Latest Articles
Unplanned programming
I owe you a report on church life as glimpsed in church bulletins and newsletters from around the country....
Building bigger closets: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23; Luke 12:13-21
We are building a house. I have noticed that there is some instinctual urge in empty nesters to do that....
The Word as True Myth, by Gary Dorrien
By Gary Dorrien, The Word as True Myth: Interpreting Modern Theology. (Westminster John Knox, 287 pp.)...
J. I. Packer: A Biography, by Alister McGrath
By Alister McGrath, J.I. Packer: A Biography. (Baker, 344 pp.)...
Saints and Villains, by Denise Giardina
By Denise Giardina, Saints and Villains. (Norton, 487 pp.)...
Individualism and Its Discontent, by Charles E. Mitchell
By Charles E. Mitchell, Individualism and Its Discontent: Appropriations of Emerson. 1880-1950. (University of Massachusetts Press, 220 pp.)...
Birthright: A Novel, by Andrew Coburn
By Andrew Coburn, Birthright: A Novel. (Simon & Schuster, 316 pp.)...
Phony business: At the movies
Several entertainment and media conglomerates recently selected the top 100 films of the first century of the U.S. motion picture industry....
Wifely submission: The SBC Resolution
Media coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention’s declaration that wives should “submit graciously” to their husbands has been surprisingly extensive....
The year of Africa: Getting Congress’s attention
Washington is devoting an unusual amount of attention to Africa this year, and this provides an opportunity to help reverse the trend toward more widespread hunger on that continent....
Homosexuality, marriage and the church: A conversation
Few topics are as divisive in churches these days as homosexuality....
Touring for a song: Visits with Christians in China
How free are churches in China? Are they subject to rigid government control?...
Kneeling to remember
It was Memorial Day, and I was sitting in the church of General George S. Patton....
Not of the world . . . but like it
Sports Illustrated has a “Go Figure” column of numbers trivia....
Hospitality theology: (Luke 10:38-42)
Southern women are great Marthas and proud of it. Having been raised in this culture, I know that supper in a southern kitchen is a wonder to behold....
Fundamentalist women
By Brenda E. Brasher, Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power. (Rutgers University Press, 224 pp.)...
I Am Your Brother Joseph, by Tim Unsworth and Bernardin, by Eugene Kennedy
By Tim Unsworth, I Am Your Brother Joseph: Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago. (Crossroad, 156 pp.)...
Reading aloud: Moments of Grace
The name of the ship on which Joseph Cinque and his fellow slaves rebelled against their captors was Amistad, which is the Spanish word for “friendship.” I had seen the movie and the opera...
Murder with impunity: Guatemala: Not ready for ‘never Again’
Nearly all of Guatemala’s political murders, massacres and disappearances have been double violations of human rights: first the act of violence, then the impunity for the murderers....