Latest Articles
Ben, in the World, by Doris Lessing
In her new novel, Doris Lessing gives a fresh twist to an old idea: What would our world seem like to an alien who found himself among us, and how would we react to such a being?...
Proclaiming the Scandal, by Jerome E. Burce
Lutheran pastor Jerome E. Burce addresses the challenge of mission and ministry in postmodern North American culture....
Pay it Forward (2000)
For anyone with an ounce of idealism, or any fond memories of singing "Pass It On," Pay It Forward
offers some morally powerful moments, at least at the beginning. It...
Sibling conflict, etc.
You Can Count on Me (2000), directed by Kenneth LonerganThe Wind Will Cary Us (1999), directed by Abbas Kiarostami...
Keeping silence
I love Thanksgiving. It’s the one holiday the retail economy has not been able to capture....
Virtual worship: A theological challenge
"There is no There there,” said Gertrude Stein about Oakland, California. “There is a different there there,” say I, an Oaklandite by birth, about virtuality....
Reclamation through trust: A program for ex-offenders
Attorney General Janet Reno traveled to Cleveland four years ago to observe ex-offenders at work in an innovative reentry program....
Endless advent? Childless in December: Childless inDecember
Here we are in the midst of December—surrounded by Santa, elves and frenzied children....
Endangered language
Like Many people with nothing better to do, I often read obituaries....
Old becomes new
The other night, while doing my bathtub reading of scholarly journals, I came across two references to one subject. Taken together they almost roused me from the torpor induced by the whirlpool....
Fullness of time: God's time and ours
We live between Christ’s first and second advent, in what W. H....
Refiner's fire: Sunday, December 17 Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18
What is the most popular Christmas song? One way to determine that is to consult the Muzak Holiday Channel and find the song that has the most versions available....
In the interim: Between two advents
"Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28)....
In the interim
Between two advents
Dialogue with the devil
Secret Dialogues: Church-State Relations, Torture, and Social Justice in Authoritarian Brazil, by Kenneth P. Serbin...
Who Is Jesus? by Leander E. Keck
A generation ago, Leander Keck, past dean of Yale Divinity School and Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology, emeritus, at Yale, wrote A Future for the Historical Jesus (1971), a book that...
Saint Saul, by Donald Harman Akenson
Outside the Four Gospels, the New Testament yields precious little about Jesus," writes John P....
Experimental politics
One of the clichés of historians and civics textbooks is that the U.S. is an “experiment” in democracy....
To end the bloodshed: Why the "Peace Process" Broke Down
According to the consensus among American commentators, reflecting the views of the administration and Congress, a peace process that was on the verge of a breakthrough a few months ago has broken ...
Anticipation (1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36)
In his book Abel’s Island William Steig tells the story of a mouse (Abel) who is marooned on an island for an entire year. In the first part of the book, Abel is all alone on the island....