Samuel Wells
A book that has transformed my life of faith
For the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we asked writers to choose one formative book and tell us about it.
A former parishioner shows me the gospel
His life had emerged from chaos, but he didn't have a bad word for anyone.
What two pastors from novels taught me about incarnational presence
Mr. Irwine and Tóti offer lessons in going below the surface.
What people need from their pastors
The ailing young man wanted to be face to face with God. I opened my shoebox.
A chat with the refiner’s fire
“You’ve talked about a lot of things,” says your refiner’s fire. “Which is the one that really matters?”
A cure for liberalism?
John Milbank & Adrian Pabst consider Western society’s many problems and offer a prescription: virtue.
How evil wins, and how to beat it
We need to study peace a lot harder than those who are studying war.
Christ the artist, we the portfolio
We are God’s artifacts—beautiful, incomplete, and mysterious.
What Brexit is revealing
Intolerance won the vote, but St. Martin's witnesses to a different reality.
When the police come asking about your mentor's past
It's dangerous to stress that an abuser isn't all bad. It's also accurate.
When the church gets it wrong
The woman looked at me with fear, pain, and trust—all things that the church has instilled in its faithful all these centuries.
Seven possibilities for church
Here are some projections and assumptions I face in my current context—and responses that reflect what the church I serve is called to be.
Faith’s ghastly legacy
Christians fail to realize that the responsibility for rebellion against the faith lies invariably at their own door.
Europe’s Pentecost
Pentecost offers a vision for Europe: not one megastate or one system for everything, but a model of diversity as peace.
Bedrock story
The exiled people of Judah turned to their stories—and found the belief that God would save them as before. Centuries later, Christians did the same.
Questions at the door
One Sunday, I invited people to talk to us pastors about whatever troubled them. So after the service, I had no one to blame but myself.
Culture and the Death of God, by Terry Eagleton
In Terry Eagleton's compelling narrative, three plotlines run concurrently: a parade of ideas from the Enlightenment to the present, a sustained argument about the role of culture, and a burlesque apologetic for Christianity.
Rejects in the center
Perhaps normal people no longer assume that church is part of what it means to be normal. Or perhaps the idea of a normal center was flawed all along.
Walking toward the storm
Jesus went slowly, purposefully into the eye of the storm. Only through the storm would he find what he was looking for.
What Bonhoeffer knew
When the church stops talking about Jesus, it has nothing to say.