Latest Articles
The fear of being filmed
Tyler, the Creator’s album Don’t Tap the Glass suggests that our phone cameras pose a threat to our embodied human freedom.
Mother Emanuel’s long struggle
In his history of the Charleston congregation, Kevin Sack frames the 2015 mass murder as the culmination of 200 years of persecution.
Christian progress, Christian regress
The stakes of Obergefell aren’t abstract. Hanging in the balance are the basic rights of living, breathing, beloved people.
September 14, Ordinary 24C (Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14)
Hope where all appears hopeless: that’s where God is.
Jesus makes it hard to be a Christian (Luke 14:25-33)
The problem many preachers face when trying to preach without fear or favor is Jesus himself.
The missing head of Pancho Villa
What does the stolen skull of a Mexican revolutionary have to do with my friend and me, living in Colorado a century after his death?
Between the synagogue and the streets
Chaim Grade’s characters give voice to the questions, quarrels, and quiet devotions of European Jews on the cusp of the Second World War.
Guestability
Churches tend to equate the notion of inclusion with hospitality. Peter and Cornelius suggest a more nuanced definition.
Dark fantasy novels that scream theology
I didn’t expect so much sacramental imagination in Tamsyn Muir’s series about lesbian necromancers in space.
What is religious freedom for?
The church’s calling is far more exciting and urgent than endorsing political candidates.
Inside ‘the new American fascism’
Katherine Stewart explores the strange alliance seeking to impose its antidemocratic vision on the US—one Moms for Liberty meeting at a time.
September 7, Ordinary 23C (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18)
My mother taught me what the Psalmist knew well—that a human being is one continuous interrogative prayer.
Understanding idolatry (Jeremiah 2:4-13)
Jeremiah’s message for Judah cuts deeper than our petty loyalties.
The word outlasts the throne
Kings fall, tyrants pass, and hope endures in the prophets’ vision of God’s story.
The blasphemy of national Christianity
When push comes to shove, for nationalist Christians, ethnicity comes first.
Noah gets drunk. Then he curses Ham.
How on earth did this odd little biblical tale get twisted into a justification for chattel slavery?
The morality of Jesus reinterpreted
Writing primarily for post-evangelicals, ethicist David Gushee examines 40 biblical texts.