Latest Articles
Conservative college faces faculty exodus: Academic freedom at issue
A small evangelical Christian college focused on shaping home-schooled students for careers in public service will lose about one-third of its faculty after several professors at the young school c...
Rome restricts founder of priestly order who was accused of abuses: Controversial priest to refrain from ministry
The controversial founder of a powerful traditional Catholic order was a favorite of the late Pope John Paul II, but the Vatican under a new pope has disciplined Marcial Maciel Degollado, who faced...
Briefly noted
Six Episcopal priests from Connecticut have criticized Anglican leaders for refusing to hear their petition against a liberal U.S....
Faithful and effective: A working doctrine of grace
It’s been a good season for scandal. Bribery sent a California congressman to prison. Fraud charges provided courtroom drama in Houston....
Unilateral proposal: Isolating Palestine
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert traveled to Washington in late May to tell President Bush about his plans for Israel’s future....
Professor Pelikan: A keen sense of what matters
Church historian Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, who died May 13, felt like a relative, thanks to consanguinity among our Slovak friends....
Storm system: Mark 4:35-41; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
I struggle to make peace with Jesus ordering the sea into peace. If we were to stumble across a time traveler’s videotape and find that it all happened just as Mark reports, I’d still be troubled. Because this isn’t the way the world works. People don’t go around saying, “Peace! Be still!” to the wind and the waves, and find that the wind and the waves obey. And I don’t like the “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” business. Of course Jesus’ disciples are afraid!
Arguing with Paul: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17
I don’t want to leave my body or its loves. I wouldn’t rather be at home with the Lord; I want to be right here.
Paul and the law: E. P. Sanders's retrieval of Judaism
The Jews of Jesus’ time, the preacher intoned, were slavishly devoted to the practices of their ancestors. They studied scripture but did not apply it....
Second thoughts
The war in Iraq has begun to shatter the ranks of the neoconservatives—the faction that gave us this disaster. The most prominent turncoat is Francis Fukuyama, whose forecast played no small part in the neoconservative project of a war that was to make the Middle East safe for Halliburton and Republican political consultants. America at the Crossroads is Fukuyama's apologia for apostasy. He has much to regret.
The misfits
I think I might qualify as a Crunchy Conservative. I wear Birkenstocks whenever weather permits....
Chaos management
Paul Bremer landed in Baghdad on May 12, 2003, and departed little more than a year later, on June 28, 2004....
The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality
Gordon Wakefield, the editor of this volume’s 1983 predecessor, began his introduction with the observation that the word...
Top films of '05
He introduces each poet with a brief biography or an overview of the poet’s work....
Widowed in India
According to ancient Hindu texts, when a man dies, his wife has three choices....
Sound alternatives
In the two-CD effort Why Not Sea Monsters? Songs from the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament, (Carpet Square) Justin Roberts steers clear of any ham-fisted agenda while staying faithful to the power and majesty of the Bible stories, and making them his stories. On the “Hebrew Scriptures” CD, Roberts gets things off to a clever start with “Why Not a Spark?” Singing in a style that suggests John Lennon, James Taylor and Glenn Tilbrook, Roberts lays out the tale of creation as if God were a smiling child in a swirling cosmic sandbox: “On the fourth day / God said, Where are the stars? / Where’s Mercury, Venus and Mars?/ Where’s all those old rusty cars? / Wait, that’s later!”
Letters: Recommended reading
My interest in books leads to odd behavior sometimes: checking out the content of the bookshelves when I am visiting someone’s home or a colleague’s study, sneaking a look at whatever my airplane s...
Out of gas: The need for a national plan
The American addiction to oil is like an addiction to amphetamines, says Alfred W....