Latest Articles
Unanswered questions: The King assassination
On June 9 the Justice Department reported on its 21-month investigation into the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, concluding that U.S....
Are we 'bowling alone'—and does it matter? The decline of civic engagement: BowlingAlone: The Collapse and Revival ofAmerican Community.By RobertD. Putnam. Simon & Schuster, 544 pp., $26.00.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by Robert D. Putnam. Simon & Schuster, 544 pp., $26.00....
Will success spoil evangelicalism? Changes that come with prosperity: Changes that come with prosperity
We’re in the Money!” announces the cover of Christianity Today (June 12). “How Did Evangelicals Get So Wealthy, and What Has It Done to Us?” the subhead asks. Michael S....
Holy Land narrativesof lament and hope: Probing Palestinian-Israeli relations
Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, by Meron BenvenistiTheEnd of the Peace Process: Oslo and After, by Edward Said...
Soul food (1 Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51)
In the face of existential threat, God comes with the grace which is the courage to be.
Hungry for more: Sunday, August 6 Exodus 16:2-4,9-15; John 6:24-35
As Jesus speaks and acts in John’s Gospel, the people hear him at one level while he seeks to move them to a deeper level....
Praying in tongues
I first heard the Lord’s Prayer in Mexico, during a family trip when I was 11 years old....
A potent brew
Like red wine, which we biblical literalists are commanded to take now and then, coffee, unanticipated in the scriptures, offers both an enhancement of and a threat to health....
Faithworks, by Jim Wallis
In the preface to this book, Bill Moyers says that Jim Wallis is hard to "put into a box and label." Though Wallis, the editor of Sojourners, presents the gospel of individual piety, he is...
Eternity, My Beloved, by Jean Sulivan
The Prodigal Son may have left home because home was permeated with a fainthearted love-a prudent and stunted love-that made him want to get away....
National Insecurity, edited by Craig Eisendrath
Veteran diplomats, former congressional staff members and journalists who specialize in intelligence coverage join forces in this collection of essays to call for a total overhaul of U.S....
Tested on the book of life: Controlling the human genome
The completion, or near completion, of the human genome project was announced with expressions of Promethean awe....
Outspoken pastor: Taking a stand in Austria
When Pastor Gertraud Knoll rose to speak to the crowd in front of the Vienna Opera House last February, she knew her remarks could be hazardous to her career....
A ministry or a program?
When many ministers’ primary role shifted from being pulpit preacher to being institutional CEO, clergy found themselves wondering, “When did my study become an office?” Today, as congregations con...
Harsh politics, extravagant forgiveness: No Future Without Forgiveness.ByDesmond Mpilo Tutu.Doubleday, 244 pp., $22.95.
No Future Without Forgiveness, by Desmond Mpilo Tut...
The 'unnecessary necessity' The Century in World War II: The Century in World War II
At first the editors of the Century, like most others who viewed the situation from afar, failed to appreciate the threat posed by the rise of the Nazi party in Germany....
Swimming in the deep end
The principal of the Catholic high school was taken aback by the phone call. It came from an inmate in a nearby prison....
Churches as government partners: Navigating 'Charitable Choice'
In 1998 Sue Hill, an administrator with the Department of Human Services in Peoria, Illinois, was trying to help find jobs for several adults whose families were on welfare....