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August 10, 2022

Volume 139, Issue #16
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Features

Ministry with the grieving

Twenty of us gathered to talk about having a job that requires us to weep with those who weep.

by Cornelius Plantinga

Who is the mother of Israel?

In the Hebrew Bible, God’s love is maternal.

by Malka Z. Simkovich

The World Council of Churches in wartime

The grim future of communion with the Russian Orthodox Church

by Ross M. Allen

Practicing abolitionist spirituality

What are we willing to sacrifice for racial justice?

by Willie Dwayne Francois III

Sidebar

40 ways a church can go green

Light bulbs, bike racks, solar panels, and more

by Anna Woofenden

What does it mean to be a green church during a climate crisis?

It’s a way of life. But it starts small.

by Anna Woofenden

Books

American “heathens”

Kathryn Gin Lum explores the entwining of racial and religious stereotypes in the United States.

by Philip Jenkins

Imani Perry’s tour of the American South

South to America shows how one region’s beauty, losses, and inequities have shaped the country as a whole.

by Richard Lischer

Paul Mariani seeks wisdom among the ghosts

The poet, now in his eighties, asks profound questions in a dazzling array of poems.

by Philip C. Kolin

Departments

First Words

Concretizing the word

Judicial originalism is biblical literalism’s younger cousin.

by Peter W. Marty

Faith Matters

A theology of heaven for our time

To affirm the truth of heaven is to fire our spiritual imaginations for this life.

by Debie Thomas

Screen Time

Jurassic World and the scales of time

The latest film seems to have forgotten one of the delights of dinosaur nerdery: imagining the world without humans.

by Kathryn Reklis

On Art

Jesus Said to Her: “Give Me to Drink,” by Rania Kuhn

The serene saints of Egyptian Coptic Orthodox art are markedly different in face and form from the austere holy men and women of more familiar Byzantine images....

art selection and comment by John Kohan

From the Editors

Fighting climate change one small act at a time

Light bulbs and solar panels won’t solve the climate crisis. They’re signs of something greater.

News

Faith leaders attend celebration of gun control law

Faith leaders from a wide range of traditions, including those whose houses of worship have been attacked, were at the White House on July 11 as members of Congress and other gun control advocates gathered for a White House celebration of the Bipa...

by Adelle M. Banks and Jack Jenkins

Episcopal general convention focuses on racism, justice issues

The 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church—postponed a year because of COVID-19—conducted what Presiding Bishop Michael Curry had referred to during the planning process as “matters essential for the governance and good order of the churc...

by Mary Frances Schjonberg

Presbyterians take action at general assembly

At the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), held from June 18 to July 9 at the Presby­terian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the following actions were taken: Fossil fuel divestment...

Georgia Guidestones, long treasured and feared, demolished after bombing attack

After 42 years, the mysterious Georgia Guidestones, often called America’s Stonehenge, are no longer casting a shadow in rural Elbert County, Georgia....

by Heather Greene

Methodist woman donates 25 acres for Arkansas bird sanctuary

Betty Hinshaw had always lived in cities when her husband decided, in 1956, that they should move to rural North­west Arkansas. She made him promise there wouldn’t be snakes....

by Sam Hodges

People

William Bergkamp named interim CEO of Friendship Press

William Bergkamp has been named the interim chief executive officer of Friend­ship Press, which supports the National Council of Churches and publishes the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

UCC leader Teruo Kawata dies at 94

Influential United Church of Christ leader Teruo Kawata died July 1. He was 94....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

AnneMarie Mingo named head of Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Religious social ethicist AnneMarie Mingo will be the next head of the Metro-Urban Insti­tute at Pitts­burgh Theological Semi­nary....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

Elizabeth Miller to head Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism

Historian Elizabeth Miller has been selected to head the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College. Additionally, she will teach in the college’s history department and direct the Mennonite Historical Library....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

Lectionary

August 28, Ordinary 22C (Luke 14:1, 7-14)

While he has everyone’s attention, Jesus challenges the conventional dinner seating practices.

by Craig S. Keener

August 21, Ordinary 21C (Jeremiah 1:4-10)

If Jeremiah sounds a bit paranoid, it is because everybody really is against him.

by Craig S. Keener

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