Latest Articles
Prayer at Taizé Singing and silence: Singing and silence
We call prayer at Taizé “common prayer,” not the “office,” which suggests a work obligation: “We do our office,” “We do what we ought to do.” ...
Guns R Us? Myths of a gun-toting people
Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture by Michael A. Bellesilles...
The office of prayer: Reviving an ancient practice
For Those We Love But See No Longer: Daily Offices for Times of Grief by Lisa Belcher HamiltonVenite: A Book of Daily Prayer by Robert Benson...
Gay and mainline: The success of the MCC
Callers to the California headquarters of an odds-defying denomination—one that worldwide has 300 churches made up largely of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons—are greete...
Map-reading skills
Two friends were driving to a conference at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania....
Left behind: The education challenge
A week or so after President Bush assured the nation that education would continue to be one of his top priorities and that no child would be left behind, I had an extended conversation with the pr...
Sullivan travels again
There was an innocent spirit in the movies that Preston Sturges made during World War II....
To Make Our World Anew, edited by Robin D. G. Kelly and Earl Lewis
This history of African Americans is a quintessentially American history....
Greed, by James M. Childs Jr.
Americans suffer from a debilitating disease that deadens the senses and causes people to panic and hoard. Persons of faith aren't immune to it....
Brothers’ odyssey
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), directed by Joel and Ethan Coen Chocolat (2000), directed by Lasse Hallström...
A vocation to save life
Christianity has a long tradition of encouraging people to meditate on the lives of the saints....
Judging Pius XII: What the pope didn't do
In the debate over Pius XII’s response or lack of response to the horrors of Nazi Germany, very few writers have been able to overcome the temptation to depict him either as “Hitler&rsq...
Expanding mystery
Many years ago, when I was struggling to balance the demands of divinity school and the need to produce a weekly sermon for a congregation that sat patiently and graciously through the efforts of i...
Charitable choice: A closer look
What do faith-based groups and social agencies really make of President Bush’s effort to try to expand the role of faith-based groups in addressing social needs?...