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Say the words food and culture in the same sentence, and many people think of foods they’ve never eaten, with names ...

Pastors, religious educators and denominational officers, take note: many people in your churches would appreciate a Christian explanat...

One of John Updike’s novels features a listless minister who spends most of his time at afternoon tea parties....

We all know the thesis: country kid goes off to university and sheds Christian belief en route to brilliant literary c...

In the wake of 9/11, Daniel Pearl, Southeast Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was in Pakistan chasing down leads to a mysterious figure named Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, who he ...

Jesus was praying one day when his disciples interrupted him, begging, “Teach us to pray like John taught his disciples.”...

The gospel gets domestic as Jesus—who is homeless, without a job, traveling from place to place, and looking for a free meal—intrudes into the home of two unmarried women....

Isaiah 5:1-7

High on the list of people I have most admired is Mstislav Rostropovich, the great Russian cellist who died in April. I admired him first for his courage....

Can you outsource a war? The Bush administration seems to be trying to do just that in Iraq, where it has relied to an unprecedented extent on private companies such as Halliburton and Blackwater to prosecute the war. Before the recent surge in troops, there were about as many private contractors—125,000—in the war zone as regular troops. Between 25,000 and 50,000 of these contractors protect military bases and the Green Zone, guard key personnel, provide escorts for convoys and train Iraqi soldiers. Who is accountable for the close to $4 billion that has gone to these “security services"? And to whom are these mercenaries accountable morally and legally?

Icon you not: In June, an image of Jesus could seen on a car window in Texas, the word Allah was visible in a sliced tomato in Britain, the face of God could be seen on the ceiling of a Tennessee church and Elvis’s profile was sighted on a rock in Colorado (Chicago Sun-Times, June 19).