Jason Byassee
Africentric church: A visit to Chicago's Trinity UCC
One of the bright points in Barack Obama’s rising political star is his ability to talk about Jesus without faking it. But his enemies, including right-wing bloggers and TV pundits, are complaining that Obama’s church—Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago—embraces an Africentrism that is separatist or even racist. Just what is this Africentrism?
Islamic wisdom: What Christians can learn
After focusing early in his life on topics in analytic philosophy and religion, David Burrell, C.S.C., turned to studying comparative issues in Judaism, Christianity and Islam....
The Way That Leads There
There is much to celebrate in this important new book by one of the finest moral theologians writing today...
John Paul and the Jews: 'A blessing to one another'
During John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000, the frail pontiff visited the Western Wall, the remnant of the ancient Jewish Temple....
Ethics of abundance
To reimagine Christian ethics, Samuel Wells draws on the liturgy as his chief resource....
Minority report: Christians in Jordan
On a recent trip to Jordan, no one directing my tour group objected to my meeting with Christian evangelicals. But the evangelicals were nervous.
Letter to a Christian Nation
There is something charmingly quaint about Sam Harris’s new book, Letter to a Christian Nation....
My 'Jesus Camp' Fond memories: Fond memories
What is missing from the camp portrayed in Jesus Camp, or at least from the film account of it, is the fun. In my church camp days, I enticed non-Christian friends to go to my camp by telling them how much fun it would be. My counselors taught me how to canoe, how to fake fart, how to belay up a rope and how to flirt with girls. The counselors were college kids who were “on fire for Jesus,” but they loved me for myself—not as a future foot soldier in the jihad for America. That’s why I accepted their faith. If it was faith in Jesus that made them love me and others and allowed—no, encouraged—an unbridled pursuit of fun, I wanted in and I wanted to tell others about it. I still do.
Room service: Hotel workers demand a fair contract
Many Christians’ image of a labor leader is of a Jimmy Hoffa–like cigar-chomping political boss—a figure as morally suspect as the industry captains labor tangles with....
Sanctuary: Mary, Methodists and immigration
Hispanic Methodists in northern Illinois do not often receive national press coverage. But since one of their number, Elvira Arellano, took refuge from U.S....
I was in prison . . . The church behind bars: The church behind bars
In one of those neglected corners of scripture that must scare those brave enough to think about it, Jesus promises an unpleasant future for those who would not visit him in prison: “Just as you di...
Reading list
Reading the Bible with the Damned. By Bob Eckblad. Westminster John Knox, 2005.
...Emerging model: A visit to Jacob's Well
If yesteryear’s evangelical church was a castle in the exurbs, Jacob's Well is a rehabilitated loft in the city. Evangelical churches attract young people with spaces stripped of Christian symbols and tradition; worshipers at JW like its dark wood, stained glass and high ceilings. Other churches would be thrilled to have 1,000 attenders; JW worries that it will lose the intimacy that nurtures community and friendship. And stewardship? Jacob's Well urges members to give time or money only out of gratitude.
Going Catholic: Six journeys to Rome
Last year six men joined a string of theologians who are leaving their Protestant denominations for the church of Rome. They included three Lutherans, two Anglicans and a Mennonite. All of them had strong connections to mainline institutions. All fit the description “postliberal”—accepting such mainline practices as historical criticism and women’s ordination while wanting the church to exhibit more robust dogmatic commitments. All embraced an evangelical, catholic and orthodox vision of the church. And none of them could see a way to be all those things within mainline denominations.
Retro Savior
There are a priori reasons to dislike Superman Returns. Superman is always a little campy in his tights and red Underoos....
Double take: Christian artifacts in a Jewish museum
In the fourth century, a Spanish monastic named Egeria made an arduous pilgrimage to the Holy Land and left behind a diary that is the chief source of what historians know about early Christianity ...
Pious pulp Da Vinci on screen: Da Vinci on screen
That a mosh pit of reviewers would fall over each other to pan the The Da Vinci Code is puzzling. It’s not a great film, but then it isn’t a great book....
