Latest Articles
A review of Handel’s Messiah
John Newton called hearing the Messiah "one of the highest and noblest gratifications of which we are capable." Combining history, biography, music theory and theology, retired music profe...
Black Swan
Director Darren Aronofsky performs a psychological pas de deux with composer Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky in Black Swan, a fractured, fascinating study of the high-pressure world of big-time N...
Celebrating Christmas before Dec. 25? Bah humbug!
(RNS) It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas -- earlier and earlier
every year. The evergreens at Rockefeller Center and the White House...
Oregon releases policy for religious clothing at schools
(RNS) Oregon state officials released a policy on Wednesday (Dec. 8)
intended to give school districts guidance in applying Oregon's new law
on religious clothing.
...
Oklahoma's top lawyer at center of fight over Shariah
(RNS) Backers of a referendum that would bar Oklahoma courts from
considering Islamic law admit they suffered a setback when a federal...
Belgian football club declines Catholic shirt deal as 'too sensitive'
Utrecht, Netherlands, December 9 (ENInews)--A football club in Belgium's top division has declined the offer of a sponsorship deal from a leading Roman Catholic newspaper, for fear of attracting ri...
Former Baptist school center of gay-rights dispute
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) -- A private, historically Baptist Christian
college has sparked a national media firestorm over its successful...
Where our money goes: An itemized tax receipt
If we can put a man on the moon and then, 40 years later, persist in spending far more on spacecraft than on passenger trains, we ought to be able to distribute an income-tax receipt that says so.
Study: Congregants happier with good friends in pews
Close friendships among churchgoers, rather than theology, seem to be
the key to happiness among religious people, according to a new study....
Germany experiments with training, certifying imams
As Islamic life and society claims an ever-larger place across
Western Europe, imams increasingly are being asked to provide guidance...
There's the mystery
Whatever you think of essayist
Christopher Hitchens, you have to admire his willingness to have a debate about
God with just about anybody. Since he wrote God...
O Antiphons: A theological translation
My friend Tim Ghali
asked me to contribute some liturgy for an Advent service, and I chose...
The numbing season
The pressure to keep up a relentless facade of merriment is not a Christian pressure. We may not be able to completely escape this, but perhaps we can lessen it by not confusing it with discipleship.
Ground Zero church starts legal action in bid to rebuild
(RNS) Nearly two years after negotiations abruptly ended over where
a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on 9/11 may rebuild, legal action has...
Biographer sees continuity between John Paul II, Benedict XVI
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Five years into the papacy of Benedict XVI, papal
biographer George Weigel is struck by the continuity of mission between...
Top Orthodox archbishop faces sexual abuse charges
A Canadian Orthodox archbishop has been charged with sexually assaulting two ten-year-old boys about 25 years ago....
Family Research Council added to ‘hate group’ list
The Southern Poverty Law Center is adding the Family Research Council and four other conservative religious organizations to its list of hate groups because of "falsehoods" in their antigay stateme...
Church of England gives OK to Anglican covenant
The Church of England, defying opposition from its traditionalist wing, has given its support to a global covenant aimed at keeping the Anglican Communion intact in the face of disputes over h...