Latest Articles
Precious stones: Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
On a recent visit to Washington, D.C., I saw the Hope diamond at the National Museum of Natural History. It’s odd to think that a large piece of carbon, refined by millions of years of compression and cut by human hands, could draw such crowds. Yet people are continually huddled around the display case, which is wired with numerous sensors for security.
Hunger Strike
In one of the most ambitious works of fiction to appear in recent years, Mary Gordon wrestles with large questions: What is worth living for?...
Ethics for this world
When Dietrich Bonhoeffer died on April 9, 1945, few would have predicted his influence on theology at the beginning of the 21st centur...
Collected Poems, 1943-2004
The dates in the title tell of Richard Wilbur’s remarkable longevity. Once a youthful prodigy, he became part of poetry anthologies 30 years ago....
On the Take
Your relationship with your doctor might be more complicated than you ever imagined....
Bunkered down
Guilt and remorse over Nazi atrocities and the horrors of World War II have consumed Germany for decades, influencing politics, culture and the arts, including cinema....
Recreational sex
Tom Wolfe may deny that his novel is about Duke, but having spent 20 years there I know a few things about the school....
Going down with the ship: In for the long haul
I will go down with this ship. And I won't put my hands up and surrender. There will be no white flag above my door. (Dido)...
Slow to answer: The reticence of Jesus
One of the paradoxes of Jesus as he is portrayed in the Gospels is his way of combining candor with reticence....
Graceful presence: Funeral hospitality
Those of us who work in the church know how trivial, vain and self-serving the “institutional” church (as we used to call it in seminary—as if there were any other kind) can be....
Good Sports: Integrity of baseball
Perhaps only in the U.S. would the “integrity of baseball” or any sport be the focus of political speeches and front-page newspaper articles....
Century Marks
Mind over matter: Once an outspoken critic of popular psychology, Paul C....
Shared solitude: My life as an oblate
Becoming an oblate—literally “one who is offered”—means joining a particular Christian monastic community as a kind of lay associate....
Gathering in expectation: Worship: Act one
On the night before he died, Jesus gave instructions for how the church was to stay together and remember him. His instructions were these: eat together. ...
Where I'm at Sunday: The church year, new and improved
Treasuring the freedom that allows us to honor our unique traditions and keep up with the times, we propose these special Sundays in the church year and offer accompanying liturgical resources:...
Church leaders decry Bush budget: Ecumenical Advocacy Days
Shortly before Capitol Hill got down to brass tacks on President Bush’s $2.57 trillion budget for 2006, the spending proposal came under blistering criticism in separate critiques by mainline Prote...
Impact possible, hard to gauge, says analyst: Progressive religious leaders' advocacy efforts
Carefully worded, sometimes stinging critiques by progressive religious leaders aiming at White House proposals and bills in Congress are proliferating....