Features
What happens when people pray? Anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann
“When I started out I was focused on whether God was or was not out there. Now I am much more comfortable with ambiguity.”
Built on failure: The value of what we cant comprehend
In science, when negative data isn’t reported, the result is a silence that silences. A life-saving drug or a new discovery may be missed.
Faith of the senses: Christianity in five objects
A story of Christian life is incomplete if it ignores material things. If we reorient our gaze, we can see faith through embodied practices.
False witness: A misguided study guide
The content of Zionism Unsettled does a disservice to the church and damages its ability to play a role in bringing about peace.
Resurrection by inches
It’s been seven years, and I cannot access Jesus' word of peace. The tears still sting and slosh over my pail of remorse.
Is the church helping? Christians and the conflict in South Sudan
Churches helped usher in a new era of South Sudanese politics. As the conflict continues, leaders are again seeking to be peacemakers and prophets.
Books
Salinger, by David Shields and Shane Salerno
For a large percentage of students, Salinger can still pack a tremendous punch, and he still connects with the spiritual seeker inclinations that are common among university students.
North of Hope, by Shannon Huffman Polson
After Huffman Polson’s father and stepmother were mauled and killed by a grizzly bear, she retraced their steps in the Arctic region....
Paging God, by Wendy Cadge
Wendy Cadge asks, What happens to religion when hospitals, many of them founded by religious groups, are secularized or otherwise constrained to serve patients beyond their founding communities?
Book of Hours, by Kevin Young
The sudden death of a parent and years of smoldering grief that follow, the breathless anticipation of the birth of a child and years of awkward wonder that follow—these experiences are among the s...
Departments
Praying Jane Eyre
My student hasn’t allegorized Jane Eyre as Origen did the Bible. But she wrestles with passages until the text gives her a blessing.
Astonishing Assemblies
Every Sunday, more people attend Assemblies of God churches in the Sao Paulo area than in all the U.S.
Weep together
Isn’t it possible for both Israeli and Palestinian narratives to be true? Dialogue ends when each side demands that the other “let go of past suffering” and “get over it.”
Rwanda and after
On the international scene, Rwanda has become a synonym for doing nothing in the face of genocide. After 20 years, what's changed?
Selection from Drawings in Church, Vol. 3, by John Hendrix
John Hendrix’s work has appeared in a variety of publications, from children’s books to Rolling Stone and the New Yorker....
News
Central African Republic clergy urge faster UN deployment of peace force
Religious leaders, playing an ever expanding role in the troubled Central African Republic, are urging reinforcements for an existing peace mission, even as the United Nations prepares to roll out a bigger one in September....
Pope asks forgiveness for clergy sexual abuse scandal
In his strongest personal remarks yet on the clergy sexual abuse scandal, Pope Francis asked forgiveness “for the damage” that abusive priests have inflicted on children and pledged that the Catholic Church “will not take one step backward” in eff...
Muslims cheer shutdown of NYPD spying unit
Muslim and civil rights groups welcomed the news that the New York City Police Department’s Demographics Unit will disband but said they still fear they may be targets of warrantless surveillance....
Most favor generic prayer for public meetings
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the constitutionality of prayer at governmental meetings. A new survey finds that U.S. voters clearly favor such prayer—as long as the prayer is generic and not specifically Christian....
Lobbying for Bible classes
The Mustang, Oklahoma, school board has voted to adopt a Bible course developed by Steve Green, clearing the way for the Hobby Lobby president—whose suit against the Affordable Care Act is currently before the U.S....
Obama mourns Kansas gun violence, anti-Semitism: ‘We’re all children of God’
President Obama called for people of all faiths to deter gun violence and anti-Semitism one day after a gunman killed three people at Jewish centers in suburban Kansas City....
Debates linger after tests on ‘Jesus’ wife’ papyrus
A year and a half after unveiling a slip of papyrus that she dubbed “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” Harvard biblical scholar Karen King has released the results of long-delayed testing on the controversial fragment which appear to show that it is no...
Evangelical support for Israel slipping?
American evangelicals have played a significant role in U.S. support for Israel; by some measures they are even more supportive than American Jews....
More say Good Book is not a God book
Bible films may be raking it in at the box office, but fewer people are reading the original and taking it seriously....
Chick-fil-A offers a new public face
Chick-fil-A is crossing the road. The iconic chicken chain, known for its conservative heritage as well as its savory eats, is recalibrating its moral and culinary compass. It wants to go from old school to almost cool....
Lectionary
Sunday, May 25, 2014: John 14:15-21
Compared to other attributes we assign to God, cherishing has received little attention. It’s easily absorbed into the broader category of love. Yet cherishing is a specific kind of love—one the inspires deep commitment.
Sunday, May 18, 2014: 1 Peter 2:2-10
The recipients of 1 Peter lived far off the grid of Roman power. A people with no social standing, they were deemed unworthy of defending. And yet it is to these people that the letter proclaims lofty praise.