Latest Articles
Why bother with Reformation? John 8:31-36
There was a time when Reformation Sunday provided the occasion for Protestants to get together and say bad things about Catholics. Reformation services were conclaves of smug pronouncements....
The Cambridge Companion to Christian Doctrine, edited by Colin E. Gunton
Academic theology can have a future only if theologians themselves are interested in it....
Presbyopia and other milestones: Relinquishment
Older people take us by surprise. All of a sudden one day, they are us. This happened to me recently....
Fearfully and wonderfully made: Reflections on cosmetic surgery
Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery, by Sander Gilman...
Leaving a landmark
As we moved out of the Old Colony building a few days ago, I remembered having written about the place back in 1977 when it—along with the Fisher building to the north and the Manhattan building to...
Another look at Waco: Difficult lessons
Did federal agents start the conflagration in which 75 Branch Davidians died near Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993?...
Divine violence?
In the New Testament, God's "violence" is a precondition of human nonviolence.
Christ-haunted landscape: Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
Leviticus wants to draw a clear line between God and God's creation.
Growing in the Life of Faith, by Craig Dykstra
Sadly, astonishingly, suicidally—pick your adverb—mainstream Protestants, Roman Catholics and not a few evangelicals have for decades neglected Christian education and nurture....
Welcoming But Not Affirming, by Stanley J. Grenz
Stanley Grenz is responding to "welcoming and affirming churches"—churches "convinced that the Christian mandate involve[s] not only ministering to homosexual persons but also sanctioning same-sex ...
The angelic taxi
Cuban film director Fernando Pérez was inspired to make Life Is to Whistle by the work of modernist painter René Magritte, in whose work "reality does not stop being reality, but is, at on...
China syndrome: Authoritarian habits
The People's Republic of China marked its 50th anniversary on October 1, and in preparation for the occasion China's Communist Party did more than spruce up the streets of Beijing....
Spiritual warfare: At the World Prayer Center
I thought the reference to the queen of heaven might mean Mary, but it turned out I was wrong....
Consider the lilies
When I travel, I like to bring treasures home with me. I have four carved wooden masks I bought in Kenya, and one of the Buddha I found in Katmandu....
Pledging allegiance: Matthew 22:15-22
Are service to God and to Caesar compatible?