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In his storied career, Jim Dickinson produced some of rock’s greatest acts (Big Star, the Replacements). Here his sons Luther and Cody, who gained fame as the North Mississippi Allstars, accompany him in a live gig recorded three years before his death in 2009.

Public ritual might be construed as a benign relic, as imperialism, or as marketing. Or it might be seen as a form of pilgrimage.

My Dad was a pastor. He began his ministry in the early 50’s, when mainline churches were growing like weeds and a clerical collar would elicit a discount at the local department store and a complementary membership in the country club. Not so for my son, who has also worked a pastor. He paid full price for his coffee at Starbucks, where he led discussions with Millennials who wouldn’t dream of darkening the door of his grandfather’s church.

The Century's seven-word gospel project, which we started almost a year ago, got another wave of reaction recently when David Heim wrapped it up with a short article in the magazine.

In The Clash Within, Martha Nussbaum explored the capacity to entertain the other as key to a democratic society. Now she considers angry resistance to the other, bringing her usual erudite analysis and intense moral passion.

When I was a child, I read only baseball box scores. More recently, when Marilynne Robinson has a new book I immediately order it.

Sometimes preaching in a lectionary church is like being Philip in Acts 8—the Spirit plucks us up and drops us where ever she darn well pleases. It is necessarily this way, certainly.  Between the thematic requirements of the seasons of the church year and the sheer length of the four Gospels spread out over 156 Sundays, there is no way we can read all four in their entirety in three years. So, we skip stuff. Especially in Year B, as we try to mash the shortest Gospel, Mark, together with the other Gospel, John, together in some supposedly coherent way.

Here are some things I read recently but didn't get around to blogging about.

Each time Walter White gets away with something, I can't help cheering him on—while also shuddering at his depravity and my own complicity.

Neuroscientist Kenneth Hayworth is opposed to death, and he thinks he has a solution.

The other morning during my run I listened to Krista Tippett’s 2010 interview with Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.

The new Beach Boys record doesn't always work, but when it does it dials in the group's age of innocence, filtered through years of experience.

Ted Goins, president and CEO of Lutheran Services Carolinas, spends a lot of time focused on the Affordable Care Act’s regulations for providers of nursing care. But the health-care reform law also affects LSC is another way: as an employer.

Most people know only about the ACA's consumer-focused elements. Faith-based care providers are preparing for the law's other provisions as well.

The New York Times, the Harvard Gazette, The Huffington Post and other media outlets are breaking the news that Karen King, a scholar well known for her work on the phenomenon usually referred to as “Gnosticism,” has come into possession of and has been studying a Coptic papyrus fragment which is likely to be authentic, dates from around the 4th century, and has Jesus mention his wife.