“Silence gives me freedom in both real time and psychic time. When I talk less, I see more. And silence gives me time to pray.”
All deserts are silent, harsh and beautiful. Sinai adds its history of God’s dealings with humanity. It’s a holy place where the veil is lifted.
Crunching the numbers
The Census Bureau avoids collecting data about religion. So most of what we know is based on what people reveal to independent researchers.
Easter Sunday is glorious. But the most important Sundays come afterward, when we are left—as were Jesus' disciples—with the sense that nothing can ever be the same.
Stand-your-ground laws reflect our culture's belief that violence is not a last resort--it’s a way to proactively promote security.
Palestinian parents don’t fret about drugs or drunk drivers. They worry that the Israeli soldiers will use their M-16s.
For some Christians, the menace of apostasy is anything but distant or theoretical.
"How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?" Even some Christians rule 1 John's question out of order.
The appearance of a ghost can be explained in all sorts of ways. But when Jesus appears—bearing scars and hungry for a nice piece of tilapia—then we have to do more than merely rearrange some intellectual furniture.
Gathering Those Driven Away, by Wendy Farley
Wendy Farley formulates a theology of Wisdom incarnate--unleashed by divine desire, found in ordinary life and born in a manger.
God of wholeness
Fred Gaiser offers a sober, accessible review of the biblical materials pertinent to our thinking about healing.
Devil's Ink, by Jeffrey C. Pugh, and The Devil Wears Nada, by Tripp York
Jeffrey C. Pugh and Tripp York are Facebook friends. Both teach religion at southern institutions of higher learning. Last year, each wrote a good-natured book about Satan.
A Separation
A Separation is a highly ambitious piece of work. It successfully tackles a range of topics and themes, from class, religion and gender to pride, guilt and justice. It is a tale that appears uniquely Iranian but quickly transcends physical and spiritual borders to portray the difficulty of doing the right thing under difficult, even life-threatening circumstances.