Latest Articles
Sunday, January 14 (John 2:1-11)
At every wedding we wait for the moment when we witness a bride and groom vow faithfulness to each other “‘til death us do part.” We think when we hear those words, or even more when we speak them ...
Somebody's calling my name: Sunday, January 7 Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:15-22
Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Memorial, was explaining to a TV interviewer why her remarkable work has come to have such a strong grip upon the emotions of the American people....
Sunday, January 14 (John 2:1-11)
At every wedding we wait for the moment when we witness a bride and groom vow faithfulness to each other “‘til death us do part.” We think when we hear those words, or even more when we speak them ...
Pondering Luther
Martin Luther's Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development, by Bernhard Lohse...
The Book of Concord, edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert
The confessional writings in the Book of Concord, first published in 1580, are given authoritative status by Lutherans because they are viewed as faithful expositions of scripture, particu...
Talking about marriage
Churches can and should affirm the moral significance of marriage without denigrating those who are not married....
Ecumenical wobbling: The NCC reversal on marriage
When Robert Edgar of the National Council of Churches suddenly told the NCC’s General Assembly that he was removing his name from an evangelical-mainline-Catholic statement on marriage, it ap...
In God's ecology: A revisionist theology of nature
In his book Earth in Balance, Al Gore asks, “Why does it feel faintly heretical to a Christian to suppose that God is in us as human beings?...
Natural resistance: Faith at work
There is virtue yet in the hoe and the spade for learned as well as unlearned hands,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, echoing a theme that goes back at least as far as the Rule of St. Benedict....
A politician for all seasons
When it became clear that we did not yet have a president-elect, I determined not to waste time glued to the television set trying to follow the meandering route that will eventually give us our ne...
Embrace the new
The Marty male line since 1792 goes like this: Rudolph begat Bendicht begat Gottfried begat Emil begat Martin begat Joel begat Noah begat Muhammed....
The Palestinians' missing map
When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Yasir Arafat new borders for a future Palestinian state, he couldn’t show them on a map. There is no such map....
Let the imbongis sing!
Back in 1994 TV viewers all over the world watched transfixed, as South Africa’s first democratically elected president took the oath of office....
Stirrings of divinity: Sunday, December 31 Luke 2:41-52
This has to be the censored version! What parents would leave a crowded city—one that was not their home—and journey a whole day without noting that their child was missing?...
Let the imbongis sing!
Back in 1994 TV viewers all over the world watched transfixed, as South Africa’s first democratically elected president took the oath of office....
Stirrings of divinity: Sunday, December 31 Luke 2:41-52
This has to be the censored version! What parents would leave a crowded city—one that was not their home—and journey a whole day without noting that their child was missing?...
Many faiths, many stories
Religion in American Life series, edited by Jon Butler and Harry S. Stout (Oxford University Press)...
Plowing the Dark, by Richard Powers
The abundance of ideas Richard Powers throws at readers can feel overwhelming....
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....