Latest Articles
Kansas school board approves plan to downgrade teaching of evolution: Teachers would explore variety of theories about origins of life
The state education board in Kansas has tentatively approved new guidelines supported by some Christians that encourage public schools to teach a variety of theories about the origins of life, dow...
Founder of Taizé is murdered: Brother Roger "one of the best-loved Christian leaders of our time"
The death of the 90-year-old founder of the Taizé Community in France at the hands of a woman wielding a knife shocked world Christian leaders. ...
PCUSA lists five firms for possible divestment: The start of "progressive engagement"
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has announced plans to target five public companies that it says “contribute to the ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine.” Church officials said they ...
Jesus-era Siloam pool found in Jerusalem: Evidence of ancient, rock-hewn water systems
In separate excavations in and near Jerusalem, archaeologists have found evidence of ancient, rock-hewn water systems, including a large, stepped basin that one group of scholars is calling the Poo...
Black Baptists, college form partnership: Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky
Officials from four leading African-American Baptist conventions gathered at a historically white Baptist college in Kentucky and launched a new partnership....
Taking care of business: Administrators show ecumenical spirit
It was meant as a compliment when preacher-author Leonard Sweet praised his audience as “a kind of homeland security of the church.” Sweet, evangelism professor at Drew University Theological Schoo...
Passionate disbelief: An ex-fundamentalist lashes out
Brian Flemming is that most dangerous of religious creatures: the former fundamentalist. He is also a gifted satirical filmmaker....
In war and in peace: Implications of just war theory
The just war tradition is meant to be more than a tidy checklist of criteria for evaluating a conflict. The tradition developed not as a theory to be bandied about, but as a rigorous ecclesial practice that arose out of the church’s day-to-day life and shapes that life. The tradition is a form of Christian discipleship, an expression of the character of Christian communities concerned daily with justice and with loving their near and distant neighbors.
Fatigue factor: Varieties of Christian motherhood
Our plane landed at Gatwick airport on July 7, the day the bombs went off, and the four of us made our way through the mass of bedraggled travelers and machine gun-toting police to the airport bus....
In over my head: Learning from Lance Armstrong
Here is Lance Armstrong, reflecting on the day he learned he had testicular cancer: “Athletes don’t tend to think of themselves as human....
Jesus math: Matthew 18:21-35
Four hundred ninety times? Do we really have to do this?
Jesus isn’t cool: Challenging youth ministry
Cramming more than 50 high school students into a small room for a Bible study is challenging, but getting them to talk about sex is not. When the hand of one 15-year-old boy shot up in the back of the room, I braced myself. “Is masturbation a sin?—I really gotta know.” I was proud of him—using a word like sin is hard for a teenager.
What teens believe
Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton have conducted the most comprehensive and reliable research e...
Family fallout
For old-school cinephiles who bemoan the demise of the classical European art film, rife with misplaced passion and rampant guilt, a familiar name has come to the rescue....
Søren Kierkegaard
Joakim Garff’s justly acclaimed biography of Kierkegaard, published in English in the year marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Chris...
Designer Children
Philosophers Mary Midgley and Judith Hughes have observed: “Individualism, like salt, is a very g...
Hooked on veggies: The triumph of Junior Asparagus
Mage Knights, those miniature warriors with names like Gibbering Ghoul, Bone Grinder, Soul Stealer and Weresabertooth, were all the rage last year in elementary school....