Martin E. Marty

Optimism is hard to come by this autumn. Don't confuse it with hope, in any case....

Nostalgia and paradox seem to have nothing in common. Nostalgia is a single-minded devotion to a romanticized image of the past....

I'm not going to debate whether lists of "the best" or "the worst" are valuable or destructive. Americans like lists of bests and worsts. So there....

Fewer people should be dozing off during worship, if items I'm seeing in church bulletins are any indication....

When there were only 474 days left until the new millennium--or 840, depending on when you think the 21st century starts--the Religion Newswriters Association asked people to comment on how the pre...

Many people have asked me lately why homosexuality has replaced abortion as the hot issue. Stumped, I did some research and developed numerous hypotheses....

Researchers say Mozart has amazing effect on rats," headlined the Chicago Tribune on August 11. "Music's boost to humans also occurs in rodents," read the subhead. I was skeptical....

About 30 years ago, in a doctoral examination, a student, Trygve Skarsten, a colleague, R. Pierce Beaver, and I, the historian of religion, got into a colloquy about ancient pagan rites of Norway....

Having retired from teaching, I find I have time on my hands. I had been thinking of resuming an interest in baseball, an interest abandoned after childhood....

Today I’ll not debate whether baccalaureate services at public high schools violate the separation of church and state, and whether certain people ought or ought not speak or pray at such, and unde...

I owe you a report on church life as glimpsed in church bulletins and newsletters from around the country....

Sports Illustrated has a “Go Figure” column of numbers trivia....

Once in a while I receive a letter here that is so nutty, so outrageous or so hateful that I do not answer it....

Near the end of the WPA in 1939, I painted a large round sign for a building in Battle Creek, Nebraska (pop....

Americans Discuss Social Security” is a new initiative supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts....