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Film picks: Recommended movies from 2006
The Nativity Story’s Christmas card tableau evokes every nativity performance we have ever seen. But there is no triteness, sentimentality or forced piety in it because we have met this couple in the grimy reality of their village, in the crowded streets of Jerusalem and on the rocky paths to Bethlehem. We know that they are carrying out a difficult assignment, and that their hardest work is still ahead: they have to raise this infant to adulthood. Along with the familiar, The Nativity Story delivers unexpected moments that inform and inspire.
Let them grunt: Showering cheap grace on sweating sinners
When I was young I spent two summers “icing” refrigerated cars on Burlington trains....
It's about God: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11
Last fall a friend of mine attended a lecture at the University of Mississippi delivered by Stanley Hauerwas. His talk was followed by an invigorating, hour-long question-and-answer dialogue. My friend reported that afterward he and some students, another minister and several laypeople went to someone’s house and talked about God for another hour or so. How novel.
Rest assured: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; Luke 6:17-26
In Wendell Berry’s novel Jayber Crow, the main character works to come to terms with who he is....
Advice and dissent: An address at West Point
Bill Moyers delivered the Sol Feinstone Lecture on "The Meaning of Freedom” at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, on November 15, 2006....
It's about God: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11
Last fall a friend of mine attended a lecture at the University of Mississippi delivered by Stanley Hauerwas. His talk was followed by an invigorating, hour-long question-and-answer dialogue. My friend reported that afterward he and some students, another minister and several laypeople went to someone’s house and talked about God for another hour or so.How novel.
Us, them and the Crusades
When Pope Benedict XVI recently quoted a 14th-century emperor who claimed that Islam’s singular contribution to the world was the doctrin...
Mysteries of the Middle Ages
At the beginning of the third section of Mysteries of the Middle Ages...
Slow Man/Philosophy Made Simple
How do two agnostic men—unsure of the existence of God and with no religious affiliation—deal with the coming of old age, disab...
Grand parenting: Grandchildren and the holy hope of Christmas
The excerpt from Wendell Berry’s latest book was for me a Christmas gift to savor. It stirred memories and reflections about grandfathers....
Critical and faithful: Magnanimity rooted in the gospel
When asked where the new members of liberal churches will come from, David Jenkins, former Anglican bishop of Durham, replied: “Where they have always come from—the evangelicals.” This is only part...
Century Marks
Wages of war: No one can predict the long-term consequences of war, but not until last summer did the U.S. stop collecting a 3 percent tax on long-distance telephone calls that was begun in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War—a war that lasted only several months (Vital Speeches of the Day, December).
God’s covenant: What it means to be church
The idea of “covenant” comes up frequently in proposed solutions to mainline crises....
Bearing witness: A challenge to Christian Zionism
While visiting friends in east Texas my wife saw a message on the sign of the Assemblies of God church in which she had grown up....
Religious newcomers on Capitol Hill: First Muslims and Buddhists in Congress
When it reconvenes, Congress will for the first time include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians, and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history....
Episcopal division widens in Virginia: Historic parishes vote to leave
Conservative Episcopalians’ steady exodus from the Episcopal Church accelerated before Christmas as eight Virginia congregations—including two large, historic parishes—voted to leave the national b...
Graham family in dispute over burial site: Billy Graham Library or The Cove are considered
Evangelist Franklin Graham said last month that the decision about where his parents will be buried is “personal” and he does not intend to enter a public debate about it....