Latest Articles
God as Santa: Misreading the prayer of Jabez
Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hur...
Bike lesson: Repentance and forgiveness
Children’s sermons can be times for cuteness or for expressions of theological realism. Here is a story of such realism....
A sense of place: The many horizons of Martin E. Marty
When you grow up on the prairie you learn to live with what you have. The Marty people—formerly the Martis, Swiss Lutherans who emigrated to America in 1869—had dirt. Nebraska dirt....
True grit: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
I’ve never been totally honest about baptismal vows. I bet Joshua would have been.
Which Protestants?
Randall Balmer and Lauren Winner try the impossible in Protestantism in America: to lay out in 200 pages the history and current state of American Protestantism for an audience of students...
Your Word Is Truth, edited by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus and The Free Church and the Early Church, edited by D.H. Williams
Protestants are not characteristically staunch upholders of tradition. Nor do they instinctively appeal to "tradition" when faced with life's crises....
The Miner's Canary, by Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres
Deep underground, miners need a way to monitor the purity of the air. Before technology offered precise monitoring instruments, miners brought canaries with them....
A New Christianity for a New World, by John Shelby Spong
For many who share the liberal perspective, Spong certainly champions the right causes....
Bookish: Reading and the pastoral vocation
I grew up with books. My parents valued books and taught me to treat books with respect and affection....
Planning the aftermath: A postwar Iraq
When he was running for president, George W. Bush decried “nation building.” It was not the task of the U.S., he insisted, to bring order to chaotic countries. The U.S....
Needy pastors: Behind authoritarian leadership
"You know, Mom, the trouble with our new pastor is that he needs us to love him so much that we can’t see God anymore.” This was the assessment of a 13-year-old boy talking with his mother about th...
Mighty fall: Corporate collapse
The Wall Street Journal is now urgent reading for preachers, since its daily stories give evidence that Augustine and Calvin were right....
Jesus' final exam: Matthew 22:34-46
Jesus' simple summary of the law is actually complex.
A whiff of Armageddon: The Bush team's obsession
Barring a miracle or the sudden discovery of a moral backbone in Congress, President Bush will get his mandate to attack Iraq. Although the U.S....
Before the shooting starts: A fabricated case?
As I have listened to the discussions about Saddam Hussein and Iraq, some disturbing questions have arisen....
Good works
Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation. By John Witte Jr. Cambridge University Press, 337 pp., $65.00; paperback, $23.00....
Poisoned piety
When Religion Becomes Evil. By Charles Kimball. HarperSanFrancisco, 240 pp., $21.95....
It’s complicated
The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture. By Mark C. Taylor. University of Chicago Press, 340 pp., $32.00....
Preacher talk
The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present. Edited by Richard Lischer. Eerdmans, 496 pp., $29.00. ...