Articles by David Heim

On the Shelf

Taking the Long View

Christian Theology in Historical Perspective

by David C. Steinmetz

Nuggets of learning

Oct 12, 2011 by David Heim

David Steinmetz is a senior scholar who can distill his learning in graceful, compact essays.

Century Blogs

Is Constantinianism all bad?

Sep 27, 2011 by David Heim

"Constantinian" has lately been a favored pejorative in theological circles. The term--an allusion to the fourth-century Roman emperor whose conversion to Christianity turned a marginal sect into a state religion--has been used to deplore any alliance between the church and the state or, more broadly, between the church and the dominant political culture.

Century Blogs

Ministerial status

Sep 23, 2011 by David Heim

The Washington Post reports that 31 percent of wedding couples pick a friend or family member to preside at the ceremony rather than a minister.

Century Blogs

What MLK said

Sep 01, 2011 by David Heim

I had an English professor who used to get deeply annoyed whenever students would cite some literary passage but not bother to quote it exactly. I recall him telling us, "Look, if you're going to quote somebody, get it right."

Century Blogs

The slightly Lutheran congresswoman

Jul 28, 2011 by David Heim

When reports started circulating that Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann was a member of a congregation in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, I thought: this could be interesting.

On the Shelf

Sacred Violence

Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty

by Paul W. Kahn

The foundation of politics

Jul 26, 2011 by David Heim

Of all the books that might be read to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11, one of the most probing is by a law professor at Yale, Paul Kahn. In Sacred Violence, Kahn picks out two distinctive political problems of our post-9/11 world--terrorism and torture--and argues that they are parallel.

On the Shelf

In the Valley of the Shadow

On the Foundations of Religious Belief

by James L. Kugel

Into starkness

Jul 14, 2011 by David Heim

Dramatic conversion stories are the exception, not the rule, in the life of faith. Coming to faith usually involves a gradual adjustment of one's vision and habits, rather than the kind of dramatic turnaround described in those oft-sung words of "Amazing Grace": "I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see." Life is rarely so black and white.

On the Shelf

Middlemarch

by George Eliot

36 Arguments for the Existence of God

A Work of Fiction

by Rebecca Goldstein

Binocular Vision

New and Selected Stories

by Edith Pearlman

Summer reading list

Jun 30, 2011 by David Heim

The term "summer reading" conjures up leisurely days immersed in fiction. I have a few items in that pile.

Century Blogs

Unsustainable medicine

Jun 14, 2011 by David Heim

It's routine, as you get out your credit card in the supermarket checkout line, to be asked to donate a few dollars to medical research. It's an easy way to contribute--and who wouldn't want to help conquer breast cancer or prostate cancer?

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Peer power

May 25, 2011 by David Heim

Some years ago, medical researchers at Vanderbilt considered how best to intervene with doctors whose patients had complained about their unprofessional behavior.

Century Blogs

Who's in hell

May 03, 2011 by David Heim

Even before Rob Bell's book Love Wins (see the Century review by Peter Marty) came out, conservative evangelicals lit up the blogosphere with their insistence--against Bell--that God's condemnation of the wicked to hell is a nonnegotiable part of orthodoxy.

On the Shelf

How to Write a Sentence

And How to Read One

By Stanley Fish

One good sentence

Apr 27, 2011 by David Heim

Staring helplessly at a broken appliance or other household malfunction, I often recall a quip by Joseph Epstein, an essayist and editor: the only thing I can fix is a sentence.

Century Blogs

Ayn Rand's sphere of influence

Apr 20, 2011 by David Heim

In the latest First Things, David Bentley Hart skewers the thought of Ayn Rand. Yet only in a passing reference does he acknowledge the reasons for the renewed interest in Rand.

On the Shelf

The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

A Widow's Story

A Memoir

by Joyce Carol Oates

Stories of sorrow

Apr 06, 2011 by David Heim

In times of grief, "the very sun and moon seem taken from us," writes Oscar Wilde. He continues:

Century Blogs

News cycle

Mar 09, 2011 by David Heim

A blogger at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America points out that some lines of Paul-Gordon Chandler's article on events in Egypt are unusually close to lines in a February 19 article in the New York Times—and charges that Chandler lifted them from the Times.

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Libya illusions

Mar 08, 2011 by David Heim

Neo-cons at the Weekly Standard like Bill Kristol, Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell and John McCain, and liberal interventionists such as John Kerry and Joe Lieberman are calling for

Century Blogs

Department of peace

Mar 02, 2011 by David Heim

In mid-February, budget slashers in Congress unexpectedly took the ax to the U. S. Institute of Peace.

On the Shelf

Bonhoeffer

Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

By Eric Metaxas

Alan Wolfe on Metaxas's Bonhoeffer

Feb 10, 2011 by David Heim

In the Feb. 3 New Republic, Alan Wolfe, the magazine's go-to reviewer on matters of religion, seems to buy into the account of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that Eric Metaxas gives in his new biography Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.

Century Blogs

The logic of revolt

Jan 26, 2011 by David Heim

It used to be that the defense of Second Amendment rights was linked, at least rhetorically, to the rights of hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, who worried that gun laws might deny them their hunting rifles or the chance to engage in target practice. That concern--always farfetched--has come to look rather quaint.

On the Shelf

The Loser Letters

A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism

by Mary Eberstadt

Not quite Screwtape

Dec 29, 2010 by David Heim

In mock letters of advice from a convert to godlessness, Eberstadt tells the "major-league atheist guys" (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens et al.) how they need to firm up their arguments.