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Flesh is indeterminate. It flows, changes over time, and is consumed and transformed. It becomes the reality of rich spiritual encounter.

A narcissistic demagogue is different from a racist-völkisch one. But Trump's ideological unpredictability bears its own dangers.

In 1911, Afro-Caribbean intellectual activist Hubert Harrison wrote in the New York Call that “politically the Negro is the touchstone of the modern democratic idea.” This touchstone metaphor is both startling and profound. 

John’s Gospel message can be summed up in several different ways. For many, the heart of the Johannine message is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that any who believe in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s a good one, and so is the very next one, “God did not send his son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.”  There are also the seven “I am” statements in which Jesus not-so-subtly declares himself by the unspeakable name of God.

Linguist Suzanne Kemmer helps me understand the book of Esther better.

Christians fail to realize that the responsibility for rebellion against the faith lies invariably at their own door.

In Acts comes Luke’s imaginative way to build upon ancient stories. The tongues of fire are no longer seen from afar on top of God’s mountain. And the multiplicity of languages becomes God’s vehicle for bringing salvation to the entire world.

Few Americans may believe in witches—or in a Puritan God. Yet The Witch explores human impulses that are still with us.

The first gathering of the Associated Church Press was held in St. Louis in 1916. Last week the ACP returned there to celebrate its 100th anniversary, gather a fine bunch of religion journalists, and hand out awards for work published in 2015. I accepted two first-place awards of behalf of the Century staff: best in class for national and international magazines and best in class for blogs.

When I read the book of Joshua, it is easy for me to miss God's call for genocide.

In poor communities like the one where I live and work, evictions are not the exception. They’re the norm.

Several recent state-level legislative efforts have something in common: they are solutions in search of a problem.

Matt talks to Nadia Bolz-Weber, pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, about preaching to oneself to benefit others, certitude’s roots in fear, and balancing authenticity with orthodoxy.

One of the most striking features of our degraded public dialogue is our tendency to "double down." When confronted with a failing, or challenged because our assertions seem to have no connection with reality, we don't pause to consider whether we might need to modify our position. That would be a sign of weakness, or so we're told.

I love Genesis for some of the same reasons the church fathers were wary of it.

Reading Exodus together with Isabel Wilkerson reminds me that the biblical story is not told from my point of view.