Latest Articles
Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy
In 1621 Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy, and now, nearly 400 years later, Eric Wilson has given us what amount...
Ghost Town
The first “ghost comedy” was an effervescent 1937 charmer called Topper, in which two of the most elegant high comedians in movies, Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, crashed their roadster a...
On actually following a beloved passage
In the marketing world, a high "Q score" means that an item or brand is well known and regarded....
On the shelf: 118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams Held Hostage in Iraq, edited by Tricia Gates Brown
When four men affiliated with Christian Peacemaker Teams were abducted in Iraq, ...
Election-night symbolism
Last Tuesday night, I went down to Chicago's Grant Park to witness
Barack Obama's election and victory speech. At the event, I was struck...
Grief and hope: Cubs fans wait for next year
When a Los Angeles Dodger hit a grand-slam home run off of the Cubs’ most reliable pitcher in the first game of the National League division series, a great silence descended on Wrigley Field....
Educated for marriage: The difference college makes
After thousands of scientific studies of marriage, the one number everybody knows is 50 percent. Fifty percent of American marriages end in divorce....
Briefly noted
A Wisconsin-based group of atheists and agnostics has filed suit against President Bush over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer....
Russian court orders 'rehabilitation' of czar: Necessary to overcome bloody Soviet-era legacy
In a move that both monarchists and human rights activists say is necessary for Russia to overcome its legacy of Soviet-era bloodshed, the country’s highest court has ruled that Nicholas II, Russia...
Catholic thinker rejects Vatican demand for rewrite: Article criticizes Vatican's attitute toward other churches
A prominent Roman Catholic theologian in Poland has rejected a demand from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he retract and rewrite an article criticizing its attitude t...
California marries 11,000 same-sex couples: About 10 percent of same-sex couples in the state
In the first three months that gay and lesbian couples could marry legally in California, an estimated 11,000 of them took their vows—a number that, according to a new study, is higher than the tot...
Pittsburgh diocese votes to exit Episcopal Church: Aligns with Anglican Province of the Southern Cone
The Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Pittsburgh, as expected, has voted to split from the national church....
Catholic scholar leaves his trustee post after his Obama endorsement: Nicholas Cafardi says he quit voluntarily
Catholic legal scholar Nicholas Cafardi, who recently endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president, has resigned as a trustee of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, an outpost of conserva...
Four students suspended over Obama stunt: Confessed to hanging an effigy of the candidate
Four students at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, confessed to hanging an effigy of Senator Barack Obama from a tree on campus and were suspended for up to a year, school officials announc...
PCUSA minister cleared in gay 'wedding' case: Event not deemed a marriage ceremony
A Presbyterian court in Pittsburgh ruled October 2 that a minister did not violate scripture or church law by performing a union ceremony for two lesbians, since the ceremony was not a marriage und...
Pulpit protest shakes fist at IRS, public opinion: Alliance Defense Fund's Pulpit Freedom Sunday
Although only 33 churches nationwide signed up to participate in a conservative Christian group’s “pulpit freedom” protest on the last Sunday of September, the planners viewed it as a success....
Muslim group asks IRS to look at Obsession DVDs: "Anti-Muslim" film distributed as newspaper insert
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has urged the IRS to investigate the distribution of more than 20 million “anti-Muslim” DVDs to see if the distributor, the Clarion Fund, has violat...
Choosing to talk: A fourth meeting between church leaders and Ahmadinejad
In the fourth meeting between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and religious leaders seeking to keep lines of communication open between Iran and the U.S.—the second such meeting I’ve attended...
Back home in Gilead: The complexities and beauty of family
What is Jack Boughton really like? How will he respond to Reverend Ames’s blessing as he gets on the bus to leave Gilead again? Will he embrace the grace and forgiveness of the blessing?...