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Light is light. And only light can bring our fragmented darkness into proper perspective and allow us to see things whole.

I am often at a loss for words when people ask me what I think. To me, thinking—making clear and linear progress through my mental swamp—is drudgery that I perform only when it is necessary....

The release of the film version of Philip Pullman’s novel The Golden Compass has reinvigorated the controversy over his trilogy, His Dark Materials....

There were two great, abiding mysteries in my life when I was a young boy; mysteries that I puzzled over for years but never solved. I discovered them while lying in bed trying to fall asleep....

Philip Pullman, British author of the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, makes no attempt to disguise his distaste for Christianity. As one of his characters says, “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.” But Pullman's depiction of Christianity is reductive.

Those paying the $90 price for this commentary in the distinguished Hermenia series can scarcely complain that the book was lightly tossed off....

By now, people who follow news about the role of religion in the 2008 elections may feel as though they have tumbled ...

Most of us are sick and tired of hearing about eating disorders and the girls who obsess over ...

In June 1933, less than six months after Hitler assumed power in Germany, Karl Barth argued that it was important to do “theolo...

Baker, a sports historian and professor emeritus at the University of Maine, has written a valuable story about the engagement of reli...

Charles Frazier had a tough act to follow. His first novel, Cold Mountain, was both a literary and a popular sensation....

The Iowa farming community where this novel is set is in deep pain. Family farms have been lost to hard times....

Joel and Ethan Coen accomplish what Cormac McCarthy set out to do in his bombastic 2005 novel No Country for Old Men....

John the Baptist has been our constant companion on the journey through Advent and into Epiphany. First, it was his task to make ready the way of the Lord....

Some of my favorite words from the United Methodist Church’s liturgy for Holy Baptism are the first ones spoken: “Brothers and sisters in Christ: Through the Sacrament of Baptism we are initiated i...

For a preacher, the challenge of Epiphany is that it comes every year. The story unfolds as it always does: King Herod, the wise men from the East, gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh....

Time is being stretched in the gospel narrative. With several allusions to the wise men, we look forward to next Sunday’s celebration of Epiphany....

Most of the excitement lately in the Republican race for president has been generated by Baptist minister Mike Huckabee....

“Earth Mother is fighting back—not only from the four winds but also from underneath. Scientists call it global warming. We call it Earth Mother getting angry.”—Talking Hawk, a Native American from the Mohawk Tribe, preparing for a sacred ceremony to pray for the Earth

My family tries to eat healthy, organic, fairly traded, locally and sustainably grown food....