John Buchanan

It’s a cliché to observe that since September 11 we are living in a different world, that everything seems different now. But it is true....

My brother was the first to call....

This preacher was grateful for the lectionary during September. I often argue with the choices of texts for particular Sundays....

We must not expect our nation’s wound to heal quickly: It is too deep and the pain is too profound. We Americans expect instant healing....

At the end of summer my mother would launch her annual canning process....

For most pastors, the question of how the church should relate to the state and to the society and culture around it arises in a very mundane way—in the form of a phone call asking you to del...

The intersection of religion, government and social needs is where this journal has positioned itself throughout its history, so I accepted an invitation from the Aspen Institute to listen in on a ...

My instructor in Sabbath-keeping was not a professor or a spiritual director, but a foreman at the East Chicago Inland Steel plant named Mike Paddock....

In Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose describes the pivotal day when Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their tiny band of explorers sent their large keel boat back down the river to St....

I love the story of the four men who carry their paralyzed friend to see Jesus and can’t get close because of the crowd....

When I think of the people who have had a special impact on my life, who were catalysts in my formation, I think especially of Joseph Sittler....

Recently I made my third trip to Rome....

Harvey Cox chose the title of a revival hymn for the title of his memoir, Just As I Am....

A week or so after President Bush assured the nation that education would continue to be one of his top priorities and that no child would be left behind, I had an extended conversation with the pr...

Many years ago, when I was struggling to balance the demands of divinity school and the need to produce a weekly sermon for a congregation that sat patiently and graciously through the efforts of i...

I once told a story from the pulpit about road rage that evoked as much response as anything I have ever said....

Jesse Jackson is a complicated man. He has been right on most issues most of the time, though certainly not all the time....

Calendar purists insist that only now are we entering the 21st century, since 2000 was really the final year of the 20th century....

I love Thanksgiving. It’s the one holiday the retail economy has not been able to capture....

One of the theological puzzles with which I have struggled over the years is what the Puritans called “special providence”—that is, God’s miraculous intercession in human affairs in response to pra...