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In recent months, the National Council of Churches observed its 100th anniversary, the World Council of Churches celebrated its 60th birthday, and the new, widest-ever group, called the Global Chri...

Two-thirds of Americans think that religion is losing its influence on U.S....

When President Barack Obama tapped megachurch pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, many liberal activists decried the choice of a high-profile evangelical figure who has o...

Deep suffering makes theologians of us all. The questions people ask about God in Sunday school rarely compare with the questions we ask while we are in the hospital. This goes for those stuck in the waiting room as well as those in the hospital beds. To love someone who is suffering is to learn the visceral definition of pathetic: affecting or exciting emotion, especially the tender emotions, as pity or sorrow; so inadequate as to be laughable or contemptible. To spend one night in real pain is to discover depths of reality that are roped off while everything is going fine.

God says no to supposedly right worship, and yes to genuinely right living.

People have asked me to pray for them or for their loved ones all my adult life. I practice intercessory prayer very seriously, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering what I’m doing....

For many African churches, the all-night vigil is a centerpiece of devotion and is not limited to any particular season. The event commonly begins at 9 or 10 p.m., usually on a Friday, and runs until four or five the following morning. Particularly among the independent or African-instituted churches, prayer is accompanied by acts of healing and exorcism. These services commonly draw thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of people. Night vigils also flourish among the booming evangelical and Pentecostal churches of South Korea, where hundreds of thousands pass their Friday nights in prayer and praise. In terms of timing, endurance and mass appeal, the closest Western parallels to these Christian celebrations would be found in dance clubs and rave parties in major cities.

True prophets have a different bottom line than false ones, but that doesn’t make them any easier to recognize.

The Christian church was born with Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.

Deep suffering makes theologians of us all. The questions people ask about God in Sunday school rarely compare with the questions we ask while we are in the hospital. This goes for those stuck in the waiting room as well as those in the hospital beds. To love someone who is suffering is to learn the visceral definition of pathetic: affecting or exciting emotion, especially the tender emotions, as pity or sorrow; so inadequate as to be laughable or contemptible. To spend one night in real pain is to discover depths of reality that are roped off while everything is going fine.

Barbara Blodgett, director of supervised ministries at Yale Divinity School, has written what may be the best book yet on the cruc...

In U.S....

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Erasmus, writing in the early 16th century, provided a scathing critique of the waning, often abusive practi...

With each novel, Ron Hansen takes considerable risks, whether in exploring new geographical and cultural settings, modeling characters on historical figures or pr...

Tamara Park went on a low-budget pilgrimage from Rome to Jerusalem with two of her young adult friends....

The story of the proud and vital man who has lost his power and nobility is a recurrent theme, especially at the movies....

We preach these stories so often that sometimes it's the unexpected that keeps us going. It's especially apt when some new nuance blazes up into our awareness during the season of Epiphany....

I attended worship this past Sunday at a racially diverse DC church with a rich history of civil rights activism. Two days before Barack Obama's...

When it comes to fierce theological debate—excommunicating, eternity-in-the-balance doctrinal warfare—neither the ecumenical councils nor those unpleasant doings in Geneva have anything on my local...