Latest Articles
Supernatural beings: Redefining faith, love and hope
Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, by Martha Beck...
Floating along?
It was with a dose of suspicion that I started reading the feature article in the New York Times Magazine (Feb....
Cat-astrophe
If anyone ever did a word search of four decades’ worth of these columns, it is not likely that cat would ever show up....
Theological wisdom, British style: Integrating theology and religious studies
Some years ago when I encountered theologian George Lindbeck of Yale Divinity School, he asked me about the Gifford Lectures which had been written by my doctoral supervisor, Donald MacKinnon....
Saving faith, evangelical witness: Gauging Brian Gerrish
Saving and Secular Faith: An Invitation to Systematic Theology, by B.A. GerrishThe Pilgrim Road: Sermons on Christian Life, by B.A. Gerrish; edited by Mary T. Stimming...
Palm Sunday (Mark 11: 1-11)
In Mark's Palm Sunday story, Jesus seems to have no understanding of rank.
The Ironic Christian’s Companion, by Patrick Henry
What does an ironic Christian look like?...
Late Antiquity, edited by G. W. Bowersock, Peter Brown and Oleg Grabar
When Arnaldo Momigliano was at the University of Chicago he used to argue that we should teach not "church history" but just "history." This is the implicit view of most of the contributors to this...
What did you call me?
John McCain was the most innovative and exciting campaigner of the presidential primary season....
Confession and renewal: The pope's action
In an issue of the magazine devoted to themes of spiritual renewal, we would underscore the significance of Pope John Paul II’s dramatic effort to renew and purify the Roman Catholic Church through...
Freedoms renounced: Church and state in Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a small country with a long history. Like other Balkan countries, it has gone through turmoil, slavery, exaltation and defeat....
Living with Bob Jones: Letter from Greenville
The furor over George W. Bush’s campaign speech at Bob Jones University is full of ironies....
Learning to pray: Always a beginner
Prayer. We read, write, talk and agonize about it, resolve to do it, wish we’d done it more than we actually do it....
Keeping the great commandment: What does it mean to love God?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” our priest droned for the tenth time. His pedagogy was nothing if not dogged....
Vishnu’s almonds
This week I am headed to the Hindu Temple in Atlanta so that the students in my World Religions class may see a living faith in action....
Advance thanks
I wouldn't recognize Rosie O’Donnell if we bumped into each other’s baskets at the supermarket, but I know she’s big on television....
The whole world singing: A journey to Iona and Taizé Living in the sound of praise
I’ve often wondered what sort of conversation Protestant Reformer John Calvin and Catholic Bishop Francis de Sales would have had if they had met....
Regeneration: Psalm 51
How does the way God regenerates us resemble and differ from the way we regenerate ourselves?