Latest Articles
Becoming church: A visit to the Ekklesia Project
For many years Stanley Hauerwas has been attempting to return the church to the center of Christian theological and ethical reflection....
Favorite poems
These days, as some people are bent on making war and others equally determinded to keep peace, I return to my former teacher, Yehuda Amichai, a German-born Jew who migrated to Palestine and grew u...
Clean sweep: Luke 15:1-10
The best storytellers paint pictures with words, using them to fill our minds with vivid imagery. I remember reading the first Harry Potter novel to my first-grade son. Each time we completed a chapter and I turned the page to start a new one he would shift in my lap and look away from the book. Finally I asked him what was wrong. He replied, “I don’t want to see the drawing on the first page of the chapter because I want to think about what things look like all by myself.”
Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context
Since Christians confess Jesus Christ as Lord, one might assume that most Christian ethics texts would ponder his teaching...
The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
How has the story of Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, which contains no explicit refere...
Unsentimental journey
Seventeen-year-old Maria is a pretty Colombian girl frustrated with life in her small town....
Applauding diversity: Enough of one-religion nationalism
Protestants are about to become a minority in the U.S. after almost four centuries of numerical superiority and cultural dominance....
The real 'war' on terrorism: Greivances that must be taken seriously
What the 9/11 Commission accomplished is a minor miracle in this era of partisan politics....
Century Marks
Belated reconciliation: In 1525 Protestant Reformer Ulrich Zwingli preached against the Anabaptists, setting off persecution, exile and martyrdom of the more radical reform group....
A season of repentance: An open letter to United Methodists
A proposal: Let us stop fighting one another, for a season, about issues of sexuality, so that we can focus on what God is saying to the church about our complicity in the violence that is the deep...
Kerry cites faith, 'family values' The convention speech: The convention speech
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts capped a political convention that saw Democrats emphasizing faith and moral language....
Forbes: 'God gap' is wrong distinction: "A trivialization conversation"
Calling the so-called “God gap” between Republicans and Democrats “a trivialization conversation,” New York clergyman James Forbes told an interfaith service in Boston during the Democratic convent...
Kerry endorses faith-based grants: Advisory group would tackle constitutional questions
Senator John Kerry, who carries Democratic Party hopes for the White House, said he supports government funding of faith-based initiatives as long as they respect the separation of church and state...
Democrats' new faith outreach director quits: Public positions under fire
After less than two weeks on the job, the Democratic Party’s first-ever director of religious outreach resigned suddenly after her public positions came under fire....
IRS nearly toothless, Falwell aide claims: Political endorsements continue
Jerry Falwell is misleading churches into thinking they can endorse political candidates, two Washington-based watchdog groups warned in complaints to federal agencies....
Harvard returns Arab leader's gift: Funds intended for Islamic studies
After more than a year of debate and negotiation, Harvard Divinity School has agreed to return a gift from a leader of the United Arab Emirates, at the Arab nation’s request....
New bishop Willimon displays puckish style: Hauerwas: "It's a sign we're not dead yet"
The outspoken dean of the Duke University Chapel, William H. Willimon, who once said “the greatest sin Christians can commit is boredom,” has been elected a bishop in the United Methodist Church....
Amish 'reality' show misleads, experts say: "More distortion than education"
If you were among the 5.4 million viewers who made the premiere of Amish in the City a smashing success, supporters of the widely misunderstood Christian group want you to know that the show...