Latest Articles
Letters not written
Once in a while I receive a letter here that is so nutty, so outrageous or so hateful that I do not answer it....
Doing the right thing (Galatians 6:1-6, 7-16)
The family is a funny institution. We make much of being related to each other, of sharing common ancestors, common history, common DNA....
Nice text: 1 Corinthians 13
When 1 Corinthians 13 crosses my path, I don’t greet it with a great deal of enthusiasm....
Nice text: 1 Corinthians 13
When 1 Corinthians 13 crosses my path, I don’t greet it with a great deal of enthusiasm....
Solzhenitsyn’s century
By D. M. Thomas, Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life. (St. Martin's, 583 pp.)...
Native sons
By Will D. Campbell, And Also with You: Duncan Gray and the American Dilemma. (Providence House, 274 pp.)...
Where Trouble Sleeps, by Clyde Edgerton
Listre, North Carolina, exists only in the mind of Clyde Edgerton, but the conversation there is as real as any you’d hear at a bait shop or diner. And Edgerton’s delivery is wickedly funny....
Lived Religion in America, edited by David D. Hall
David D. Hall addresses the gap between academic theology and the diverse ways people of faith “live religion” in their circumstances....
American mayhem: School shootings
When did teenagers start gunning down their classmates and teachers? Over the past two years, nine different schools have become scenes of murder....
Evil ways: A Morality Play
The faces of Monica Lewinsky, Ken Starr and Bill Clinton are like red figures against a blue background, dancing in a Matisse-like circle, arms outstretched, hands touching, each one mysteriously (...
Rage and beyond: Father’s day initiative
A naÏve celebration of parents and parenthood sometimes takes place in church on Father’s Day....
Giving to religion: How generous are we?
There is good reason to believe that Americans are receiving an overly optimistic picture of charitable giving in the U.S....
Gratitude at last
I have come to see gratitude as primary among the spiritual virtues, the wellspring, as it were. I also think it makes a suitable subject for my last column in the Faith Matters series....
Spare places
Near the end of the WPA in 1939, I painted a large round sign for a building in Battle Creek, Nebraska (pop....
Stay and follow: Psalm 22: 19-28; Luke 8: 26-39
He was buried alive, this man of the Gerasenes. He was alive, but he lived in a graveyard among the tombs....
Good use of doctrine
By Ellen T. Charry, By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine. (Oxford University Press, 264 pp.)...
Amazing Grace, by Kathleen Norris
By Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. (Riverhead Books, 384 pp.)...
Thrones, Dominations, by Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh
Dorothy Sayers began Thrones, Dominations in 1936, but soon left it behind to concentrate on other projects, including a translation of Dante’s Inferno....
Message to Israel: Hillary Clinton states the obvious
Hillary Clinton recently stated the obvious: the creation of a Palestinian state would be in the best interest of both the Palestinians and the Israelis....
Edifying discourses: Recommended reading
What books illuminate the organizational side of church life and practical dimensions of parish leadership? Four church leaders offer recommendations....