Features
Unsettled issues: The Protestant-Catholic impasse
The broken communion evident at any eucharistic service is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible state of affairs.
In and of the world: Why there is no Christian ‘community’
The church is not an ark floating on the top of the waters. It lives and breathes within the waters.
The Kid With a Bike
The Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, are known for their low-key, plot-light, character-heavy tales of survival, usually played out in a small Belgian town that serves as their spiritual microcosm and often focused on the struggles of children to make it to adulthood in one piece. The Kid with a Bike, which won a top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, continues down this path, though Dardenne purists may find fault with the film’s upbeat conclusion, a contrast to the harsher endings of their earlier efforts.
Money movers: What governments do
Redistributing wealth is what all public budgets do. The question is whether a given type of redistribution promotes justice and decency.
Criminal injustice: Michelle Alexander on racism and incarceration
"The U.S has created a vast legal system for racial and social control, unprecedented in world history. Yet we claim to be colorblind."
The Deep Blue Sea
Readers of a certain age may remember “women’s pictures,” those four-hankie weepies from the 1940s and ’50s. Celebrated British director Terence Davies has lovingly embraced the once-popular genre via an adaptation of the 1952 play The Deep Blue Sea.
Investment, not divestment: How to help the Palestinians
Boycott and divestment aim to punish Israel. A more constructive strategy is needed.
Books
Les enfants magnifiques
Beneath the many contrasts Pamela Druckerman draws between French and U.S. children is a deeper one between the two societies.
The Future of Christianity, by David Martin
David Martin concludes his introduction to this book—perhaps the best introductory mapping I have ever read of a collection of complex essays—with a description of his book as “a modest exercise.” ...
Jeremiah, by Kathleen M. O’Connor
Kathleen O'Connor's daringly imaginative rereading of Jeremiah reveals a community experiencing the classic accents of trauma.
Departments
The price of prisons
Americans seem to relish putting their fellow citizens behind bars. Lately, some conservatives have begun to see this as a problem.
Mary Magdalene
Martin Erspamer’s work is shaped by his life of prayer at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. “Images,” he says, “are formed through scripture or the chant of a hymn that floats in your head and then comes back visually....
Aussie Christians
Among modern nations, a British imperial background seems to be correlated to secularism. But in Australia, the story is more complex.
In Woolf's footsteps
During spring break I made a pilgrimage. With my husband and my daughter, I traced the path Virginia Woolf took through Italy in 1908.
Downton Abbey
“I’ve been telling everyone who’ll listen how great Downton Abbey is,” I said in a sermon that was technically about evangelism. I was illustrating St. Augustine’s point that when people love, say, a great actor they tell others about him—and so how much more should we tell others about the gospel. A week later I learned how (un)successful that point had been. “I’ve watched every episode,” a parishioner said. “Now what was it you were trying to say about that show?”
Investing in Palestinians
A rabbi and strong advocate for Palestinians’ rights told me this: "When you Christians start talking about divesting from Israel, it sounds to us as if you are undermining Israel’s economy and thus Israel’s existence. We close ranks."
News
Repentant ‘hatchet man,’ Colson was evangelical icon
Charles W. Colson, the Watergate felon who became an evangelical icon and born-again advocate for prisoners, died April 21 after a brief illness. He was 80....
Opening up about sex
The statistics, some evangelicals say, can no longer be ignored....
SBC to probe Land’s remarks on Trayvon Martin
Southern Baptist leaders will investigate whether their top ethicist and public policy director plagiarized racially charged remarks about the Trayvon Martin case that many say set back the denomination’s efforts on racial reconciliation....
Study finds no evidence death penalty deters crime
In the more than three decades since the national moratorium on the death penalty was lifted, no reliable research has emerged on whether capital punishment has served as a deterrent, according to a review by the National Research Council....
Young adults turn away from religious adherence
A growing tide of young Americans is drifting away from the religions of their childhood—and many are ending up in no religion at all....
Is Benedict returning to role as enforcer?
As Pope Benedict XVI marked his seventh anniversary as pope last month, many Catholics were wondering if the pontiff is finally becoming the doctrinal enforcer that some feared—and others hoped—he would be when he was elected in 2005....
One psalm, two causes and two meanings
Saralee Howard remembers the woman who walked into the Shared Pregnancy Women’s Center in Lansing, Michigan, last year and asked for an ultrasound even though she was leaning toward an abortion....
Lectionary
Day of Pentecost (Romans 8:22-27)
I got the epidural. As the pain receded, I felt an ache of disappointment settle in.
Sunday, May 20, 2012: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; 1 John 5:9-13; John 17:6-19
Casting lots to determine how to fill an apostolic vacancy? Really?