Latest Articles
Pan-Muslim group accepts invitation for Vatican dialogue: A response to Muslims' open letter
A groundbreaking group of prominent Muslim scholars and clerics has accepted the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI for a “working meeting” on interreligious dialogue at the Vatican within the next tw...
Episocopal Church held to 'double standard,' says Jefferts Schori: Other churches have similar practices
Episcopal presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says other member bodies of the Anglican Communion apply a “double standard” when they challenge the U.S....
Students worship less, but spiritual search up: An ecumenical worldview
Though college students’ attendance at worship services declines, an interest in spiritual matters grows for many during their time on campus, a new study shows....
Willow Creek finds limits to its model: Spiritual growth not keeping pace
Willow Creek Community Church, the suburban Chicago megachurch that has become a model for some of the nation’s largest congregations, started more than a quarter century ago by asking the question...
Tony Blair joins Catholic Church: Baptized an Anglican
After months of speculation, former British prime minister Tony Blair converted to Roman Catholicism in a low-key ceremony at an archbishop’s chapel in London just before Christmas....
More clergy dollars going to Democrats: Obama the top recipient
Clergy and staffers of religious organizations are giving more to Democratic campaigns this year, marking a shift from four years ago when Republicans had the advantage....
Black churches torn between Clinton, Obama: Divided loyalties
If it’s true that a house divided cannot stand, then black churches across South Carolina should be shaking. Take, for instance, Bible Way Church of Atlas Road in Columbia....
Physicist and priest: An interview with John Polkinghorne
Ordained an Anglican priest after a career as one of the world’s top quantum physicists (his work helped lead to the discovery of the quark), John Polkinghorne vigorously argues that science and religion are not at odds: “Science looks to empirical evidence and bases its theories on being able to explain that evidence. Religious belief, at least Christian belief, looks first of all to the general evidence for the existence of God in the wonderful order and fruitfulness of the universe, and second to the way that Christians believe that God has made God’s nature known in Jesus Christ.”
Spiritual soccer: Not everything is fixable
“I have resigned myself to the fact that there are some people in this life with whom I will never be reconciled.” I was 22 and a second-year seminarian when an older friend said this to me, and I ...
Candidates and moviegoers: A hidden danger
Republican and Democratic candidates who survive the February 5 delegate nomination marathon should be ready to confront a hidden danger to their campaigns—movies....
Taste and see: Savory meat
In 2008, we have the opportunity to celebrate the centennial of MSG!...
Tests in all forms: Genesis 2:15-17; Matthew 4:1-11
Imagine being brilliant—Massachusetts Institute of Technology kind of brilliant....
Glimpses of glory: Matthew 17:1-9; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Exodus 24:12-18
I’m less inclined that some commentators are to condemn Peter.
God's love, mother's milk
Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of late medieval and Renaissance paintings and sculptures depict the Virgin Mary with one breast exposed as she is nursing the infant Christ. The origins of the image are disputed, but whatever its origins, depictions of the lactating Virgin acquired new meaning and new urgency in mid-14th-century Tuscany. In communities under siege from plague, wars and malnutrition, the Virgin’s breast was a symbol of God’s loving provision of life, the nourishment and care that sustain life, and the salvation that promises eternal life.
