Barbara Brown Taylor

I write this near the end of a doctor of ministry class at Columbia Seminary, where 16 pastors are exploring virtues for preaching....

The holidays are here, with their intricate blessings and woes. There are presents to buy, visits to plan, cards to send and meals to prepare, at least for those who are so inclined....

When I served a church full time, I grew used to greeting people at the door on Sundays who apologized for not having been there the week before....

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. . . ....

Everyone needs someone to tell her she has spinach in her teeth, preferably before she has spent 15 minutes wondering why her table companions are so taken with her smile....

Last summer, my big adventure was a bicycle trip through northern Portugal, where church bells still ring the hours and homeowners value grape arbors more highly than garages....

When I was 12 and far more interested in horses than high culture, my father dragged my sisters and me to a student production of The Pirates of Penzance in the gymnasium at the University o...

While I respect the age-old wisdom about steering clear of politics, sex and religion in polite conversation, those seem to be the only things that anyone wants to talk about these days....

There are some of us who read more than we pray. We know we should pray more. We mean to pray more....

At this time of the Christian year, worship services feature narratives that stretch credulity to the limit....

In the absence of a real, live spiritual director, I often turn to the Desert Fathers for wisdom about living a holy life on earth....

During the fourth century, at the height of the Arian controversy in Constantinople, one Christian wrote that it was impossible to go into a bakery for a loaf of bread without debating the nature o...

Every July for the past seven years, my quiet corner of North Georgia has become the site of a Native American Sundance ceremony....

Every year around this time, the fescue pastures surrounding my home become suddenly colorful, as the purple heads of nodding thistles (Carduus nutans) break through the waves of green....

Listening to news of the war with Iraq, I have never been more aware how much depends on people’s view of reality....

As a preacher and teacher, I make my living telling stories....

Repair: The Impulse to Restore in a Fragile World. By Elizabeth V. Speldman. Beacon, 165 pp., $24.00.