Faith Matters
Lone leaders
What goes on in the mind of a leader who tires of building consensus and just strives to get things done?
Marked as human
On Ash Wednesday, as we remember our sins and ask to be forgiven, let's also remember what we love and ask to love it more.
Business of the kingdom
The New Testament offers two compelling models for our relationship with money. When translated into a vision for a whole society, each is flawed.
A letter to Thomas Merton
It’s been 100 years since your birth and almost 75 since you entered the abbey. You died with your story unfinished.
Lesser-known heroes
Everyone is ready to bow a knee at the mention of Bonhoeffer’s name. Precious few of us have even heard of Ralph Hamburger.
Christmas Eve visions
In the 12th century, a Benedictine nun had a vision of Jesus’ humanity. It couldn’t have happened on a better night.
Pickles: A history
Social microhistories can capture big ideas. I’d like to write one on pickles, which are as fundamental to civilization as anything in Chesterton’s pockets.
Dressed for the moment
The collar says something to parishioner and stranger alike: while this doesn’t have to be the most important conversation of your life, it can be.
Good dog, bad dog
There is a black lab—a student's guide dog—lying on the floor during chapel. As I preach, I wonder what the dog is thinking.
Lost in a sermon
I can see my dad's manuscript: the title centered in caps, the body double-spaced and marked up by hand. But I can't remember the words.
Why God is jealous
What if the agreed daily wage is forgiveness and eternal life?
To pray the news
Psychologists describe a "middle knowledge" of the reality of death. How much of this knowledge is good for us?
Joyful to the end
It appears that my friend Steve Hayner doesn't have long to live. It is breathtaking to watch him prepare to die as he lived.
Open to children
What does it mean to "turn to faith"? To gather in the like-minded and bar the door? Or to take a riskier move outward?
Referendum
The debate about Scottish independence fits neatly into the categories the academic discipline of ethics likes to produce.
Art and prayer
At a historical art exhibit, I read that the images on display were intended for private devotion. Would it have been subversive of me to pray?
I don’t feel your pain
Empathy made it big in an era some call the "me generation." By discovering my feelings inside you, even you are about me.
Teaching virtues
As a Lilly Fellow, I was compelled by Mark Schwehn's vision of all academic work as the work of teaching, with love at the core of its mission.
The banality of clergy failure
"Sam!" she says. She's greeting me as if I changed her life. Unfortunately, I haven't a clue who she is.
Buddhists next door
Here in rural Georgia, it's hard to miss a monk in saffron robes walking through Wal-Mart. But we don't know what to think about him, so we don't.