Features
Ending extreme poverty: Economist Ana Revenga
"The biggest driver of success against global poverty is economic growth—but not any kind of economic growth."
Riffing on a prayer: Jazz vespers every week in San Diego
On Saturdays at First Presbyterian, the congregants know good jazz when they hear it. But the event is first of all a church service.
Except ye see signs and wonders
Did Jesus mean that all the things we mean by accomplishment, and maturity, and reason, and progress, are actually small niggling things that we must finally shuck and lay aside, in order to again be like children, spiritually open and emotionally naked and constantly liable to giggling?
At the threshold: Why I left the ordination process
The priest faces inward, toward liturgy and the sacraments. The layperson faces outward, toward everything else—everything.
Populist fever: Anger at the democratic deficit
Populism is a predictable recurring feature of any society that is unwilling or unable to be as democratic as it claims to be.
Books
Can hunger end?
The binding constraint on progress against hunger and malnutrition is weak political commitment.
The Year of Lear, by James Shapiro
From our 21st-century perch, William Shakespeare seems more reclusive than ever.
Too good for this world
If your mother is drowning in one location and two strangers in another, should you save your mother or the two strangers?
A diverse communion
Ebenezer Kinnersly illustrates the depth of the controversy over outward manifestations of inner religious experience.
Glorify, by Emily C. Heath
United Church of Christ pastor and blogger Emily Heath is a self-described binary-smashing, trinitarian, gender-nonconforming Reformed theologian.
The mysteries of young Augustine
Confessions is not primarily about Augustine at all; it is about God’s activity in the particularity of Augustine’s life.
Departments
Unequal dharmas
India's constitution is firmly secular and democratic. Yet in recent years, Christians and Muslims have faced persecution.
Images from Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited, by Rick Nahmias
In Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited (University of New Mexico Press), Rick Nahmias documents the lives of the marginalized, focusing on religious communities, including a deaf community of the Mormon Church, a Zen Buddh...
Love in the time of evil
It's 2016 and the problem of evil is still unsolved. It's found a megaphone in Stephen Fry, who offers more rhetorical power than originality.
Each other’s business
In The Lady in the Van, viewers see playwright Alan Bennett befriend a woman experiencing homelessness—and treat her as a human.
The true eccentric
An eccentric existence is one where God forms the center of life, becoming the axle of our self-understanding.
Faith-filled reasoning
The National Day of Prayer has been challenged by a National Day of Reason. This duel of proclamations trades on the notion that the two stand in opposition.
News
Kathryn Tanner gives Gifford Lectures in Scotland
Kathryn Tanner, professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School, gave the prestigious Gifford Lectures May 2–12 at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland....
Londoners elect Sadiq Khan as first Muslim mayor
Sadiq Khan, the son of a Pakistani-born bus driver, became the first Muslim mayor of London despite a campaign that included accusations of extremism....
Germany eyes mosque tax to fund Muslim groups
In Germany, some politicians see taxing Muslims as a strategy to keep them from becoming radicalized. Some Muslim leaders think it might be a good idea, too....
Andover Newton to move, partner with Yale
The nation’s oldest graduate school of theology plans to relocate from Newton Centre, Massachusetts, to New Haven, Connecticut, where a remnant of the faculty will teach on the campus of Yale Divinity School....
U.S. commission cites religious freedom abuses, but India rejects findings
Religious freedom remains under “serious and sustained assault” around the globe, according to the recently released annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom....
Jewish artist Tobi Kahn crosses religious lines
As Passover approached, Tobi Kahn worked in his studio in Queens, New York, putting washes of glaze on a silver-painted peg, a miniature sculpture soon to join 48 others....
Racial justice programming in many mainline churches focuses on privilege, power
Last year when the death of Freddie Gray and resulting unrest in Baltimore filled the news, Kathy Dwyer felt she had to do something....
German Protestants assist rebuilding notorious church
The Garrison Church in Potsdam, Germany, would seem an unlikely monument for present-day Christians to want to rebuild.
Located southwest of Berlin, it was the parish church of old-fashioned German militarism....
Lectionary
June 26, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 9:51-62
Jesus setting his face to Jerusalem marks a shift: the text mentions it three times. There is a boldness and immovable attention to the assignment.
June 19, 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Psalm 22:19-28; Luke 8:26-39
Many people are bound. Some don’t even know it. The difference between being free and being bound is at the center of our Gospel text this week.