Theology
My queer, infertile fatherhood
Last Lent, I found myself reckoning with the concept of failure—and beginning to understand the power of standing in suffering with God.
Jesus and the wilderness of trans identity
I am struck by how Christ’s desert experience relies on inner convictions resisting an external voice.
Blot out our offenses
Ash Wednesday offers a counterpoint to every tendency that aims to hide facets of our life from God.
Feeling our way through climate change
A yearlong conversation between scientists and clergy has helped me rethink the promise of MDiv education.
A Judaism primer for Christians
Tzvi Novick walks readers through Jewish practice, interfaith history, and the honest reckoning required for authentic relationship.
What we could not see as beautiful
When I told my reading group we’d be looking at one of Brian Staveley’s dark fantasy novels alongside Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theology, they balked.
Dangerous caricatures
Stereotyping and scapegoating people can unravel a democracy. So why do we do it?
Learning in pieces
Theological education may be fracturing, but there’s wisdom and beauty in the fragments.
The making of Islamophobia
The West’s understanding of Islam has been shaped by centuries of superficial, deeply biased Christian teaching.
Augustine’s African heritage
Catherine Conybeare’s new biography reveals a bishop formed by two worlds, two languages, and a church struggling to define itself.
The monsters we make
Historian Surekha Davies exposes humanity’s long-standing practice of turning difference into monstrosity.
Imagining the grace to come
Witness is an act of trust in a God who sends us to see and tell of all the things God is doing.
This political moment demands theology
As Christians, we need to protest authoritarianism and support the people it targets. We also need to underscore the deep foundations of this work.
The night the universe looked back at me
Sometimes we glimpse magnificence in common occurrences. Science stumbles into poetry. We get a taste of singularity.
Christ in my nerve endings
Living with chronic pain is deepening my understanding of the incarnation.
A theology of impossible cheeseburger pie
A seminary cookbook from 1984 led me to revisit the potlucks—and the beliefs—of my midwestern childhood.
The relief people need
David Zahl focuses on sharing a gospel that’s unapologetically about the grace of God.