Features
Staying with Jesus
We love to celebrate the peaks of Jesus' life in worship, but how often do we remain with him during the valleys of his life?
Here I walk: On the road with Luther
“What are we to give to God in return for this love?” asked Martin Luther. “Nothing. You shall not go to Rome on pilgrimages.” I'm Lutheran, and I went to Rome on pilgrimage.
Scholars and believers: Growing pains at the SBL
As the Society of Biblical Literature has grown in membership, tensions have simmered over the degree to which religious apologetics fits into an organization devoted to critical research.
Missing the signs: The church and Gen Y
Most churches have the equivalent of Eat at Joe's signs, advertising religious services so that people will stop, come in and taste what is good. The signs are imperative; they command us to eat here and not there.
Dislocated exegesis: Reading the Bible in unexpected places
Reading scripture in
unexpected places can unsettle the reading you were
likely to bring to the text. So once a week I
read a short biblical passage in some place other than my home or office.
Another Year
Mike Leigh's latest film is pared down but surpassingly elegant, like a superbly
assembled piece of chamber music. But it has an unusual flaw.
Clashes and coalitions: Christians and Muslims in Egypt
On March 11, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to celebrate
national unity and condemn sectarianism. Days earlier, Christian-Muslim
clashes resulted in deaths, injuries and a burned church. What is going
on?
Harvard's preacher: Peter J. Gomes, 1942–2011
I feel sorry for those who never got to hear Peter Gomes work a congregation while a biblical text worked him. He was a teacher, raconteur and best-selling author. But his primary vocation was as a preacher.
Books
Part-Time Pastor, Full-Time Church, by Robert LaRochelle
A majority of congregations in the United States average fewer than 100 in attendance. While some congregations manage to employ a full-time minister with the requisite M.Div....
Chosen Ones and Flight of the Outcasts, by Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath, one of modern Christianity's foremost theological voices, is writing children's books....
Murder at the rectory
In 1921, a Methodist minister fatally shot the most prominent Catholic
priest in Birmingham, Alabama. Sharon Davies’s book makes vivid the
pervasive anti-Catholicism of the early 20th-century South.
Kierkegaard, edited and translated by Alastair Hannay
Many of the readers who flock to Søren Kierkegaard are members of the philosophy guild....
Departments
Brooklyn Angels
The Bible readings at the beginning of Lent say that after Jesus passed through the temptations in the wilderness, angels came to tend him. In our time we might dismiss the idea of heavenly messengers as naive or purely metaphorical....
The great EB
This spring marks the 100th anniversary of the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, generally considered the greatest manifestation of the "Great EB."
The train I ride
Sooner or later, and usually sooner, conversations about passenger trains and Amtrak in particular sputter with the dirty "s-word": subsidies. But all American means of transportation depend on "subsidies."
Climate report
Many national leaders talk about cutting spending so as not to burden
future generations with deficits. They seem to have no problem, however, burdening the next
generation with an overheated Earth.
A historic ban
On Ash Wednesday, Illinois governor Pat Quinn signed a bill banning capital punishment. A member of my congregation offers a powerful Lenten lesson for the year the death penalty was abolished in Illinois.
News
Anglican bishop fights Israel’s denial of visa
Suheil Dawani, the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, has gone to court to seek a renewal of the Israeli residency permit that allows him to live and work in the ancient city....
Relief groups mobilize to aid Japan
As the extent of the death and destruction from the massive disaster
in Japan came into focus, religious relief organizations were sending
and supporting teams to assess the damage....
Study finds civic engagement is higher among mosquegoers
Research by a political science professor shows that affiliation with
a mosque increases Muslims' civic engagement. "The more religious
American Muslims happen to be, the more they participate in American...
A win for death penalty opponents
On Ash Wednesday, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a law abolishing
the death penalty in his state, making the Land of Lincoln the 16th
state where capital punishment is no longer an option....
Muslims watch warily as House holds hearing
They were moved when the first Muslim elected to Congress shed tears
discussing a Muslim who died trying to save others on 9/11. They were
irked by accusations from House members and annoyed when fellow Muslims...
Failing as pastor hurts, talking about it is hard
Sometimes being a pastor is a real pain. But few pastors want to admit it. J. R. Briggs is trying to change that....
Christians in Pakistan chilled by assassination
Christian schools and colleges across Pakistan shut down for three
days to protest the March 2 assassination in Islamabad of Shahbaz
Bhatti, a Roman Catholic who was minister for religious minorities....
Catholic bishops remove ‘booty’ from the Bible
Catholic bishops have kicked the "booty" out of the Bible. The U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops has brought about a new translation of
the Bible, one it says is more accurate, more accessible and more
poetic....
Is Phelps a role model on free speech issues?
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-to-1 that the "Thank God for
Dead Soldiers" protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas have
First Amendment rights to protest military funerals, the question being...
SBC stores pull warning labels from certain books
Southern Baptist bookstores have quietly suspended a four-year-old
program that warned customers to read with "discernment" works by
several up-and-coming authors whose books "could be considered...
Lectionary
Sunday, April 17, 2011: Matthew 21:1-11
On Palm Sunday we can answer the question, "Who is this?"
Sunday, April 10, 2011: John 11:1-45
In the Gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus is the cause of Jesus' death.