As a review committee member, I assured foreign delegations that the Dutch model was a good one. That conclusion has become harder to support.
Brittany Maynard's story is compelling—but not typical. Basing policy on cases like hers can be dangerous to the people the policy affects.
I keep a 36-inch utility shovel in my church office. I use it to dig the graves that hold the cremains of our congregation's saints.
The church can be a space for difficult conversations about choices at the end of life—along with being a place for communal care.
Each year I ask my students to devise arguments for God. They respond less like well diggers than like beachcombers, gathering bits of evidence.
Within a decade, a sixth of the world's Catholics will be African—yet the continent has few canonized saints. This is starting to change.
It’s common to confuse ministry leaders with Jesus. We can see ourselves in Judas’s question to Jesus, “How is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Why do we have to carry the message?
Jesus uses both words and deeds to prepare his followers for his absence. Are the disciples watching for what it means to really, really love? Are we?
Cultivating equality
Even if increased equity were to involve a slightly smaller pie, the resulting social order may be preferred. When poverty declines, the social costs of poverty fall, and despair is replaced by hope.
Revelation, by Dennis Covington
Dennis Covington is famous for seeking faith in extreme places. Twenty years ago it was the snake-handling, poison-drinking Christians of southern Appalachia.
Everyday theosis
Theosis is mission’s starting point. Believers are called to “become” the gospel through participation in the divine life.
The faith of the Dones
The Dones aren’t leaving church because they’re burned out. They’ve hit so much bureaucracy that they seek more efficient venues.
History and Presence, by Robert A. Orsi
History of religion meets ethnography in this complex, intriguing account of Catholic devotional practices. Orsi, who teaches at Northwestern University, operates on several levels at once.
Teaching love
Honestly facing the conflict of self with self—and choosing words that reveal its particular manifestations in one life—is hard, hard work.
A new film and a hit podcast both feature women telling war stories—a role that’s usually reserved for male protagonists and male narrators.