Features
That shape am I
The early history of Alcoholics Anonymous has always fascinated me, so I was eager to see the much heralded new documentary Bill W.
Urban experiments: Ministry in the 21st century
"I've been given an opportunity to color outside the lines," says Nanette Sawyer of Grace Commons and St James Presbyterian Church in Chicago, "the permission and charge to be creative and experimental."
Motion to repeal: Against the death penalty
Last year, Connecticut repealed the death penalty and California declined to. Americans are conflicted about capital punishment.
Brush with evil: The work of a public defender
"How can you defend those people?" That's a question we public defenders hear a lot.
Flea market capitalists: Disaffected and disenchanted
Some Americans see themselves as isolated individuals struggling in a forbidding environment. Institutions do things to them, not for or with them.
Remembering Brubeck
Like millions of others, I was a devoted Dave Brubeck fan—ever since I first heard his music in the 1950s.
Books
What Jesus knew
Gerhard Lohfink clearly loves Jesus, and his book demands readers who share that love.
Blame it on Luther
How has Western society become so fractious, polarized and secular? Why are we powerless to curb consumerism? Brad Gregory blames the Reformation.
From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart, by Chris Haw
My first thought upon learning that Chris Haw had written a memoir about his journey to Catholicism was, Oh no—not another one.
Moral Minority, by David R. Swartz
David Swartz recovers the story of the unlikely coalition forged by progressive evangelicals in the 1960s and 1970s.
Departments
The Vietnamese diaspora
U.S. religious communities' responses to the Vietnam War have been amply documented. What about the religious battles within Vietnam itself?
Lone rangers
Humans can't flourish without institutions, flawed as they are. Holding them accountable, and increasing their capacity, enhances human life.
The Lord’s Prayer, by Chris Taylor
Artist-musician Chris Taylor writes that he was driving home one day, with his thoughts spiraling “into stress and sadness.” A truck pulled in front of him with the message “Jesus loves you” written on it....
Longing for home
When Peter Jackson plays up the theme of home, it's a loving riff on Tolkien. But why must he make war the driving engine of the The Hobbit?
News
In age of Oprah, belief in miracles rises
These days, it may seem like a miracle that people still believe in miracles....
With new technologies, ‘parent’ is hard to define
In a classic 1960 children’s book, a baby bird toddles up to one critter after another asking, “Are you my mother?”
For some babies today, there’s no simple answer—biologically or legally....
Pope Paul VI is nearing sainthood status
Pope Benedict XVI has moved Pope Paul VI closer to sainthood by acknowledging his predecessor’s “heroic virtues.”...
Contraception opponents hail DC court ruling
Foes of the federal contraception mandate are cheering an appeals court decision requiring the Obama administration to devise exemptions to the new rule for two Christian colleges....
Unbelief is now the world's third-largest 'religion'
A new report on global religious identity shows that while Christians and Muslims make up the two largest groups, those with no religious affiliation—including atheists and agnostics—are now the third-largest “religious” group in the world....
Use of death penalty grows rarer in U.S.
Though the number of death row inmates executed in 2012 remained unchanged from 2011 at 43, death penalty opponents say that capital punishment is on the wane....
WCC blasts U.S. for preventing event in Cuba
The head of the World Council of Churches is blasting U.S. policy on Cuba for preventing a scheduled meeting of the Latin American Council of Churches in the communist island nation....