Latest Articles
Stairways to heaven
The essays in this anthology are loosely linked around the topic of death and afterlife, but there is no dialogue between the various points of view presented....
Table for one
That a book like this would eventually be published became clear to me years ago, when I opened an “Introduction to...
Soldiers at work
It has been over a quarter century since the last American body bag was airlifted out of Vietnam, and after a series of disturbing, castigating and sometimes surreal movies about that reviled war, ...
Quick takes
Based on John Bayley's two memoirs about his marriage to novelist Iris Murdoch, Iris is in almost all respects expertly done....
God in the grave
Did God die on a hill outside Jerusalem? Was it not only Jesus of Nazareth but somehow God himself who was hung on the cross and laid in the tomb?...
Growing Pains, by Randall Balmer
We have friends who decided to release their children from all obligations to attend Sunday worship when those children turned 18....
Youth Ministry in Modern America, by Jon Pahl
If we pay attention solely to popular media's portrayals of youth, we might be tempted to believe that adolescents are more free and powerful today than ever before....
The human condition: We are all complicit in evil
I received a phone call once from a good friend, a member of my congregation with whom I had been carrying on an extended theological conversation for several years....
Common character: The connection between personal and social ethics
A judging scandal at the Olympic ice-skating rink may have seemed to many little more than an entertaining diversion in a season of terrorism and recession....
To Israel and back again: Journey of an American Jew
Some of my earliest memories are of gatherings at my grandparents’ small apartment in Milwaukee where my relatives would crowd around the dining-room table and talk passionately about Israel....
Double take: Poetry reading
Poetry doesn’t have to be solemn. In a series of poems first published in 1990, U.S....
Foreign perspectives: Discomfort with the Bush response to 9/11
If non-Americans attending the recent World Economic Forum in New York had been polled concerning their attitudes toward the foreign policies of the Bush administration, the president would not hav...
Bin Laden's reasons: American "occupation" of Arabia
In recent months, a legion of commentators on Islam have emphasized that true Islam has nothing to do with the killing of innocent people....
Psalms of rage: Ellen Davis's provocative interpretations
"She must be wrong about saying you can get angry at God. That goes against everything I’ve been taught about God....
A critic’s choice: Nine picks from 2001
Any year that gives us films from directors David Lynch, the Coen brothers, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick has to be a good year....
Blessed ignorance: Christian music
Back when 19th-century Methodists were debating whether to sponsor seminaries and promote a “learned ministry,” one bishop, it was said, opposed the idea....
Resurrected hopes: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11
When the promising young Hebrews were dragged into exile in Babylon, they were not kept in prisons or even camps. They were free to marry, build homes, plant crops and exchange goods....
The Judas chromosome: Matthew 26:14—27:10
Maybe the real reason we show betrayers so little compassion is that we’re afraid there is some Judas chromosome within all of us.
The world's fight' U.S. must promote international norms: U.S. must promote international norms
Nine days after the events of September 11, when President Bush laid out the grounds and directions of the U.S....
