Features
State of the colony: Resident Aliens at 25
Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon sparked a lively debate about church, ministry, and identity. How does their book read 25 years later?
Kenosis and Christendom: Resident Aliens at 25
Like Willimon and Hauerwas, Donald MacKinnon began with Philippians 2.
A reply: Resident Aliens at 25
We gather that some of our readers still don't want to talk Christology with us. But it's because of Jesus that the church has trouble in the world.
Accidental impact: Resident Aliens at 25
Resident Aliens, a work of theology, was put to use as applied sociology. The description of life in the Christian colony became, paradoxically, a formula for success.
Against hegemony, not state: Resident Aliens at 25
We need the spiritual agility to recognize counter-hegemonic "citizenship in heaven" whenever and however it becomes flesh.
The poor door: Class separation in the church
People are rightly disgusted by buildings with separate entrances for low-income residents. But churches have side-door people, too.
Church against state? Resident Aliens at 25
A funny thing happened on the way to the church-as-polis: I can now imagine being a resident alien and invested in the state, in all of its glorious failing.
Locating loyalty: Resident Aliens at 25
Resident Aliens helped convince a generation that there is no Christian identity apart from the church. But where exactly is Hauerwas and Willimon's "adventuresome" church?
Marching into danger: Fear and hope in Ferguson
"We are not afraid today," we sang as we walked. I turned to the person next to me and whispered, "That's a lie."
The wrong preferential option: Resident Aliens at 25
I once actually was a resident alien. I wonder if Hauerwas and Willimon have any clue what it means to occupy that space.
Unintended aid: Resident Aliens at 25
Denigrating "social activist churches" was central to Hauerwas and Willimon's agenda. Yet Resident Aliens revived social gospel arguments.
Targeted medicine: Resident Aliens at 25
The image of a resident alien offers an important biblical corrective. But it isn't the only such image we need.
White Protestants aren't aliens: Resident Aliens at 25
It is disingenuous to deem ourselves alien to a culture and society we benefit from—a culture and society we created.
Better religion: Resident Aliens at 25
I understand Resident Aliens as a response to the sort of civil religion that makes people worse than they would be otherwise.
The wall of identity: Resident Aliens at 25
Resident Aliens affirmed the strange way we Americans deal with our racial history and its current realities by indirection, innuendo, and avoidance.
Books
Red, Brown, Yellow, Black, White—Who’s More Precious in God’s Sight? by Leroy Barber
Racism in missions didn’t end with colonialism. Barber shows how it continues to persist, especially in urban missions. People of color in missions are often not given positions of authority....
White Elephants on Campus, by Margaret M. Grubiak
Margaret Grubiak thinks elite university chapels have become white elephants. But some of them are cash cows—and all of them still speak.
Creation ex amore
Ian McFarland's book on the doctrine of creation is a book about nothing. It has a lot to say about it.
The Book of Forgiving, by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu
Using powerful stories, Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu equip us to address deep questions about forgiveness, wholeness, and new life.
Gaza: A History, by Jean-Pierre Filiu
Jean-Pierre Filiu rightly places Gaza at the center, not the margins, of Palestinian history. But he fails to let Gazans speak for themselves.
The Drama of Living, by David F. Ford
A sequel to Ford’s The Shape of Living, The Drama of Living could be characterized as sapiential theology—reflection on theology that draws out its wisdom for daily living....
Departments
A Prayer of Waiting; Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; Watery Chaos; and Coffee/Maker, by Paul Soupiset
Titles are clockwise from top. Artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and self-proclaimed typophile, Paul Soupiset has a growing body of illustrations in books like Judith Sutera’s The Vinedresser’s Notebook, Kyndall Rothaus’s ...
God and global cinema
Cinema has long been a critical medium for exploring religious themes in mainstream culture. Today, filmmakers continue to find a distinctive religious voice.
To pray the news
Psychologists describe a "middle knowledge" of the reality of death. How much of this knowledge is good for us?
The Giver’s temptations
If ever a movie with a teenage protagonist was tailor-made for sermon illustrations, it is this one.
Kids of summer
The Cubs and White Sox have some of the worst records in the league. Yet Chicago still went a little crazy over baseball this summer.
The politics of deportation
On election day, the Republicans will keep the House, the Democrats may lose the Senate, and 1,000 more immigrants will be deported.
News
Who are the Kurds?
In the continuing conflict in Iraq, Kurds frequently are mentioned alongside Iraq’s Sunni and Shi‘a Muslim populations as one of the key groups involved in power struggles for which sharp religious divides have played a major part....
Rare Mormon documents go on display for first time
For the first time ever, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has assembled some of its most treasured historical documents into a single exhibit and is inviting the public to view them....
Billions gain access to clean water
(The Christian Science Monitor) Over the past couple of decades, easier access to clean water has become a reality for a huge portion of the world’s population....
Methodists in the UK are dwindling quickly
As the Methodist Church in Britain loses members, one religious affairs commentator described it as “like an iceberg that’s just crumbling into the sea.”...
Women take the reins at three tall-steeple mainline churches
In quick succession, three women have been chosen to lead historic tall-steeple churches in major cities....
Christian leaders differ on strikes in Iraq, Syria
While some prominent Christians have called on the United States to take more forceful military action against Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, more than 50 leaders of Catholic, Protestant, and other Christian groups wrote an open letter to P...
Lectionary
Sunday, October 12, 2014
The story of the golden calf is a parody of Israelite idolatry.
Sunday, October 5, 2014: Isaiah 5:1-7; Matthew 21:33-46
Jesus' parable of the so-called "wicked tenant farmers" is a textbook illustration—a parody, even—of the economic and political dynamics of empire.