Latest Articles
The apostles' new identity: Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35–10:8 (9-23)
I wonder if Paul has Euripides in mind.
The great conversation: Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
You may share an experience I often have: I enter a room where friends are engaged in a spirited conversation about someone and try to guess who it is that they are describing....
The thing with feathers: A quotidian kind of hopefulness
1 Peter says we should always be ready to give a reason for hope. Always?
Where do sermons go? Sunday-night reflection: Sunday-night reflection
I preached a sermon this morning—one in a long line of sermons stretching back to 1992. I’ve preached so many sermons by now that I find it almost impossible to remember any particular one. Right now, on a Sunday night, I don’t want to remember any of them. The discipline of Sunday night is forgetting.
What to say about hell: A symposium
Hell is talked about cautiously, if at all, in mainline churches....
The thing with feathers
1 Peter says we should always be ready to give a reason for hope. Always?
The New Measures: A Theological History of Democratic Practice
Not long ago the New York Times carried a story about a California congregation that maintains three separat...
The Visitor
The protagonist of The Visitor is Walter Vale, an academic who has retired from life after his wife’s death....
Blogging toward Sunday
Odysseus wants nothing more than to get home. For the Greeks, as for
most ancient peoples, the house and city were islands of order in the...
Blogging toward Sunday
Luther contemplated the righteousness of God, and recoiled. “Love God?” he wrote years later, “Sometimes I hated Him.”...
Faith forums: A fairly civil conversation
Something Pope Benedict XVI said about immigration while he was in the U.S....
Benedict's visit: The pope’s agenda
Benedict XVI has a reputation as a blunt, rigorous teacher of doctrine, so it was perhaps surprising that the highlight of his much publicized visit to the U.S....
Century Marks
Trained in satire: Comedian Al Franken intends to be taken seriously as a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Minnesota. "A satirist looks at a situation and sees the inconsistencies and hypocrisies, and he cuts through the baloney and gets to the truth," he says to those skeptical about his candidacy. "I think that's pretty good training for the Senate, don't you?" (Atlantic, May).
Building relationships: An interview with McCain's pastor
The presumptive Republican nominee for president, Arizona senator John McCain, has for 15 years attended North Phoenix Baptist Church, which is affiliated with the Southern ...
Speed-hump victory: Community organizing
On the campaign trail, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have spoken of their backgrounds in community organizing....
Briefly noted: UCC supports Jeremiah Wright, etc.
In a unanimous voice vote, the 90-member Executive Council of the United Church of Christ passed a resolution April 14 supporting Trinity UCC in Chicago and its recently retired senior minis...
European lawmakers urge broader abortion rights: A gauge of European trends
Lawmakers from the 47 countries in the Council of Europe have said women should be guaranteed the right to “safe and legal abortion”—a resolution that faced heavy criticism from Roman Catholic grou...