Latest Articles
Faith-based action: Different groups have different agendas
President Bush has quickly followed through on his promise to preach the message of faith-based solutions to social problems....
Search engine
I think of this column as a kind of search engine. Mention a puzzling item here and you’re sure to get a response....
Gospel sound track: Sunday, April 1 John 12:1-8
One Saturday afternoon, my wife and I escaped to the movies....
Surprise party: Sunday, March 25 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Maybe it’s just my imagination, but has the parable of the prodigal son become something of a bore lately? I know, I know, this is one of the most beautiful stories of grace in the Bible....
Revive us again
The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism by Robert William Fogel...
The Critical Edition of Q, edited by James M. Robinson, Paul Hoffmann and John S. Kloppenborg and Excavating Q, by John S. Kloppenborg Verbin
Most New Testament scholars believe that besides following the Gospel of Mark's narrative of Jesus's ministry and passion, the authors of Matthew and Luke independently drew from a common ...
Hearing Things, by Leigh Eric Schmidt
Whatever happened to the talkative God of the Bible?" asks Barbara Brown Taylor....
It pays to play: Why is there affirmative action for athletes?
How do you get admitted to one of those small, highly selective liberal arts colleges? Of course, you need excellent grades in high school and an impressive SAT score....
Enhancing humanity? Manipulating the genetic code: manipulating the genetic code
When two groups of scientists announced in mid-February that they had finished mapping the human genome, scientists, politicians and journalists paid rapt attention....
Of anchorites and beadsmen: Faith at work
Sometime in the 14th century an English woman we know as Julian came to the Church of St. Julian and St....
Biker faith: Pentecostals on motorcycles
Riders for God: The Story of a Christian Motorcycle Gang by Rich Remsberg...
Some kind of tomorrow
How can hope be sustained when traumatic memories of conflict or oppression haunt a person or group? This question has become central in a course I am teaching with an African-American colleague....
Jesus, disqualified
"There’s a long line of people who on the basis of their position on life couldn’t be attorney general. We could start with Jesus Christ himself.” So said Senator Robert C....
Bad example
Pundits and politicians used to say they were embarrassed to have to tell their children that Bill Clinton didn’t tell the truth about his escapades....
Breaking and entering: Sunday, March 18 (Luke 13:1-9)
In the little Georgia country church of my childhood, there was a story the older folks loved to tell again and again, laughing over it and savoring it and embellishing it....
A tangled tale of race
One Drop of Blood: The American Misadventure of Race by Scott L. Malcomson...
Seeker Churches, by Kimon Howland Sargeant
Just about everyone by now has heard of seeker churches, and many Americans have visited or joined them....
Revelation, the Religions, and Violence, by Leo D. Lefebure
Why are so many people simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by religion? Why are religions as adept at setting us at each other's throats as they are at linking us with the divine?...