Latest Articles
Learning to pray: Always a beginner
Prayer. We read, write, talk and agonize about it, resolve to do it, wish we’d done it more than we actually do it....
Keeping the great commandment: What does it mean to love God?
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” our priest droned for the tenth time. His pedagogy was nothing if not dogged....
Vishnu’s almonds
This week I am headed to the Hindu Temple in Atlanta so that the students in my World Religions class may see a living faith in action....
Advance thanks
I wouldn't recognize Rosie O’Donnell if we bumped into each other’s baskets at the supermarket, but I know she’s big on television....
The whole world singing: A journey to Iona and Taizé Living in the sound of praise
I’ve often wondered what sort of conversation Protestant Reformer John Calvin and Catholic Bishop Francis de Sales would have had if they had met....
Regeneration: Psalm 51
How does the way God regenerates us resemble and differ from the way we regenerate ourselves?
Checklist for pilgrims
A Place for God: A Guide to Spiritual Retreats and Retreat Centers, by Timothy Jones...
Tending the Flock, edited by K. Brynolf Lyon and Archie Smith Jr.
What is a family and what does family ministry entail?...
From the Holy Mountain, by William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple is a gifted travel writer who skillfully draws on church history, theology, Middle East politics and comparative religions to tell the story of Middle East Christians....
Élian’s hometown
The U.S. embargo against Cuba is crumbling of its own absurdity. An increasing number of religious, academic and business groups are eager to visit Cuba....
Guns, more guns: What should the grown-ups do?
Where were the parents? we ask when a kid commits a crime....
Faithful and respectful: Paradox of pluralism
Three years ago, on the very first broadcast of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, the PBS program I host, we did a feature on a stretch of road outside Washington, D.C., that has been...
Practical matters: Faith at work
Back when I made my living as a high school English teacher, I used to tell my ninth graders that the class unit with the most practical application to their lives was Greek tragedy....
New life for denominationalism: It's no longer taken for granted
On the cusp of the 21st century, a strange thing is happening. Congregations—not all, but a noticeable number—are choosing to highlight their denominational particularities....
The King assassination: After three decades, another verdict
In December a jury in Memphis, Tennessee, concluded that Martin Luther King Jr....
Glimpses of goodness
Science fiction, mystery, comedy, serious drama, cartoons, art film—with the exception of musicals, slashers and cowboy pictures, I love movies....
Extraordinary lives
The last time I wrote about scanning the obituaries, I referred to people whose accomplishments were widely recognized....
God spoke these words: Exodus 20:1-17
Exodus speaks to those for whom freedom is a dream, and to those who sense that freedom is becoming a curse.
The digital Luther
Martin Luther: Exploring His Life and Times, 1483-1546, by Helmar Jughans (CD-ROM)...