tl;dr

our theology

Bad theology kills aliveness. Good theology kills what crushes aliveness. Shame, rivalry, and control are deadly distortions of divine life. True theology leads to greater integration, trust, and embodied life.
God is revealed in Christ as nonviolent, non-rivalrous, and entirely trustworthy. Jesus does not scapegoat or retaliate; he exposes and absorbs human violence. God is not in rivalry with humanity. We are the ones who instigate rivalry.
The Incarnation affirms the goodness of the body and material reality. Christianity is a bodily faith; to disconnect from the body is to disconnect from God. The body is not the obstacle to spiritual life, it’s the place where spiritual life happens.
Desire itself is not evil; but distorted (dis-oriented) desire leads to violence. Human desires are fundamentally mediated. They are formed through relationship. Desire becomes destructive when it is shaped by rivalry and shame rather than love.
Unity is not uniformity. God’s Kingdom is made of radically different parts held together by love, not sameness. Integration, not control or suppression, is the goal for both individual souls and communities.

Humans are inherently creative beings made in the image of a Creator God. Creativity is not limited to art. It’s any act of bringing something new into the material world – ideas, people, cultures, business models, learning, etc.
Shame is a form of internal violence that fragments the soul. Shame leads us to exile parts of ourselves, just as Eve hid from God after the Fall.
Blame is a form of external violence that breaks relationships & perpetuates rivalry. Cain’s murder of Abel illustrates how human rivalry escalates violence in the world.
Human beings are internally multiple (parts-based). Internal Family Systems (IFS) is consistent with the Christian understanding of a relational, non-fragmented self made in the image of a triune God.
Internal fragmentation and external violence are inextricably linked. The wars “out there” mirror the wars “in here” — peace involves both interior and interpersonal reconciliation.

False peace (conflict avoidance, compliance, exile) is a deadly counterfeit of real peace. True peace is created through integrity, not avoidance. Jesus’ call to peace comes through conflict, not around it.
The Christian life is not about achieving safety, certainty, or perfection — it’s about learning to trust God in uncertainty, vulnerability, and growth. “Faith, love, and hope” correspond to safety, belonging, and creative freedom. These virtues are gifts of the Holy Spirit, formed in us by God and not by our own effort. We are invited to relax and receive them.
Transformation (metanoia) is not about shame but about possibility. Repentance is not about hating ourselves, but about living in perpetual creative reorientation toward love.
The "flesh" Paul critiques is best understood as fragmentation, not physicality. Living "by the flesh" is living out of disintegration and rivalry. It’s not about bodies being “bad”.
Receiving, not striving, is the posture of discipleship. Mary is the model of trusting receptivity; Eve is the model of anxious control. The Kingdom of Heaven is received from God, not built by human achievement.