Magazine /

May 31, 2011

Volume 128, Issue #11

Features

Loose connections: What's happening to church membership?

Most churches still approach membership the way they did in the 1960s. But if new modes of affiliation are appearing, churches will need new ways of thinking about membership.

by Amy Frykholm

Cover Story

Dismembership plan

When House of Mercy began in 1996, most attendees weren’t interested in formal membership. In 2008, the church joined the ELCA—which requires congregations to keep a member roll.

by Steve Thorngate

Film

This invigorating documentary offers a poignant portrait of a life devoted to the pursuit of beauty. Cunningham, a photographer who documents fashion in his long-running New York Times column, is both an artist and a social commentator, though far too modest to describe himself as either.

reviewed by Steve A. Vineberg

Feature

Justice or vengeance? The killing of bin Laden: The killing of bin Laden

"For God and country,” said the SEAL team commander. But if the God that Augustine had in mind were to shape how we think about war, there wouldn’t be much room to celebrate the killing of Osama bin Laden.

by Tobias Winright

Books

To End All Wars, by Adam Hochschild

World War I was the war that was supposed to end all wars, but as we now know it set in motion other wars, including World War II....

Past progressives

According to Gary Dorrien, the influence of Walter Rauschenbusch, Washington Gladden and the Social Gospel on the United States was mixed--but it was very real.

by Timothy Mark Renick

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1

To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Mark Twain's death, a crack team of editors at the massive Mark Twain Project at the University of California-Berkeley, headed by Harriet Elinor Smith, h...

reviewed by Harold K. Bush

A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea, by Joel Achenbach

Washington Post reporter Achenbach stayed in the Gulf region long after most reporters covering the 2010 oil spill had left, watching the frenzied but painstakingly slow process of blocking the wel...

All is vanity

Where is Qoheleth coming from? What is he doing in the Bible? What can
he offer us, when his mood and outlook seem so at odds with the rest of
the Bible?

by J. Gerald Janzen

Trauma Recalled, by Dirk G. Lange; Divine Worship and Human Healing, by Bruce T. Morrill

One might not expect to find so much common ground between a Lutheran and a Roman Catholic liturgist....

reviewed by Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio

Departments

American Soundings

Bodily blessings

How sweet was the moment when, the catheter removed, I was able to again urinate on my own. I heard myself whispering enthusiastically, with no hint of disrespect or irony, "Thank you, Jesus!"

by Rodney Clapp

Faith Matters

Two grandmothers

Eating at my city grandmother's table was a chore. I remember being dressed up, speaking in soft tones if at all, and being terrified of spilling on that lace tablecloth. But my country grandma served her meals in the kitchen.

by M. Craig Barnes

From the Editors

To join or not to join

St. Cyprian said that we can't have God as our Father if we don't have the church as our mother. It seems, however, that we live in an age in which people are less inclined to become church members—even when they are happy to have some church associations.

On Art

A Quiet Place

At the heart of the 23-acre Naramata retreat center in British Columbia is a space for prayer, contemplation and celebration designed by architect Isabel Chen. This very modern chapel is formed by traditional Christian symbols....

reviewed by Lois Huey-Heck