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Political maneuvers
Media, religion and politics have a way of smashing into one another in rich and sometimes perverse ways....
Diminished
Our hopes are a measure of our greatness. When they shrink, we ourselves are diminished....
Eruption of truth: An interview with Raimon Panikkar: On inter- and intrareligious dialogue
I was brought up in the Catholic religion by my Spanish mother, but I never stopped trying to be united with the tolerant and generous religion of my father and of my Hindu ancestors. This does not make me a cultural or religious “half-caste,” however. Christ was not half man and half God, but fully man and fully God. In the same way, I consider myself 100 percent Hindu and Indian, and 100 percent Catholic and Spanish. How is that possible? By living religion as an experience rather than as an ideology.
A cereal offense
General Mills recently tucked a CD-ROM containing the Bible into 12 million cereal boxes and then had to issue profuse apologies for having done so as it withdrew the offensive inclusions....
Matters of the heart: Sunday, September 3 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
"There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile a person.” Or as Eugene Peterson translates it, “It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life.” I’m tempted to disagree....
When the gospel goes to the dogs (Mark 7:24-30)
If we are to get past our discomfort with the name-calling, we will have to look more closely and note what Jesus does with the word dog.
From reformer to revolutionary
I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King Jr., by Michael Eric Dyson...
Disgrace, by J. M. Coetzee
In this novel, perhaps his masterpiece, J. M. Coetzee emerges as the most old-fashioned kind of literary genius: a person whose strong imagination is guided by firm and deeply held beliefs....
The Oxford History of Islam, edited by John L. Esposito
If you're looking for a scholarly one-volume history of Islam that is comprehensive, richly illustrated and designed to be readable, this is one of the best....
Sprawled out: Rules for community building
What kind of towns do people want to live in?...
Done conferencing: Democracy’s downside
Among the means of grace John Wesley lists “Christian conferencing.” Summer is always a popular time for Christians to congregate at denominational meetings, and this summer has been particularly s...
Questioning birthright Israel: Issues of Jewish identity
This summer thousands of high school and college-age Jewish youth have been descending on Israel....
The expansion of Christianity: An interview with Andrew Walls: Gospel, culture and the missionary movement
A former missionary to Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Andrew Walls taught for many years at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland....
Building communities from the inside out: Mobilizing for a "good enough" city
According to articles in the New Yorker and Business Week, churches are leading an urban renaissance....
The sacred well
When I bought the land where I now live, there was nothing on it but trees, cows and fescue. The first question the builder asked me was, “Where’s your well?” I tried to hide my surprise....
Classified knowledge
Question: Who had reason to vandalize the statue of Carl von Linné, a.k.a....
Dealing with rebels: Episcopal resistance to women’s ordination
In the waning days of the Episcopal Church’s July 5-15 General Convention in Denver, a weary sense of déjà vu descended on the bishops and the lay and clergy deputies who make up the church’s highe...
Decisions (Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18; John 6:56-69)
Woody Allen once remarked that humanity is at a crossroads: “One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction....
Wisdom famine (Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20)
Proverbs 9 seems to suggest that someone might be tempted to bypass wisdom’s feast and try to survive on the thin gruel of folly, or information.
The sacred well
When I bought the land where I now live, there was nothing on it but trees, cows and fescue. The first question the builder asked me was, “Where’s your well?” I tried to hide my surprise....