Features
Organizing for communion: Ministry in the 21st century
“I like to think I’m a grassroots organizer," says Isaac S. Villegas of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship. "I rearrange pews; I find people to make sloppy joes for hungry people.”
Multimedia ministry: AME Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie
“Online, I minister to people I may never see. But I am starting a conversation that may lead them to a church.”
Virtual good and evil: The moral complexity of video games
Video games have the potential to aid in forming us as moral beings, for better and for worse.
Undefeated
Undefeated is a solid piece of filmmaking that is also too little
too late. The Oscar-winning documentary by Daniel Lindsay and T. J.
Martin concerns the travails of a high school football team in a poor
black neighborhood of North Memphis that overcomes years of futility
thanks in large part to a white volunteer coach who inspires them to
believe in themselves both on and off the field.
A holy, mundane essence: Lessons of confinement
Chronic illness is like Walden: life is pared down to essentials. But unlike Thoreau, I can’t walk away.
Albert Nobbs
Albert Nobbs's journey from page to stage to screen has been long
and bumpy. Simone Benmussa adapted a short story by Irish writer George
Moore into the play The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs; this was
then nearly made into a film by the celebrated Hungarian director Istvan
Szabo. The fact that the project was still alive and kicking in 2011 is
due, in large part, to the determination of Glenn Close.
Books
Terrifying texts
A cynical little demon perched on my shoulder as I began reading Philip Jenkins's Laying Down the Sword, which is more Old Testament exegesis and hermeneutics than anything else.
Chesterton, by Ralph C. Wood
Ralph Wood, who calls himself a Bapto-Catholic, is certainly qualified
to write on the militant Catholic Chesterton, who seldom withheld his
fire and fury except when he settled for expressing disdain for
Protestantism and other "unorthodox" versions of Christianity.
Language games
More books have been published about Stanley Cavell than he has written himself. Why?
What Shall We Say? by Thomas G. Long
Pat Robertson had a ready explanation for the Haiti earthquake—he said that it was an expression of divine wrath at a centuries-old pact with the devil....
Departments
The prodigal's brother
Salvation requires repentance. But of what do the righteous repent?
Whose holy ground?
“You are here to kneel,” wrote Eliot, “where prayer has been valid.” But which prayers are valid at the Mezquita Catedral, or at Hagia Sophia?
Dignity and choice
How do we move from Jesus' core ethical mandate to the complex issues we face in the modern world?
A desecration
Christians would be outraged if they learned of
Muslims burning the Bible. Muslims have an even greater reverence for
their holy book.
News
John Hick, influential philosopher of religion
John H. Hick, a prolific author renowned on British and U.S. campuses for his forthright approach to major questions in Christology and interfaith relations, died at age 90 on February 9 in Birmingham in his native Great Britain....
Franklin Graham apologizes for doubting Obama’s faith
Evangelist Franklin Graham has apologized to President Obama for
questioning his Christian faith and said religion has "nothing to do"
with Graham's decision not to support Obama's reelection....
Splinter groups turn into churches
There's a popular saying in church-planting circles: it's easier to make babies than to raise the dead....
Experts dispute claim that college erodes faith
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum's claim that U.S.
colleges drive young Christians out of church is facing scrutiny from
Protestant and Catholic experts....
Brazilian deposed bishop and wife killed at home
Conservative Brazilian bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, who broke away
from the established Anglican church, and his wife Miriam were killed
February 26 at their home in Olinda in northeastern Brazil, said his...
Southern Baptists: Name change too costly
When Southern Baptists gather for their annual meeting this June,
they will not be asked to create a new official name. Top leaders
decided that a change is not worth pursuing. Instead they will be asked...
Campus founded by Moody is being given away—to the right buyer
Jerry Pattengale's cell phone won't stop ringing as he leads a
secretive group of college administrators on a tour of a majestic
Massachusetts campus built in 1879 by legendary evangelist D. L. Moody....
Nonprofits oppose change in charitable deductions
For the fourth year in a row, President Obama is proposing lower tax
deductions for the wealthy on donations to churches and other nonprofit
organizations. And for the fourth year in a row, nonprofit groups say...
N.Y. Knicks’ Jeremy Lin seen as ‘Taiwanese Tebow’
New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin's underdog story and outspoken
evangelical faith have some sportswriters dubbing him the "Taiwanese
Tebow."...