Features
Meltdown: Running out of time on global warming
Taking the plunge: Immersed in theology
Lost boys: Sudanese refugees in limbo
A handful of the “lost boys of Sudan”—the 26,000 children who fled civil war on foot—are on the big screen endearing themselves to American audiences. Four thousand were delivered from a United Nations refugee camp to various communities in the U.S. in 2001. A few of them are the subjects of a just-released National Geographic documentary, God Grew Tired of Us.
Overextended: The increasing demands on seminaries
Within a single week this past fall I received requests that the seminary I serve staff a youth retreat for a congregation, send a speaker about starvation in Darfur to a conference in Washington, D.C., provide leadership to Presbyterian congregational leaders in a distant city, send curriculum for a seventh-grade class, offer training for Spanish-speaking and Latino lay leaders, open a D.Min. program in another city, and engage with a nearby university in an ethics project on stem cell research. Additional requests came that same week to administrators and other members of the faculty.
Fellow students: Theological formation in the parish
A quarter century ago, I dreamed of being a teaching pastor. I burst out of seminary like a wild mustang in the rodeo, an impatiently raring dean of a parish about to become a mini–divinity school. Congregations under my care would learn sound theology and be shaped as faithful disciples. I would implant my newly marshaled information on scripture, doctrine and practice into the brains and souls of parishioners.
Sound alternatives
Psalm 96 issues an invitation repeated throughout the Old Testament: “Sing to the Lord a new song.” Today’s Christian musicians follow that call into vistas that David could never have foreseen, from Celtic folk to speed metal to reggae. Yet it’s hard to imagine a foray as bold, brash and challenging as The Divine Liturgy of the Wretched Exiles, by the Psalters (it’s a self- released album: www.psalters.com).
Crime scenes
A dead girl lies in a grassy field. Her blood-soaked body has started to decompose. Who is she? How did she get there? Was the killing a crime of passion or opportunity? And who committed the heinous act?
Books
After This
The Luminous Dusk
Satan: A Biography
The Last Street Before Cleveland
BookMarks
Close encounters
Ethics of abundance
Departments
First steps: Church members pressing the nation to change
Rising tide: An environmental issue and a justice issue
Softened hearts: Community and forgiveness
Apartheid denial: Carter's book continues the conversation
Getaway sermon: Jonathan Edwards takes his leave
News
South African church torn on gay issues: Ndungane and Akinola compete to be dominant voice
At Kenya funeral, Kobia decries criminal violence: Causes more deaths than warfare
Briefly noted
People
Century Marks
Beyond Belief: All references to God in the Oscar-nominated movie The Queen have been bleeped out in a version distributed to Delta and some other airlines. The president of the distribution company said it was a mistake made by an overzealous employee who had been told to edit out all profanities and blasphemies (USA Today, January 25).