Latest Articles
Why ICE agents hide their faces
Genesis 3 and Emmanuel Levinas can help us make sense of masked violence.
The making of Islamophobia
The West’s understanding of Islam has been shaped by centuries of superficial, deeply biased Christian teaching.
Augustine’s African heritage
Catherine Conybeare’s new biography reveals a bishop formed by two worlds, two languages, and a church struggling to define itself.
Franklin Graham preaches a God of hate
In his holiday sermon at the Pentagon, Graham cited scripture as a justification for war. But what if Samuel got God wrong?
Reflecting the light (Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12)
Maybe we ask too much of ourselves—and too little of God—if we expect to produce light.
January 11, Baptism A (Isaiah 42:1–9; Matthew 3:13–17)
Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember who we are.
The Verb made flesh? (John 1:1-18)
In Spanish-language Bibles, there’s no consensus as to how to translate Logos.
Imagining the Magi
To be God’s people is to be caught up in parable, in story and storytelling.
Reading the Qur’an at Christmastide
God seems more real to me when I encounter other traditions’ reflections on what God is like.
Bearing witness in three lines
Frustrated with the limits of journalism, former war correspondent Rick Black turned to haiku.
A cloud of witnesses for the new year
When the world feels like too much, I look to those who bore even greater burdens in ages past.
January 6, Epiphany (Ephesians 3:1–12; Matthew 2:1–12)
Herod is frightened—or disturbed, or troubled, or all of the above.
A book that tells a story beyond its pages
Jason Mott’s wildly inventive novel depicts two Black American writers, an ocean apart. It’s up to the reader to decide how they’re related.
January 4, Christmas 2 (Jeremiah 31:7–14; John 1:(1–9), 10–18)
The child staggering out of a bomb-blasted city does not need to find her home in God. She needs a physical home.
Matthew’s echoes of older stories (Matthew 2:13-23)
When the holy innocents text makes reference to Rachel, it seems worth remembering her story.