Features
Belonging or not: My life as a nonjoiner
When I was baptized at 12, I refused what Baptists call “the right hand of fellowship.” I wanted the water but not the fellowship.
Illness as hermitage: How Parkinsons became my spiritual practice
One day, as I considered my routine of pills and naps and exercises, I saw that it is not unlike praying the hours.
Soil and soul: Our Protestant agrarian past
Christians didn’t baptize Aldo Leopold’s land ethic after the fact. They got there years before his work.
Books
A Philosophical Walking Tour with C. S. Lewis, by Stewart Goetz
Stewart Goetz’s book is provocative and carefully argued. But I am puzzled as to why the ordinary reader of C. S. Lewis would be worried about the road not taken.
Delight in preaching
My sixth-grade sex ed teacher held up a worksheet and apologized: “I know this is sort of unromantic.” Books on preaching can leave us similarly cold.
Cancer and good news
Todd Billings weaves his struggle with a rare form of blood cancer together with probing biblical and theological reflection.
Between Magisterium and Marketplace, by Robert C. Saler
Robert Saler’s two main concerns are theological authorship and how we conceive of the church. The two have an unsettled relationship.
The Spirit of Grace, by Alister E. McGrath
In this fourth book in the Heart of Christian Faith series, McGrath covers the part of the creed dealing with the Holy Spirit and the church....
Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest, by Gordon Oyer
In November 1964, Thomas Merton hosted an unprecedented ecumenical gathering of 13 peace authors and activists—including Catholics Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Mennonite John Howard Yoder, and Quake...
Departments
Walking toward the storm
Jesus went slowly, purposefully into the eye of the storm. Only through the storm would he find what he was looking for.
Soup-kitchen church
One day, a soup-kitchen guest named what was happening: church, a worshiping community distinct from the larger congregation.
The Meditation on the Passion, by Vittore Carpaccio (ca. 1460–1525)
The dead Christ sits between St. Jerome on his left and Job on his right. Christ appears to be sleeping—a reference to the resurrection. The skull and human bones near Job associate him with death and disease....
Repenting for our prisons
Imprisonment in this country is long on punishment and shamefully short on rehabilitation.
Religious satire on Broadway
Religious satire was once an edgy form of humor celebrated by rebellious teens. Now it’s attracting adults who buy theater tickets.
What religious freedom isn’t
Free exercise is a basic right and a great asset to the American religious landscape. Yet some of its advocates seem eager to give it a bad name.
News
Schools engage three faiths in Israel
Four decades ago, the YMCA in Jerusalem opened a “peace preschool” that brought Arab and Jewish children into shared classrooms....
Germany’s classrooms make a place for Islam
(The Christian Science Monitor) Timur Kumlu had just read the second-graders a chapter from the Qur’an about Abraham looking for Allah but finding him neither in the sun, the wind, nor...
Gary Hall, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, to retire early; bishop Mariann Budde to serve as interim
Gary Hall, dean of the Washington National Cathedral, announced in late August that he would be retiring from his position two years early....
Jonathan Myrick Daniels remembered with 50th anniversary pilgrimage, memorial at Washington National Cathedral
Jonathan Myrick Daniels was 26 when he stepped in front of a shotgun blast meant for a fellow civil rights worker, Ruby Sales, 50 years ago in Hayneville, Alabama....
A search for compromise as county clerks stop same-sex marriages
(The Christian Science Monitor) As a number of county clerks in Kentucky, Texas, Alabama, and other states resist issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, some longtime advocate...
Muslim leaders issue call to act on climate change
Muslim leaders and scholars from 20 countries made a joint declaration at a conference in Istanbul, calling on Muslims and all nations worldwide to address climate change....
ISIS recruiters cause concern in Kurdish town in Turkey
(The Christian Science Monitor) White-on-black Islamic calligraphy still adorns the establishment that the self-described Islamic State used to recruit fighters and bombers in Adiyaman...
Lectionary
September 27, 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mark 9:38-50
At this point in Mark, stumbling blocks seem a necessary point for conversation. We are good at placing them in others’ paths, and even better at setting them before ourselves.
Ordinary 25B (Mark 9:30-37)
This week’s Gospel may be the second Passion prediction, but being told that Jesus will be killed is no easier on the second hearing. Maybe the disciples don’t ask questions because they’re afraid it could be true.