Latest Articles

There is a scene in The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King in which Peter Jackson improves on Tolkien....

As an optimistic romance on network, The West Wing's advantages are obvious: more feels, less murder. What’s weird is that House of Cards doesn’t really deliver on the other side of the ledger.

Histories of U.S. Pentecostalism have long focused on two narratives: black and white. Gastón Espinosa looks instead at Latino Pentecostals.

In an effort to fight hunger, the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya is making 3,000 acres of church-owned land available for commercial farming....

As I came to the first student and his family, kneeling with outstretched hands, suddenly someone took out a phone and snapped a picture.

This past Saturday, President Obama spoke in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday"—the assault by Alabama state troopers on marchers from Selma to Montgomery for equal voting rights for African Americans. His speech is remarkable for many reasons, but one of the things I find really remarkable is that it ranks as a singular example of presidential exceptionalist rhetoric.

A friend of mine lamented that his girlfriend did not know who Emmett Till was when it came up in conversation. Something about TMZ and Lil Wayne. I have no clue. He told me he could barely pick his face up off the floor—much less his jaw—when he tried to explain that the story of this black boy is a huge part of American history, and how could you not know him??? But. Would people say that about Vincent Chin?

For there to be a heresy about the cross, there would have to be an orthodoxy about it. Michael Gorman argues that contentions over how Jesus saves lead to an inadequate grasp of what the Passion means and does.

The Jesus that John shows us in this week’s Gospel text is not a religious robot, unemotionally prepared to end it all for the cause. He sees the risks, feels them.

(The Christian Science Monitor) The most immediate payoff from Boko Haram’s new pledge of allegiance to the self-described Islami...

(The Christian Science Monitor) President Barack Obama paid respects to his benefactors in Selma, Ala., on Saturday, 50 year...

Fred B. Craddock, a preeminent teacher and practitioner of preaching, died March 6 at age 86 in Blue Ridge, Georgia. He had been ill with Parkin­son’s disease....

(The Christian Science Monitor) Ann Kansfield was sworn in as the first female chaplain of the New York Fire Department in early ...

The third Selma-to-Montgomery march was a civil rights watershed. It also focused the lives of many who gave it its spiritual hue.

Among the hearty New Englanders with whom I serve and pastor, there are a few souls who refuse to close church on account of bad weather, ever. The Lord God created shovels and road salt and boots and wool socks as sure signs of the Almighty’s intention that we go to church. Some of these pastors hold deep theological convictions that the people of God should gather for worship every Sunday in rain, snow, sleet, or hail. Others are just defiant Yankee curmudgeons who would rather be assigned to eternal damnation than admit defeat by a winter storm. Whatever the motivation, I love this stubborn streak within the church.

My daughter is a senior in high school. Now that she’s officially got herself into college (Vassar) and she, her father, her brother, and I know that she’ll be going away, we’ve begun the parade of lasts—her last home high school swim meet, her last YMCA state swim meet, her last “biggest/shortest” concert (a concert that involves all of the strings students in the Waterville school system), etc. The rest of the school year leading up to graduation will be full of lasts, some more significant than others.

Participating in what God is doing, according to this early Christian theologian, will demand breaking alignment with the dominating social order, so one can truly imitate God. If we are to be imitators of God we are encouraged to be for others in solidarity with the poor and oppressed.

JERUSALEM (RNS) Israel’s Chief Rabbinate has backed down on its long-standing prohibition against placing Christmas trees in the country’s hotels, as well as other rules related to the Jewish Sabba...

In response to our request for essays on appetite, we received many compelling reflections. Here is a selection.

In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks of dark and light—one of our most primary realities and symbols. How can this be vivid language today, when we can turn the switch and flood almost any place with light any time?