Features
Occupation pierces my Israeli soul
Indulgence: Essays by readers
James Cone looked evil in the face and refused to let it crush his hope
Books
The questions private prisons raise
Is private management more efficient? Is it wrong to profit from punishment? Is the whole idea immoral in concept?
Will the real fundamentalists please stand up?
What counts as fundamentalism? David Harrington Watt and Sathianathan Clarke give contrasting answers.
A Christian apologist's memoir of suffering
Telling the story of his wife's tragic illness, Douglas Groothuis combines lament with grace-filled love.
Is Jamie Quatro’s novel really about marital infidelity?
Maybe Fire Sermon is more fundamentally a parable about religion.
Zadie Smith leaves no cultural stone unturned
Smith's collection of essays considers the self as an improvised response to language and the world.
Departments
In Europe, even occasional prayer is on the way out
Don’t Cry, My Mother, by Sergii Radkevych
The social safety net helps people work. Work requirements get this backwards.
In West Virginia, the teachers’ strike made new space for Eucharistic living
News
White House initiative aims to increase faith groups' presence in government
The White House said agencies and executive departments that do not have a faith-based office will have a designated liaison to the new initiative.
Interfaith efforts move from mere tolerance to deeper partnerships
A coalition of Muslim students highlighting the Jewish roots in Moroccan culture, and an evangelical pastor and imam creating a nationwide grassroots network are among those partnering against extremism.
Interfaith clergy group in Montana counters neo-Nazi hate
A clergy group formed supporting a rabbi in the ski resort town of Whitefish, where white supremacist groups targeted her and other local Jewish people.
Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute, dies at age 88
The author of The Once and Future Church was part of the shift to looking at congregations in their contexts—not just the church in general.
Ugandan faith leaders weigh idea of accepting Israel's African refugees
Israel's government has offered financial incentives for thousands of asylum seekers to leave the country voluntarily—threatening to detain or deport them if they didn't.
In historic votes, Lutherans elect two African American women bishops
Patricia A. Davenport and Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld will each lead a regional body in the predominantly white mainline Protestant denomination.
United Methodist bishops encourage local option for same-sex marriage
The bishops recommended removing prohibitions on same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy in the global denomination's Book of Discipline—while allowing new regional rules.
Church of England goes cashless for worshipers’ contributions
With fewer people carrying cash, churches plan to use special card readers for collecting fees and the offering.