Latest Articles
Who is a person?
Two of the most powerful intellectual and social forces in our culture are the hard sciences and capitalist economics....
Dental work
Four decades ago, when I began to write this column, my assignment was to “lighten up” the magazine by gently poking fun at the foibles and follies of the mainstream and all the other religious str...
Who is like thee?: Isaiah 40:21-31
Isaiah is a master at putting God and humankind in perspective.
Being Reformed
The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations, edited by Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Visher...
Apocalypse not: Y2K afterthoughts
Anyone who has ever studied for a major exam or planned a special vacation knows how the task of preparing for a big event can give vitality and meaning to one’s days—and create a sense of emptines...
Praise at Celebration: Churchgoing in Disney’s town
When most Americans think of small towns, say Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins, they think of churches: “Each of us carries a mental map of the perfect small town....
An imitation of Christ
Several years ago, when my husband’s engineering firm was between jobs, a pipe fitter named Richard came to live in the small log cabin just down the hill from our house....
A lesson in humility
When we Marty kids were in grade school, we entered any contest that pointed toward a prize. During those Great Depression years, we would have experienced great elation if we’d won even a bauble....
Welcoming the stranger: The practice of hospitality
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, by Christine Pohl...
Biology meets theology: Divergent views on evolution
Genes, Genesis and God: Values and Their Origins in Natural and Human History, by Holmes Rolston...
Sins and sensibilities: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Where I grew up, everybody was pretty much just like me. It was a small, southern community, with a long history, deep roots and consistent Christian morality....
Quality time
Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time, by Dorothy Bass...
Going Home, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Since the Vietnam War era, Thich Nhat Hanh has been known to North Americans as an activist for peace and justice and an interpreter of Vietnamese Buddhism and culture. Martin Luther King Jr....
Public passions
Linda Tripp and Virginia Woodhull, living more than a century apart, were central figures in two public scandals involving high-profile figures....
The Jesus card: Campaign piety
Republican contenders for president met in Iowa recently to talk about politics and a testimonial broke out. When asked to identify his favorite philosopher-thinker, George W....
Farm worker victory: Mushroom farmers lead the way
When United Farm Workers organizer Frank Curiel answered the phone in mid-December, he had just come from Quincy Farms, which each year produces 25 million pounds of white button mushrooms and 500,...
The crucible of Kosovo: Top religion stories of 1999: Assessing intervention
The 20th century began in Sarajevo and it will end in Sarajevo.” That saying, current during the war in Bosnia, wasn’t too far wrong....
Entering the millennium on Christian time: On pilgrimage through history
Are we there yet?” my son Andy cries just as we are pulling out of the driveway. “Are we there yet?’ when we drive up to the McDonald’s take-away window....
Thy will be done: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1: 14-20
Those first fisher disciples left more than their nets by the seashore.
Notes on a born-again nation: New hope for Nigeria
A man once asked God why he had blessed Nigeria so abundantly, a popular joke goes....