Latest Articles
Strangely familiar: Imagined book tables
At a recent theology conference I made a beeline for the book table the instant a coffee break was called. But all the volumes seemed strangely familiar....
The word made rock: Matthew 7:21-29
Be like the wise man who built his house on the rock....
A doubt and a promise: Matthew 28:16-20
When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Passages like this assure me there’s a place for me and the people I serve. Unlike John’s story of Thomas, Matthew didn’t single out one disciple as the doubter. He says that “some doubted.”
Changing and changeless: Benedict's challenge
The theology of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger played a major part in my book After Our Likeness (1998), which sought to develop a trinitarian, nonhierarchical understanding of the church....
In need of a pope? Protestants and the papacy: Protestants and the papacy
Do protestants need the papacy?...
Rule of Benedict: The pope as ecumenist
When Pope Benedict XVI announced in his first sermon that he has a “primary commitment to work without sparing energies for the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all the followe...
Kingdom coming
We have needed a good biography of Walter Rauschenbusch for some time, and Christopher Evans has provided us with...
Out of Eden
Love, lust, forgiveness, remorse, tolerance, sin, violence and death—these are just some of the themes engaged in The ,Ballad of Jack and Rose....
Take and read
Picking up where he left off in Faith Beyond Resentment, Alison, a Catholic priest, continues to expose the subversive potential of the gospel message, especially ...
Heart of the matter: Shepherding souls
At ordination Presbyterian ministers promise to give their “energy, intelligence, imagination and love” to ministry. Sometimes just managing the institution of the church exhausts such capacities....
Beyond the commandments: God's laws on our doorposts
This summer the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on several cases involving the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments on government property....
Century Marks
Just justice: The Navajo Nation has about 28,000 criminal cases in its court system each year, and has prison space for only 220 people at any given time....
No return: Refusing duty in Iraq
Army Sergeant Kevin Benderman, 40, faces a military trial for refusing to return to Iraq for a second tour of duty....
Hearing God out: Worship: Act two
When the books of the Bible are read in the context of worship, they become the scripture of the church....
Churches Together on target for launch: Church of God in Christ considering membership
The fledgling Christian Churches Together—a painstakingly crafted amalgam of U.S....
Gay clergy option backed by ELCA council, professors: Some not pleased by middle-ground proposal
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s high-ranking church council has prepared a proposal to the churchwide assembly in August that would give bishops the final authority to let congregation...
Federal faith-based grants doubled in 2004: Some funding funneled through states
Faith-based groups received more than $2 billion in federal funding for the 2004 fiscal year, compared to $1.17 billion in 2003, according to statistics recently released by the Bush administration...