Martin E. Marty
Home security: Inconvenienced for the war
Speak of nightmares! I dreamed that on a below-zero day my garage-door opener failed....
Me, my church and I: "Spirituality" versus "religion"
"Spirituality” versus “religion” has become a defining conflict of our time....
Lighten up: Ecumenical lights
Observers of the Christian calendar celebrate Christmas for 12 days after December 25....
Lake effect: Not spiritually landlocked
This has not been a good year for Luftmenschen. Before bidding the year good-bye, let’s pay them some attention....
You first: Minnesota nice
That the phrase “Minnesota nice” is considered an insult by many says a lot about contemporary culture....
Plutarch lives: Entertainment, education, liberation
In the last letter Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison, he asked, “Father, could you get me from the library Plutarch’s Lives of Great Men?” We do not know if the book ever reached the cap...
Test questions: Finding the imaginative prospects
Some years ago students at an Ivy League university rated party schools. The University of Chicago came in 300th out of 300....
Faith in fashion: When faith marries the Zeitgeist
Martha Sawyer Allen isn’t here anymore. She’s off to new adventures.” That line ended Allen’s final column in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (September 4)....
Multiple Martys: Namesakes
On September 19, 1896, Martin Marty (no relation), brother of Martin Marty (no relation), died. His remains were reburied on September 19 of this year. The first burial took place in St....
Where there's Smokey: A new symbol for proper stewardship
I want to propose Smokey Bear, who turned 60 in August, as a new symbol for proper stewardship. We Martys became Smokeyites during our years of camping....
Coded messages: A Lutheran cast of characters
I was an innocent Nebraska teen visiting Milwaukee when I saw my first musical, which I thought was about Oklahoma....
Bear facts: Bad news for baldies
I have spent a lot of time searching through the Bible for loopholes,” said W. C. Fields, who was looking for moral wriggle room....
Let's erudite: Verbification
"Sue them!” my wife joked. Harriet offered her succinct suggestion as we read a sentence in a review that appeared over my name....
Thank God for the secular: Thank God for religious freedoms
Turkey advertises itself both as “secular,” thanks to its constitution of 1923, and as “98 percent Muslim.” India is called “secular,” thanks to its constitution of 1947, and is often seen as havin...
How great we are: Graduation gifts
I am going to let the family of a recent high school graduate write most of this column....
Bald facts: A new hair color
Montana is to be envied for its great Great Plains, its purple mountain majesties, and its celebration of color. The state motto is colorfully Oro y Plata, gold and silver....
Lights out: Churches closing
When Christians in one body instinctively mourn with the mourners in another, or rejoice with the rejoicers, we see the ecumenical spirit at work....
Year of the locust: The dangerous number 17
Thirty-four and 17 summers ago, when the Marty family ate dinner on our Victorian porch, we sometimes had to move back indoors because we couldn’t hear ourselves speak....
Rumor of saints: St. Expeditus
"Bibfeldt’s back” was the slogan of the University of Chicago Divinity School Association’s recent celebration of theologian Franz Bibfeldt after a decade of well-deserved neglect....
String theory: Guilty of work-righteousness
The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” So spake Jesus (Luke 16:8) in a parable that preachers do not like or understand, and ...