Latest Articles

If anyone can wax poetic about the power of a clean slate, it's Paul. In his mystical meanderings on the human body's relationship to the body of Christ, he doesn't ground his hope in the things that humans do (or don't do) in response to tradition, social pressure, or threats. He grounds it in the inclusive finality of Jesus Christ himself.

“What’s happening to America?” I’ve overheard such comments, exasperated and worried, frequently of late. Baton Rouge, Minnesota, Dallas, Nice, Baton Rouge again: “Has the world lost its mind?”

Even in the jagged edges of life, God’s glory shines. And we are the cultivators of this glory.

For years, Karen Oliveto refused to allow her name to be cast for the role of bishop in the United Meth­odist Church because she “didn’t want to harm the church,” she said....

The cross is anything but a success story. Failure and disappointment are at the heart of Christianity.

Pharaoh trembled at the growing Hebrew population; at the thought that these slaves might realize their oppression and realize their power. He demanded that the Egyptians throw all of the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile River. Herod trembled at the report from the eastern scholars of a child who had been born King of the Jews; at the prospect of Jewish rebellion and an end to his tenuous hold on power.

Nice, on France’s Mediterranean coast, now joins a long list of cities, on four continents, where Islamist terrorists have perpetrated gruesome attacks, mercilessly killing hundreds of innocents. And those are just where some of the highest-profile outrages have occurred, the ones that attract headlines.

Much of what Christianity has long been saying about the cross of Christ is problematic. So what is to be done about it?

The Russian Orthodox Church, whose boycott of a major summit of Orthodox Christian leaders threatened to slow down efforts to promote greater unity, has declared the meeting “an important event in ...

By summer, the plants are working overtime. It's a wonder we don't have as many words for green as the Inuit have for snow.

Bathroom bills. The phrase’s bouncy, alliterative nature, plus just the word bathroom, makes it somehow seem light, frivolous . . .  oh, it’s just about the bathroom. It’s not.

Writing used to be easy. Now, nothing seems easy. Leaning in, I just stare at the screen. Occasionally, I try to type something. Despite my desperation to write, my mind is held captive to a former place. Bloody films never leave you.

There’s some good news amid the gloom of global terrorism—namely, the little-known world of wasatiyya, or centrist, Islam.

(The Christian Science Monitor) Since the brutal 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah organization, which ended ...

Hope is the content of faith. Hope is the adopted son, the grafted inheritor. If there are to be, as with Abraham’s descendants, innumerable stars and grains of sands, it will be through this boy.

In Rio, refugees will compete under an international flag. Maybe this will inspire new reflection on the purpose of a nation.

So what’s been the most shocking thing to come out of GOP-presidential-nomination-land in the last couple days?

c. 2016 Religion News Service...

Several religious denominations re­main defiant in the face of new laws that would ban them from proselytizing in Russia....

I lit the candles, opened the doors, picked up a handful of bulletins, and stood at the entrance. I smiled at a group of 15 students. One waved and then they turned and walked to the grocery store.