Will Campbell once held a funeral for a town. This odd act showed how the practices of death and dying aren’t just for individuals.
Each day in the U.S., nine churches close their doors for good. This isn’t news—but it’s hard to talk about when it’s your church.
Churches need new thinking—on the part of denominational executives, pastors brave enough to walk into challenging situations, and people willing to let go of a church model that no longer works.
Attaining justice for victims of sexual assault cannot be a matter of belief or disbelief. They are individuals, not symbols of a cause.
Everyone is ready to bow a knee at the mention of Bonhoeffer’s name. Precious few of us have even heard of Ralph Hamburger.
The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship board knew it had a choice: build an institution, or build a movement.
Like Sarah Koenig, I want to know if we can believe Adnan Syed. But I only know Syed through Koenig’s accounts of him in Serial.
I used to think that the end of Samuel’s story was when he learns to listen to God. I wasn’t curious at all about what God has to say.
I eschew the danger of the river, but I know that it is where God leads me.
Sorry About That, by Edwin L. Battistella
In this anecdotal study of public apology, Edwin Battistella shows that our anxieties and confusions about confession are rooted in a deeper ambiguity: the tension between the culpable self and the apologetic self.
Endangered faiths
Gerard Russell’s account of disappearing Middle Eastern religions has an elegiac quality. It’s heartrending and often infuriating.
Texas tough
Other states have a history of violence, suspicion of government, and more Baptists than people. What makes Texas different? Robert Wuthnow says it’s oil.
Curious, by Ian Leslie
In Ian Leslie’s telling, curiosity is far from a valued quality. Augustine, he notes, equated curiosity with temptation.
Found Theology, by Ben Quash
For Ben Quash, scripture and tradition are givens. Our task is to discover and reinterpret what we have been given.