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Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which he directs, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 and will share the monetary prize, it was announced in Oslo...

It’s Dad’s birthday next week, I tell the boys. What shall we get him? Without hesitation, they chime in: the Phacops rana at A2Z....

I believe in one, holy, catholic, digitized Christian church. That’s a credible postmodern paraphrase of the ancient creed. Why digitized instead of apostolic?...

Perhaps the most insidious byproduct of modern apocalyptic scenarios is that grief is shoved right off the table.

Talanta doesn't refer to a special ability I have, my passion in life, or this little light of mine. It certainly isn’t a mere $100.

As a kid in Missouri, I was a Baptist. In Missouri that meant not only that I belonged to an important church but that I was on the right side of the great eternal divide, ready to defend my salvation against the other contenders around me. When my family moved to Arizona, Baptists were perceived differently: we were the tail end of white evangelizers who hoped to bring faith and education to the Native American and Mexican laborer population. In southern California, our next stop, people thought we were from Texas and thought of us as one more exotic breed on the Pacific shores.

In 1868 General U.S....

In their book, Off Center, political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson use statistics to prove that the Republicans have defied political gravity. Instead of trimming their sails to the moderate breezes of the American middle, the Republicans have lurched far to the right. “According to the conventional wisdom about American politics, this shouldn’t be possible,” write Hacker and Pierson.

On June 1, 1950, when the United States was gripped by fears of nuclear war and treason, when demagoguery was being practiced on a sc...

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Based on Gerald Clarke’s exhaustive biography, Bennett Miller’s Capote covers the six years that Truman Capote spent working on In Cold Blood....

Movies shape perceptions....

There are Beach People and Non-Beach People. Most summers I spend a week—or two or three—at the beach....

After the hurricanes, we heard many stories of church groups that loaded up trucks with supplies for destitute people in the Gulf Coast....

Lion and lamb: Pope Benedict XVI and liberal Catholic Hans Küng met in 1962 when they were both young and progressive. Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, took a turn to the right and may have played a role when Küng was later stripped of his privilege to teach on the grounds that his theology was incompatible with Catholic doctrine. Küng called Ratzinger a “grand inquisitor.” But after a recent four-hour meeting, Küng said the pope isn’t as reactionary as many assume, and needs to be given time. The two discussed the notion that science and religion are not incompatible, and the role of the church in a secular world (New York Times, September 27).

Wander through a Jewish neighborhood or past a synagogue in late October and you will see a hut (often referred to as a booth). It will probably be less than 30 feet tall and made of plywood, with three walls. It will be decorated with leaves, gourds and bunches of grapes, possibly strung with lights. The roof will be translucent (you can see at least a few stars if you stand in the hut at night). There’s sure to be a picnic table or a card table set up inside. The hut will be a little flimsy; it might sway if the wind gets too vigorous. It will, to the uninitiated, look strange. The hut, called a sukkah in Hebrew, is a sign that the eight-day festival of Sukkot has arrived.

About the only person to stand by Dennis Rader—known as the BTK Strangler—since his arrest in February for ten vicious murders has been his pastor, Michael Clark....

While some traditional disaster responders have been faulted for their slow pace in reacting to Hurricane Katrina, many religious organizations quickly welcomed, clothed and fed thousands of storm ...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency intends to reimburse religious groups that have offered relief to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, marking a new step in the White House’s faith-based...

Baptist pastor C....