Via Sophia

In my beginning is my end.

Melody Dowlearn — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 12:28:31 GMT

In my beginning is my end. In succession

Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,

Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place

Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.

Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,

Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth

Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,

Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and…

Odysseus as You.

Melody Dowlearn — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:31:26 GMT

Sing in me muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending.1

Coming off my first read of The Odyssey, I want to explore the scene that has haunted my imagination and captured my thoughts before I see it on the big screen this week.

It is the scene where Odysseus strings and pulls back his great bow—a bow that none of the s…

Who is this Sophia?

Melody Dowlearn — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:05:56 GMT

The last year and a half of grad school has confirmed my deepest suspicions…I lean more poetic than theological. Up until I started my thesis work, I considered my wayward imagination to be more of a hindrance than a help. When attempting to read systematic theology in some of my courses, my thoughts slipped out the back door to further ruminate on why…

Bones

Melody Dowlearn — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:43:42 GMT

Gather more food and store it well.

Waiting for the rapture, waiting

for the rain

We will have new bodies dancing

with no pain

Religion, a thin veneer

covering

these dead bones walking.

No longer a beach to walk along.

Only valleys of salt, nowhere

to baptize the dead children.

Rain in the forecast.

Stones cast

Parched tongues slander

the cosmic inheritance.

Nothing …

Mary the Invisible Mother

Melody Dowlearn — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:20:24 GMT

I have no experience of the veneration of Mary in the Evangelical tradition. In fact, anything beyond the recognition of her role in the Incarnation would have bordered on idolatry. Throughout my life, I often heard comments about “Catholics” and “their worship of Mary.” Hail Mary was acceptable in football as an offensive play but not in church as wors…

Sin as Thou. God as It.

Melody Dowlearn — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:28:03 GMT

If the title of this post has you wondering about my theology, I was raised in a Pentecostal church and eventually joined the Charismatic circles. Over the last five years, I have quietly looked beyond the Charismatic tradition and find myself at the intersection of Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and Catholicism along with an entire corpus of church history th…

Lessons from Hell

Melody Dowlearn — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:05:36 GMT

Absolved uncontrite means no absolution,
Nor can one will at once sin and contrition,
The contradictions bar the false conclusion.1

Dante’s Inferno presents both personal and theological contradictions that bar any false conclusion. So clever is his poetic rendition of hell, that I have discovered theological approval from both the universalist and tradit…

#23

Melody Dowlearn — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 01:26:24 GMT

Recently I’ve spent a lot of time engaging with this well known passage, and I wanted to share it in the language that my heart receives it. I know the Psalms do not need my help—especially this one. However, I enjoy meditating on passages and really allowing them to settle in and speak to me.

As I was typing it up this afternoon for Substack, I recei…

The Perichoresis of Time

Melody Dowlearn — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 21:01:01 GMT

I did not drink coffee then.

And as I was unsure what to do with the mugs, I pulled a chair over from the kitchen table and stood on it to push them to the far recesses of the upper kitchen cabinet.

They were encircled with a common fruit pattern as were the matching plates and glasses—a wedding gift from relatives with which to write the next chapter o…

Two Truths

Melody Dowlearn — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:12:04 GMT

A week ago, I had the privilege of being a guest on 15 Minutes with Fizer—a podcast hosted by my good friend Dr. Undria Fizer.

On that podcast, he asked me a very challenging question. The challenge was not in the nature of the question or the fact that he asked me, but that I had never answered that question out loud beyond my thoughts. To be honest,…

Disappointment & Heartbreak.

Melody Dowlearn — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 17:23:38 GMT

I wrote an entire post. I read it. I pondered it. I deleted it.

I waited a few weeks. And I sat down to re-write what I had deleted.

In the pondering, a father of the faith unexpectedly passed away.

Photo by Radek Skrzypczak on Unsplash

God dropped this man into my life in 2020 and used him to heal and reconcile damage done by church leadership. Th…

In part...

Melody Dowlearn — Sun, 26 May 2024 20:41:13 GMT

In 2017, we left our megachurch, and it wasn’t due to any particular reason other than my husband and I both sensed God was leading us into a different church experience. We had no idea where we were going, what it would look like or even why he was leading us out of a church we loved and had served in for several years.

This journey led us into some ex…

Agency, Action & Mrs. 31

Melody Dowlearn — Sun, 05 May 2024 21:52:53 GMT

A woman considered a field and bought it.

And this was the Proverbs 31 woman nonetheless.

We have exonerated her for her virtuous displays of resourcefulness, productivity and marital support. Mrs. 31 is the subject of many devotionals, books and l…

Purpose isn't a destination.

Melody Dowlearn — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 18:47:14 GMT

Hey friends…

Here’s the first post of 2024— a bit late, I know. So let’s jump right in!

Purpose is a divine invitation to engage with what you carry so that you can serve and impact the world around you every day.

When I worked as a bank teller in Dallas in the late…

When God asks questions.

Melody Dowlearn — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 02:23:10 GMT

I know people who ask lots of questions. Perhaps you are one of them. I am.

Let’s consider some of the more famous questions in scripture:

Cain: Am I my brother’s keeper?

Cain uses a question to evade God’s initial question.

Moses: Who am I that I should go to Ph…

God speaks through alarm clocks...

Melody Dowlearn — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 02:15:30 GMT

Before I dive in, I must clarify a few things for some of my new followers who found me on Facebook. While I love your Facebook likes and comments, I would be thrilled if you would tap the heart icon at the bottom of this chat and leave a comment if you feel so inspired. That really helps my work here on Substack—thank you!

I was in second grade. We l…

So what exactly do you do...?

Melody Dowlearn — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 14:01:07 GMT

This is a question that I get more often than not when I tell people I work in the space of identity. It takes several forms:

You started The Identity Academy? So you’re an entrepreneur? —No, not exactly.

You speak in churches? So you’re in the ministry? -No, not quite.

You wrote a book? You’re an author? -Yes, but that’s not all I do.

Recently, I was on…

The Commodification of Everything.

Melody Dowlearn — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:02:00 GMT

19,700 steps.

Apparently that’s how many steps one generates when carting a teenager to cross country practices and his job at the local running shop and chasing an eleven month old grand baby around the house. To be fair, I did run 4.5 miles at the crack of dawn, and I did clean a portion of my house. But 19,700 steps is well… a lot, and that was my …

When the Stars Come Out

Melody Dowlearn — Wed, 17 May 2023 12:55:57 GMT

There are moments of time that dance across the stage of my memory without invitation. They often alight when I am mindlessly involved in some mundane task such as unloading the dishwasher or sorting through the mail.

In one such moment, it’s 1982—I’m four years old. It’s late in the evening and very dark out. I am sitting in the passenger seat of my fa…

The Path of Curiosity.

Melody Dowlearn — Thu, 11 May 2023 01:00:49 GMT

Hello friends.

As I’ve been reading The Hobbit, I felt it quite proper to start off with a Tolkien quote:

Maybe the paths that you each shall tread are already laid before your feet though you do not see them.

As many of you kno…