plus more essays to energize critical thinking. A non-theist who is not anti-religious, Highland offers perspectives on topics of interest to secular as well as believing people. Concise, controversial and inviting to dialogue, each brief essay opens a constructive path to common ground in a humanistic and sometimes humorous way. Highland draws from his love of nature, his years of interfaith chaplaincy and non-profit management and his emergence from faith, to engage ...

Chris Highland presents selected poems from nearly fifty years of stepping into wild waters and cascades of thought and emotion. Like an open journal, stained by the spray of waterfalls, Highland takes the reader on his personal explorations of secret trails that often lead straight up to a treetop. Sectional themes include: Cascades; Falling Love; Treed; Sea Light; Rivering; Rain; Breath and Death; Seeds; Seasons and Stones. As a former chaplain and current secular freethinker, Highland unapologetically reveals his journey from evangelical faith to freethinking humanism with touches of ...

Once a youthful apostle, now a mature apostate, Chris Highland adds to his collections of essays with more saunters into the secular world with a freethinker's perspective.

Chris Highland, a former minister and chaplain who is now a freethinking humanist, brings together an assortment of essays from the last twenty years as he emerged from ministry and non-profit work and on into teaching, lecturing and writing. From the Preface: "To be simply secular may not actually be simple at all. As James Baldwin states, freethinkers aren’t often welcomed—some don’t want us around. Yet, we keep standing up, speaking out, raising our voices. Those of us who live with the questions need to keep asking them, pushing, pulling, nudging—we’re educators as well as ...

Another dynamic collection of contemporary essays on Humanism, Religion and Nature by former minister and chaplain Chris Highland selected from his weekly "Highland Views" columns in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Friendly Freethinker follows the publication of A Freethinker's Gospel and Broken Bridges, each presenting provocative perspectives on faith and freethought in a fractured world. Positive, incisive, hopeful and helpful, essays include "Can We Talk About Religious Supremacy?," "Having Difficult Conversations without Destroying Relationships," "Battling Bullies in Boyhood and Beliefs,...

For many secular people, the Bible no longer offers anything of value. Dismissed as myth, legend and delusion, the ancient scriptures of the world should be thrown into the dustbin of history, they say. But what if timeless and timely wisdom can be salvaged from the old scrolls? What might both theists and atheists discover when a fresh perspective, energized by curiosity and respectful reason, blows the dust of centuries away? Humanist freethinker and former minister and chaplain, Chris Highland, takes a different road, offering another more constructive and inviting approach to one ...

Leaving home, especially a faith home, can be a challenging journey. In these essays, many drawn from his weekly columns in the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times, former minister and chaplain Chris Highland continues his explorations of the wilderness between faith and humanism. A secular freethinker who is not anti-religious, Highland reveals his respect for "respectable religion" while calling out the good actions of believers as well as the nonsense and dangerous elements of Christian Nationalism and superstition. Married to a minister himself, with many "friends in faith," Highland ...

Author, teacher and freethinker, Chris Highland, brings together over 30 of his essays on natural and unnatural religion, nature and super-nature. Chapters include: We Could Have a Little More Faith, in Nature; When Ancient Religions Grow Older; Birds, Beetles, Bears and Beliefs; Pilgrimage to Seek the Resurrection of the Good; Kneeling and Planting for the Life of the People; An Ethiopian View of Nature, Beauty and the Divine; Elegant Incognito and the Art of the Wild; Wasps, Willows, Water and the Way of Wonder; Rich in Small Wonders but We’re Poor in Seeing Them; Genesis, God and the ...

A fresh collection of scattered thoughts from the curious mind of a freethinking humanist who is not anti-religious. Chapters include: 1-Secrets of the Universe 2-What Have You Really Seen Today? 3-Ubuntu: A Secular Answer to Spiritual Questions 4-The Greatest Love of All 5-Is There a “Natural Spirituality”? 6-Ego de Lego (You Have Heard that it was Said) 7-What Ever Happened to the Golden Rule? 8-Frames of Faith & Points of Reference 9-Religious Morality & Secular Ethics 10-Disturbing Disruptions/Insightful Interruptions 11-Paul Laurence Dunbar & the Heart of Happy Hollow 12-The ...

Since 2016, Chris Highland has written weekly columns for the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina. Drawing from his own experience in ministry and chaplaincy in the San Francisco Bay Area, he now writes as a freethinker from a humanist perspective. He engages many subjects and issues that concern people of faith--any faith--especially topics and ideas that also matter to non-religious people. Highland Views includes over 50 essays published as columns in the Citizen-Times. Writing with a tone of invitation, Highland welcomes readers across the spectrum from Evangelical to Atheist as ...

Another concise collection of selected short essays from Chris Highland, a freethinking humanist and former minister. With an inviting approach to the intersections of faith and freethought, the author presents a model for critical thinking beyond fearful faith and angry atheism. Companions along the way include: Sojourner Truth and John Muir, Margaret Fuller and Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin and Jesus of Nazareth, Charles Darwin and Booker T. Washington, Thomas Paine and Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Buber and Aldo Leopold. Many of these reflections come from the author's weekly "Highland ...