Elaine Pagels’s lifelong search for the sacred
Pagels vividly recounts her spiritual experiences. But she won’t let herself be bound by any tradition.
Books
Vincent van Gogh, Still Life With French Novels and Rose, oil on canvas, 1887.
Tracing the racist history of the death penalty in Georgia
R.J. Maratea argues that lynching declined when white people began to realize that the courtroom would work just as well.
A physicist explores mystical experience
Alan Lightman asks great questions about science and religion. His answers are sometimes frustrating.
Kathryn Tanner’s anti-work ethic
The theologian doesn’t want finance capitalism to determine what we’re worth.
An Israeli writer’s final word to his fellow citizens
Amos Oz feared that fanaticism was rising in Israel as well as in the West.
Learning to love Iran
Delphine Minoui planned a weeklong visit to explore her heritage. She stayed for 10 years.
How Crusades-era literature shaped the idea of the Christian West
Jay Rubinstein places himself in the apocalyptic mindset of authors like Joachim of Fiore.
Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible translation is at once accurate and eloquent
Precision and beauty have kissed.
Trauma survivors are in your congregation. How will you help them heal?
Christy Gunter Sim, a trauma expert and domestic violence survivor, offers case studies for church leaders.
A DNA test and its aftermath
Even as a child, Dani Shapiro wondered whether she belonged in her family.
The “Christian century” and the people who lived it
Brian Stanley pulls off a readable, one-volume history of 20th-century Christianity.
Ethical hacks for managing our adolescent technologies
Kate Ott looks at the moral implications of digital language.
The spirit of Madeleine L’Engle
Sarah Arthur captures the beloved Christian author’s appeal.
The emergence of belief—and unbelief
Ethan Shagan chronicles the expansion of these concepts since the Middle Ages.
Unrigging the human game
We need to stop playing to win, says Bill McKibben, and start playing to keep the game going.
