Features
Speaking to mourners: The evolution of funeral sermons
In 1983, Kenneth Mitchell and Herbert Anderson wrote that "death is only one form of loss." This would have been unthinkable for Christians half a century earlier.
Due diligence: A lawyer’s journey to church
I've always been drawn to people like Larry. Whether they realize it or not, they are searching for a mainline church that makes sense in their brains and a difference in their lives.
Take the money and run? When Hollywood came calling: When Hollywood came calling
According to my understanding of congregational polity, a pastor has the authority to turn down money. But not this much money.
Still dying badly: A Christian critique
The emphasis on patients' rights and autonomy has been a weak remedy for medicalized death.
Caught in a revolution: Tripoli priest Hamdy Sedky Daoud
"Nobody asked us to close our churches or evacuate. We should appreciate
our Libyan brothers and thank God for their tolerance."
Voices
Philip Jenkins
Within the African canon
Here is my unscientific rule: if Martin Luther treated a biblical book
with disdain, then that book is really popular in
modern Africa.
Thomas G. Long
Why do men stay away?
Men and the church are often at odds. Sadly, many of the reasons researchers give for this are as insulting as they are misguided.
Books
Taking the Long View, by David C. Steinmetz
Steinmetz is a senior scholar who can distill his learning in graceful, compact essays....
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and The Reading Promise
Reading is an act of "absorbed
alertness," says Ursula Le Guin. Two reading memoirs record two distinct experiences of such absorption.
Left Behind and Loving It, by D. Mark Davis
Presbyterian pastor Mark Davis offers deft and humorous biblical and theological readings of "Left Behind Theology" that speak to the anxiety at work in the culture shaped by apocalypic texts....
The Greater Journey, by David McCullough
In the 1830s most Americans were finding plenty of adventure in their own country. It was just over 50 years old, after all....
Knowledge through suffering
It takes a lifetime, as well as a remarkable life, to write a book like Eleonore Stump's Wandering in Darkness.
Departments
Within the African canon
Here is my unscientific rule: if Martin Luther treated a biblical book
with disdain, then that book is really popular in
modern Africa.
Grieving together
When I became a student pastor I had no idea what I
was getting into.
The first thing that happened after we moved into the tiny parsonage was that Johnny Johnson
died.
Why do men stay away?
Men and the church are often at odds. Sadly, many of the reasons researchers give for this are as insulting as they are misguided.
The Underground
The artwork of Chicago artist Clare Rosean packs a psychological wallop that leaves viewers confused and uneasy. Rosean's ink and pencil works feature images of transportation gone awry, stairways that don't lead anywhere—a dream gone bad....
Powerful occupation
Whatever its explicit message, Occupy Wall Street has made a powerful statement with its very mode of existence.
News
Plain-talk Bible debuts with mainstream backing
The Common English Bible, the newest Bible on the block, is what the name suggests—a translation into commonly spoken English. It is not the first edition to move in that direction....
Mormon leaders probe members’ reading habits
Mormon leaders are surveying members about their readership of key websites and Mormon writers, a move that reflects the faith's growing interest in managing its public image as two Mormon candidates compete for the Republican presidential nominat...
Egypt rocked by sectarian violence in new regime
As Egypt approaches the anniversary of the protest movement that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak, the country still finds itself torn by sectarian violence....
Three women activists take peace prizes
Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian activist who helped bring her country out of a brutal civil war and one of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners, says the best way to achieve global peace is to start in local communities....
The ‘Occupy’ movement includes religious groups
As waves of demonstrators descended on New York City to unite with others to protest corporate greed, they were met by typical sounds of raucous youth-led protests: drum beats, police sirens and shouted political slogans....
Chief rabbis condemn attack on Israeli mosque
Israel's chief rabbis are among the Jews in Israel and abroad who
have strongly condemned an arson attack on a mosque in northern Israel.
The rabbis made a solidarity visit to the Israeli Arab village of...
Civil rights legend Fred Shuttlesworth dies
Fred Shuttlesworth, the last of the "Big Three" of the civil rights movement along with Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr., died October 5 in Birmingham, Alabama. He was 89....
Chaplains can conduct nuptials for gays
Military chaplains may officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies on
and off military bases, the Pentagon has announced, in a move that
closely followed the repeal of a ban on openly gay service members....
Churches lose fight over Alabama immigration law
A federal judge jolted the national immigration debate by approving
most parts of Alabama's aggressive immigration law which some religious
leaders have called the "meanest" in the nation....