This is an essay that I wrote for my graduate class at Carnegie Mellon University at the end of our semester. They asked for an explanation of the faith and worldview that they saw underpinned my teaching

There appears to be a dark side to this ‘true vine’ discourse by Jesus which is the discarded branches. In verse 2, the Father/gardener ‘cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit’ and in verse 6 he says that ‘if anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned’.