Latest Articles
'Female pastors' story rattles SBC nerves: Magazines removed from shelves
When Lutherans recently celebrated 50 years of ordaining women as pastors in Sweden, they invited Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, to speak at fe...
An ultimate somebody: The bow that sets the arrow flying
When Toma and I became friends, he was somebody. I was 16, he was 22. He was a body builder, one of the best in the country, with aspirations and good prospects of becoming Mr. Universe. But then he embraced Christian faith and joined the church where my father was a pastor. He felt that God required him to abandon his athletic pursuits, which until then had been his god. He transposed the dreams of becoming Mr. Universe onto a religious plane: he wanted to be the apostle Paul of Yugoslavia, and maybe a new Billy Graham to the world.
In the autumn shadows: God gomes to us
Autumn arrives September 22 (in the Northern Hemisphere). If you are like me, you depart reluctantly from summer, the season of light....
Violence in the name of love (Matthew 22:34-46; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8)
How, in real life, do we love God and neighbor?
An elusive virtue: Matthew 23:1-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Let us imagine that humility was God’s gift to Paul at his conversion.
Take and read
Because Brown’s collection of writers hail from a wide range of theological and cultural perspectives and addr...
Take and read
A wonderful collection of essays from a variety of distinguished practitioners chronicles the sometimes jo...
A second time around
What books compel a second—or third or fourth—reading? How is the second reading different from the first, and what does the difference reveal about the book or the reader? We asked ten writers, including Margaret Miles, Gordon Atkinson, Mary Doria Russell, Diana Butler Bass and David Cunningham, to name a book that they chose to reread, and to share their reactions "the second time around."
Say You're One of Them
The three short stories and two novellas that form this debut collection from Nigerian writer Uwem Akpan offer a stunning array of opening sentences:...
So Brave, Young and Handsome
Why do we expect more than one terrific book from a writer? Isn’t one superb book enough?...
Father and Son: Finding Freedom
Walter Wangerin has written many beloved books, but perhaps none more affecting than this one....
The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok
"Water to wine” is the image that journalist Greg Barrett uses to describe the transformation in the...
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Principalities and powers are always hard to see, but from time to time intrepid explorers stumble upon empir...
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
Humans are, at heart, creatures of denial. We crave stability and strive to hold on to the familiar....
The Discipleship Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version Including Apocrypha
Recently I browsed the front end of the religion section in my neighborhood bookstore, and I found ...
Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire
In this fascinating book, Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker contest a widely held...
Trouble the Water
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s documentary Trouble the Water is a devastatingly effective depiction of the experience and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina....
Christ Jesus it is he
In many church traditions, this Sunday is Reformation Sunday—a time for trumpets and triumphalism, for remembering where we Protestants got it right and for justifying our salvation with a vigorous...