Latest Articles
Renewable energy: On the other side of mortal travail
Andy, age nine, is jumping rope without a rope. “Is that your invisible jump rope?” his brother John asks him....
No room for nuance: Looking ahead to 2008
When I ran for a seat in the U.S. Congress a few decades ago, I was an unknown Democrat trying to unseat a Republican....
Plutarch lives: Entertainment, education, liberation
In the last letter Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison, he asked, “Father, could you get me from the library Plutarch’s Lives of Great Men?” We do not know if the book ever reached the cap...
Cellmates
Few know blindness so profoundly as prisoners who once could see the whole world but now find the universe shrunk to the size of a cell. Inmates hear only what jailers allow, most often some version of “We own you.” As for music, the rhythm of one’s own pulse must suffice, and that hardly leads to dancing. One can even forget how to walk.
Holy fishes: Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12
Isaiah and the Baptizer conspire to give us animal dreams in this dark season of Advent. The earlier prophet’s vision warms our hearts. Who among us hasn’t yearned for a world in which lambs could hang out with wolves and adders behave as though Mr. Rogers had taught them how to play with children? A strange political critter appears in the dream as well, one that’s not the puppet of pollsters and the powerful, but a leader with the heart and Spirit of God.
The Emergent matrix: A new kind of church
Last spring the Nashville Convention Center played host to both the National Pastors Convention and the Emergent Convention....
Apostle of the Crucified Lord
To be a Christian is to suffer like the Lord. Or so St. Paul thought....
The Shoes of van Gogh
With Henri Nouwen serving as spiritual guide, Cliff Edwards offers a provocative and thoughtful reflection on Vincent van Gogh’s religious sensitivity....
Make believe
Scottish writer James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) was a great success during his lifetime, with 40 plays, six novels and numerous works of nonfiction to his name....
Sound alternatives
While heavy on processed drums, the disc makes for compelling listening....
Family tensions: The PCUSA and Palestine
Last summer the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) passed several resolutions that have distressed the American Jewish community....
A speech you didn't hear: The search for absolute security
Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a dangerous world. We don’t know whether, when or where terrorists will strike again....
Century Marks
Church discipline or politics? Two United Methodists from Iowa are trying to get fellow Methodists George Bush and Dick Cheney kicked out of church for their part in the war in Iraq....
Anglican disunion: The global response to a gay bishop
Finding ways to live together amid disagreement has long been an Anglican ideal....
Gay bishop, Episcopal leaders to stay course: Anglican Communion Network plans to start new churches
An openly gay Episcopal bishop whose consecration was criticized by an Anglican church panel says he is “deeply sorry” for the disarray his election has caused and will adopt a personal moratorium ...
Traveling decalogue draws hoots, hoorays: Roy Moore's granite monument
A national tour of former Alabama judge Roy Moore’s granite monument to the Ten Commandments hit its first snag when atheist protesters confronted it on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., last ...
GOP and Vatican divided by Iraq war: Strained relations
The Vatican and the United States were close allies during the 1980s phase of the cold war....
Episcopalians pull 'Druid' rite from site: Material was copyright-protected
An Episcopal Church official pulled a liturgical script devoted to “Mother God” and “Queen of Heaven” from the denomination’s women’s resources Web site one day after an evangelical critique on the...