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The St. Matthew Passion, by John Reeves
This book defies any effort to categorize it according to genre. To begin with, it is a series of meditations on one of the greatest pieces of Western music, J. S. Bach's St....
Debacle in Durban
Two follies, both with track records, were on full display at the recent United Nations conference on racism held in Durban, South Africa: Arab and Islamic states persisted in their misguided effor...
ELCA tinkers with ecumenism: Jeopardizing a pact
Acting unilaterally, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has placed in jeopardy its relationship of “full communion” with the Episcopal Church....
Summer job: Faith at work
I worked my first full-time summer job at a glue factory when I was 18 years old. Most of the other guys carpooled to work from the inner city....
A Timorese triumph
After more than 400 years of foreign occupation and domination, East Timor is getting a taste of freedom and self-rule....
Going on faith: Six myths about faith-based initiatives
The White House initiative on faith-based social services, widely touted as ushering in a new era of partnership between governments and religious organizations, is based on several myths....
Pivotal leadership: Seminary strategies
Faithful, effective Christian congregations make a difference....
Stocking the shelves
At the end of summer my mother would launch her annual canning process....
No way out: Sunday, October 1, Luke 16:19-31
In Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus there is no wiggle room....
In-your-face preaching: Sunday, October 8, Luke 17:5-10
Jesus is reported to have said, “The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force...
Renouncing Satan
One Saturday morning when there was a brief lull in our domestic hubbub, I asked our 13-year-old son John what he considered to be the most important things in life....
Two religions?
Christian Contradictions: The Structures of Lutheran and Catholic Thought. By Daphne Hampson. Cambridge University Press, 323 pp., $59.95....
Trusting the Spirit, by Richard Cimino
Historian Paul Johnson compares religious organizations to icebergs. They move slowly and the changes in them are not easily seen....
Jesus in Disneyland, by David Lyon
According to Canadian sociologist David Lyon, the theory of secularization based on Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism--a "metanarrative" of the secularized acad...
Into the inferno? Rage and fear in Macedonia: Rage and fear in Macedonia
Macedonia became an independent nation without firing a single shot....
Nonviolent force
With the horrifying results of Palestinian car bombings and suicidal bombers regularly displayed in newspapers and on television, Americans are not likely to associate “nonviolent protest&rdq...
Surprised by beauty: Shining with god's glory
I was away on a retreat recently when the mirror surprised me....