Latest Articles
Elephant at the quadrennial: United Methodists confront gay issues
When United Methodist delegates take their seats at the church’s May 2-12 General Conference in Cleveland, they’ll be facing decisions on 2,500 or more pieces of legislation, including a far-reachi...
Dealing with homosexuality
At least two other denominations are dealing with issues related to homosexuality at meetings this summer....
A time to keep kosher: Faith at work
To the best of my knowledge, the early church dispensed with the kosher food laws of Judaism for two distinct but closely related reasons....
Staying power: Luke 24:36-49; Acts 3:12-19
Cleopas and his unnamed (female?) companion get all the credit....
Ups and downs of the Religious Right: Divisions and personalities
It’s a puzzle: the Christian Coalition is fighting off extinction, but the Religious Right seems as powerful as ever....
British theology: Movements and churches: A web of conversations
Having surveyed in previous articles the variety of theological conversations in Britain—ranging across patristics, history, philosophy, biblical interpretation, literature and the arts, the natura...
Continuing education
Easter is upon us. The dogwoods, fruit trees and azaleas are dazzling our eyes. My students and I are reading texts by Theodore of Mopsuestia....
Living long
Years ago I wrote about the tendency of modernist, evolution-minded, progressive, pacifist theists to live long lives. Someone once asked Vida Scudder the secret of her longevity....
Embargo is a crime
If Al Gore wants to recover from the serious political and moral mistake he made when he broke with the White House in the Elián González affair, he should repudiate another Clinton administration ...
Missing arts
Seeing Beyond the World: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition, edited by Paul Corby Finney...
Edwards in Our Time, edited by Sang Hyun Lee and Allen C. Guelzo
Toward the end of the 19th century, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote an obituary for Jonathan Edwards's theology: "The truth is that [his] whole system of beliefs . . ....
The Father and the Son, by Matthew N. Murray, and The View from a Monastery, by Brother Benet Tvedten
When Matt Murray is 13 years old, his mother, a gifted writer and an unconventional Catholic, dies. His father, an official in the Washington, D.C., city government, suddenly changes jobs....
Memoirs of the Spirit, by Edwin S. Gaustad
Edwin Gaustad presents 26 people from various traditions and religions who have contributed to American spirituality....
Preemptive apologies
Pope John Paul II has issued a mea culpa for 2,000 years of his church’s history, a millennium wrap-up that apologizes for sins of omission like the Holocaust, before which the Catholic Church rema...
Showdown with the Marlboro man: Teens and tobacco
The Marlboro man is kidnapping more and more children. Each day nearly 4,800 adolescents aged 11 to 17 are accepting a cigarette from him, an increase of 70 percent in ten years....
Rams and resurrections: God’s response to violence
Last Palm Sunday my friend Ann went to church and found herself in the middle of a mob scene. As it turned out, the congregation was taking part in a dramatic reading of the Passion narrative....
Socializing capitalism: The Century during the Great Depression
In the decade following World War I, Americans confronted a rapidly changing cultural context....
Lessons in retirement: A "beginner’s diary"
Taking Retirement: A Beginner's Diary, by Carl H. Klaus...
British theology after a trauma: Divisions and conversations: After positivism
If there was one intellectual development in living memory that separates the “grandparent” from the “parent” generation of British theology, it was the rise of logical positivism and analytical ph...
Evil and Good Friday
A pastor from South Africa was finishing his first year as a full-time pastor in the U.S. He had served churches in the two countries, so I asked him to compare the role of the church in the U.S....