Features
Fall books: Reviews
Our fall books issue's reviews include Greg Carey on Reza Aslan, Katherine Willis Pershey on Debbie Blue, Philip Jenkins on Diarmaid MacCulloch and more.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, by John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis
How did Julia Ward Howe’s pro–federal Union and abolitionist-inspired “Battle Hymn of the Republic” become the most recognizable American anthem of the 20th century? Why is it embraced by liberals and conservatives, radicals and businesspeople, whites, blacks and beyond? The story of the song, detailed exquisitely in this book by John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis—respectively an esteemed professor of American history at Harvard and a newly minted Ph.D. from Columbia University—is more than a fascinating picture of the United States from the 19th century to the present.
Essential books: Fall books
Our fall books issue includes annotated lists of essential titles on Revelation, evangelism and theodicy.
Flawed and fallen folk
"Fiction wasn't that big a leap for me," says Will Willimon. "We preachers are all 'artists' in the same sense that the gospel writers were."
Take & read: Fall books
Our fall books issue includes annotated lists of new titles in New Testament, practical theology and global Christianity/American religious history.
Books
Silence, by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Many years ago, the great historians of the French Annales school complained that scholars spend far too much time dealing with the elites and their wars and very little on the crucial mat...
Brokers of Deceit, by Rashid Khalidi
Language matters greatly.” Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi opens his most recent book with these words, and in so doing he goes straight to the heart of why there is neither peac...
Consider the Birds, by Debbie Blue
Like Lauren Winner, who admits in the foreword to Consider the Birds that she is “not really interested in birds at all,” I’m not especially enamored of feathered creatures....
Sacred Scripture, Sacred War, by James P. Byrd
When a hurricane ravaged the waters off of eastern Newfoundland on September 9, 1775, churning waves up to 30 feet, the devastation was enormous....
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, by John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis
How did Julia Ward Howe’s pro–federal Union and abolitionist-inspired “Battle Hymn of the Republic” become the most recognizable American anthem of the 20th century?...
Revelation
Can I Get a Witness? Reading Revelation through African American Culture, by Brian K. Blount. Would John of Patmos use rap music if he were to give a spiritual critique of empire today?...
Evangelism
The Logic of Evangelism, by William J. Abraham. Abraham sees evangelism in a series of movements that concern initiation into the kingdom of God....
Kill Anything that Moves, by Nick Turse
The My Lai massacre of March 1968—the murder of 500 South Vietnamese men, women and children by U.S....
God & suffering (theodicy)
Encountering Evil, a New Edition: Live Options in Theodicy, by Stephen T. Davis....
Looking for Palestine, by Najla Said
Najla Said has had every reason to be confused....
Global Christianity & American religious history
To the Ends of the Earth: Pentecostalism and the Transformation of World Christianity, by Allan Heaton Anderson....
Breach of Trust, by Andrew J. Bacevich
Every year, hundreds of thousands of freshly minted high school graduates enter college across the United States....
New Testament
Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition, by Gary A. Anderson....
The Historical David, by Joel Baden
The public has a taste for biographies of great people who on closer inspection turn out to be not so great after all....
Zealot, by Reza Aslan
Reza Aslan’s Zealot arrived with an enormous splash. An engaging and personal interview on NPR’s Fresh Air attracted widespread interest....
Practical theology
Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War, by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini....
Departments
Say a few words
The request hadn't even made the committee chair's checklist. It never does; it's just reflexive. And I've never known exactly what it means.
Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
Paul Gauguin strove to depict the simple, direct faith of a group of women from Pont-Aven, a rural community in Brittany, France. His style, based on pre-Renaissance sources, is devoid of linear perspective and conventional organization....
Stories from inside
Orange Is the New Black is so refreshing, honest and funny that "prison drama" is hardly the right category.
Praying for Syria
I'm on the fence about military action in Syria. So I do what those of us on the fence ought to be doing: I pray.
Walter White’s many sins
It’s not clear whether Walt will violently lose his life in the Breaking Bad finale. It is bitter irony and justice that he will lose his family.
Obamacare for real
Obamacare's hard-line opponents aren't worried that the law won't work as planned. They're worried that it will.
News
Deciding on pastor’s pay still tough, experts say
It may be one of the most uncomfortable—and sometimes contentious—questions in congregational life: How much should we pay our senior pastor?...
PCUSA continues to see exodus of churches
The exodus from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues as congregations seeking a more conservative home leave for other denominations....
Christian college parts ways with transgender professor
A California Christian college has asked a professor who was once its chair of theology and philosophy to leave after he came out as transgender....
Pope stuns church with pastoral approach to sexual, moral issues
Pope Francis rocked the Catholic Church and surprised the wider world with a free-ranging interview in which he envisioned a church that is not “obsessed” with a few sexual and moral issues and is more pastoral, less clerical and less doctrinaire....
Muslims decry killings in Pakistan, Kenya and Iraq
The Muslim Public Affairs Council condemned the actions of extremists who have killed hundreds during the weekend of September 20–22 in Pakistan, Kenya and Iraq....
Methodists’ top court to consider defiant same-sex marriages
Facing a wave of open defiance to church law, the top court of the United Methodist Church is set to consider rulings challenging church teaching on homosexuality....
Moody drops alcohol, tobacco ban for employees
The evangelical Moody Bible Institute has dropped its ban on alcohol and tobacco consumption by its 600-member faculty and staff, including for those who work in its radio and publishing arms....
Churches turn to part-time clergy
The 50 members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Hitchcock, Texas, are looking forward to December, when Mark Marmon will be ordained their priest. One reason for the excitement? They won’t have to pay him....
Interest in remarriage is on the wane
The invitations are in the mail. Jennifer Beltz and T. J. Gurski of Commerce Township, Michigan, are defying the odds—they’re taking the plunge a second time....