Features
The logic of God: Why metaphysical proofs still matter
Efforts to avoid the term proof are mistaken—both as a reading of Aquinas and as a broader claim about whether God exists.
What a congregation knows: The deep wisdom behind odd practices
Local ways are rarely senseless or stupid. It's just that a new pastor likely doesn't yet understand them as the locals do.
Road: Essays by readers
In response to our request for essays on the subject road, we received many compelling reflections. Here is a selection.
What’s your passion? To market themselves, churches need a product
If we're going to adopt business language for the church, we should think less about reaching a certain market and more about the nature of the product.
When leaders are narcissists: Psychoanalyst Michael Maccoby
"Narcissists can be inspiring. Whether they are creative or destructive depends on their philosophy."
Books
Hannah Arendt and Theology, by John Kiess
Balancing political realism with an openness to grace is not easy. But Arendt and Kiess propose just such a balance, so that “politics becomes the art of being born.”
Pure Christian sex?
Human sexuality is fraught, particularly when mixed with the complexities of culture, religion, patriarchy, and adolescence.
Poetic solitude
From his youth Lax experienced a love of God that would not abate, calling him toward both solitude and engagement with others.
The Finest Traditions of My Calling, by Abraham M. Nussbaum
Nussbaum, a psychiatrist who labels himself a “bad Catholic,” delves with religious fervor into the mystery of his calling to serve people who suffer. Guided by mentors like Basil of Caesarea, Hildegard of Bingen, and Stanley Hauerwas, he envisions medical care as a precious craft honed by the development of virtue.
Politics beyond party
Do we bring our preformed politics into church or does the church transform us into disciples who practice a Jesus kind of politics?
Evolution heals
Peanut allergies are rare in Africa, where children are exposed early and often to a variety of microbes that we might regard as old friends.
Departments
Europe’s Pentecost
Pentecost offers a vision for Europe: not one megastate or one system for everything, but a model of diversity as peace.
Ascension of Christ, by Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455)
In Fra Angelico’s depiction of Christ’s ascension, Mary occupies center stage....
Tourist and traveler
The traveler eats whatever food is placed before her; she aims to learn as much of the language as possible. A tourist sacrifices less.
A game you can’t win
That Dragon, Cancer is a unique video game: it offers us the experience of our powerlessness.
The grace of small things
New church communities have sprung up across the nation. They differ in many ways, but most have one thing in common: their small size.
Misguided surveillance
Both Cruz and Trump say the U.S. needs special surveillance of Muslims. This is precisely the wrong conclusion to draw from terrorism in Europe.
News
Mississippi creates law aimed at religious liberty, Georgia bill gets veto
As several southern states weighed bills on religious liberty, Mississippi governor Phil Bryant signed one that allows businesses to refuse service to LGBT customers based on religious convictions, while Georgia governor Nathan Deal vetoed a simil...
James M. Robinson, Gnosticism and Gospel scholar, dies at 91
James M. Robinson, a prominent scholar of the Gospel source known as “Q” and of Gnosticism, died March 22 at age 91....
Alia Khalaf al-Jabouri, Iraqi widow, becomes symbol of self-sacrifice
(The Christian Science Monitor) Alia Khalaf al-Jabouri, a poor Iraqi widow, has become a symbol of self-sacrifice and transcendence of Sunni-Shi’a conflict....
Aid groups respond to African drought, floods
Millions of people in several eastern and southern African nations are facing malnutrition, disease, and other harm as a result of El Niño–related extreme weather patterns: drought in late 2015 and heavy rains in the past few months....
Rome's Jewish catacombs opened briefly to public as part of Jubilee Year
Beneath a former vineyard lies a vast underground catacomb where Jewish people in Rome buried their dead nearly 2,000 years ago....
First U.S. slavery museum memorializes and educates
(The Christian Science Monitor) Unlike other antebellum plantations on the winding River Road along the Mississippi, which are known for their manicured gardens and as locations for we...
Pakistan's Christians targeted in attacks, marginalized in society
(The Christian Science Monitor) The suicide bombing on Easter Sunday at a park in Lahore, Pakistan, along with comments attributed to the militant Muslim group that claimed to have car...
Churches challenge policy on asylum in Australia
(The Christian Science Monitor) In a recent sermon, Mark Dunn asked his congregation to recall the prodigal son as they considered the plight of 267 asylum seekers facing deportation.<...
Martha DeVries, Baptist woman in Missouri, wears hijab in solidarity
To protest the anti-Muslim rhetoric of the election season, high school counselor Martha DeVries of North Kansas City, Missouri, is wearing a hijab every Monday until the end of the school year in May....
Lectionary
May 15, Day of Pentecost: Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21
In Acts comes Luke’s imaginative way to build upon ancient stories. The tongues of fire are no longer seen from afar on top of God’s mountain. And the multiplicity of languages becomes God’s vehicle for bringing salvation to the entire world.
May 8, Easter 7C (Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21; John 17:20-26)
The reading from Revelation 22 concludes the book’s resurrection songs: the baptized enjoy the fruits of the tree of life. But the tree is not merely one of the countless archetypal trees that religions and cultures everywhere have imagined.
Christ both there and here
On Ascension Day, with the readings from Luke and Acts in danger of being embalmed by archaism, the reading from Ephesians is a gift.