John Dart
Listening to Mark's Gospel
Unlike my Century colleagues, I am not an avid book reader; I have no new history, novel or memoir to commend for our summer reading list<...
Liberal theologian, mentor Gordon Kaufman dies at 86
A member of the Harvard Divinity School faculty for more than three decades, Gordon Kaufman, who died July 22 at 86, had a profound influence on rethinking theology in naturalistic terms, arguing f...
Will civil disobedience get attention?
As
political leaders fight about the federal budget and the debt ceiling, some
religious leaders are certain that the poor are in peril from funding cuts.
...
Rupert Murdoch, papal knight
As British authorities look into the cellphone
hacking scandal surrounding the global media empire of Rupert Murdoch,
...
Transparency in ministry finances
Critics of Robert H. Schuller say that his glassy Crystal Cathedral, now in bankruptcy, was more transparent than the fiscal accounting and health of a ministry long dependent on television fame....
New support for RNS
When newspaper circulation in the U.S. peaked in the 1970s
and '80s, large news outlets could afford to have specialists covering such
...
Religion news gets boost from Lilly, writers group
In a complex transaction designed to strengthen nonpartisan religion reporting, the newly nonprofit Religion News Service received a grant of almost $3.5 million from the Lilly Endowment and was ac...
Presbyterians do turnaround on gay clergy
Few experts in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were predicting that 2011 would see the denomination dropping its three-decade opposition to ordaining gay and lesbian clergy....
Seminary enrollments showing upturn
Total enrollment is up for the first time in four years at seminaries of the Association of Theological Schools—thanks to the addition of 11 new schools to the roster of North America's accre...
The Easter gospel lesson's structure
"They have taken my Lord away," says a tearful Mary Magdalene, "and I do not know where they have laid him." Mary utters some version of this lament three times in the Easter Sunday reading from Jo...
Adventist growth boosted by immigrants
When the 2011 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches was published in February, the Seventh-day Adventist Church drew special notice for its reported 4.3 percent jump ...
Scholars and believers: Growing pains at the SBL
As the Society of Biblical Literature has grown in membership, tensions have simmered over the degree to which religious apologetics fits into an organization devoted to critical research.
Gay cause leads in PCUSA voting
More than halfway through the balloting by regional presbyteries, a proposal to permit ordination of openly gay and lesbian pastors in the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination holds a lead....
UCC, which urged lifting ban on gays in military in 1993, sees vindication
The United Church of Christ, with its traditionally liberal leadership, has often passed resolutions at national gatherings that seemed "ahead of their time." Such was the case when the UCC's bienn...
Geneva-based ENInews suspends operation
Faced with a 50 percent cut in funding in 2011 from the World Council of Churches, the Geneva-based ENInews suspended its five-days-a-week news service on December 21.
...Surveys support openly gay in the military
The long-awaited Pentagon survey of military personnel found that the majority sees little negative impact if and when gays are allowed to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces.
...Obama hears concerns of NCC leaders
The day before elections some 20 Christian leaders met and prayed
with President Obama at the White House and discussed a host of
...
Mormon paper irks readers on migrant stance
The Mormon-owned Deseret News has been taking a relatively liberal stance toward undocumented Latino immigrants whose cause is supported heavily by citizens of Hispanic origin.
...Conflicted views on Islam
The political-moral spin from online bloggers and television opinion-makers is enough to make citizens dizzy, if not profoundly unsure of where U.S. public opinion is headed....