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February 9, 2022

Volume 139, Issue #3
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Features

The value of jokes in Jewish-Christian dialogue

Have you heard the one about the priest, the minister, and the rabbi?

by Joel Kaminsky

First Person

How playwright Tetsuro Shigematsu has transformed my homiletics classes

His advice: be yourself, be underprepared, be weird.

by Jason Byassee

We need a word for mothers whose children have died

Karla F. C. Holloway offers one from Sanskrit: vilomah.

by Liz Charlotte Grant

In America, Jesus is Black because he was Jewish

As James Cone argued, the universal is revealed in the particular.

by Brad East

Books

Hope without promise?

Thomas Gaulke constructs a “belief-fluid” theology of hope.

by Clint Schnekloth

Approaching religious pluralism through the Bible’s other brothers

Tyler Mayfield offers a fresh look at Cain, Ishmael, and Esau.

by Sally Dyck

Benedict options learned from actual Benedictines

Patrick Henry’s vision of monasticism is not a fleeing ark, but a marsh teeming with life.

by Peter R. Gathje

Lauren Groff builds a proto-feminist medieval world

But the enchantment of Matrix is ultimately broken by her language.

by Amy Frykholm

Departments

First Words

Cultivating Christ-like compassion

We may feel compassion in our guts, but we learn it by practicing empathic solidarity.

by Peter W. Marty

Faith Matters

We need a more robust theology of holy delight

Christianity is not only about pain and death. It’s about life and joy.

by Debie Thomas

A vibrant Christianity in South India

Despite the government’s desire to eliminate non-Hindu faiths, churches thrive in the nation’s diverse south.

by Philip Jenkins

On Art

From Hemosapien series, by Jordan Eagles

Jordan Eagles isn’t the first modern artist to work with blood. But he stands out for his sustained, scrupulous attention to its possibilities as a medium....

art selection and comment by Aaron Rosen

From the Editors

Our greatest national security threat isn’t covered by the military spending bill

It’s climate change.

News

Reformed Church in America splits

On New Year’s Day, 43 congregations of the Reformed Church in America split from the national denomination, one of the oldest Protestant bodies in the United States, in part over theological differences regarding same-sex marriage and the ordinati...

by Kathryn Post

Episcopal Church webinar marks 20 years of Guantanamo Bay human rights ‘disaster’

Twenty years ago, the first detainees arrived at the United States detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the Bush administration’s war on terror, launched in 2001 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks....

by David Paulsen

MCC sends relief to Cubans in crisis

Over the last two years, pandemic travel restrictions have deprived Cubans of one of their most important sources of income: tourism....

by Jason Dueck

Was Mary Magdalene really from Magdala? Two scholars examine the evidence

The findings were heralded with bold headlines. Archaeologists excavating near the Israeli town of Migdal, also known as Magdala, had found remnants of a first-century synagogue....

by Yonat Shimron

Indigenous Mormons struggle to balance pride in the faith with LDS history

When Sarah Newcomb was in third grade, she and her classmates got their choice of roles in the Thanksgiving play: a Pilgrim with a buckled hat or a Native American wearing a feathered headband....

by Diana Kruzman

People

Author, Peace activist Jim Forest dies at 80

Orthodox author and peace activist Jim Forest died January 13 at the age of 80....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

UMC's first Asian American bishop, Wilbur Choy, dies at 103

Wilbur Wong Yan Choy, the first Asian American to be elected as a United Methodist bishop in the United States, died December 28, 2021. He was 103....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

Hyacinth Stevens to lead MCC East Coast

Hyacinth Stevens has been named the executive director of Mennonite Cen­tral Committee’s East Coast office. Stevens will replace Bruce Campbell-Janz, who is stepping down after ten years in the role....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

People

Candice Marie Benbow hired by TheGrio

Theologian and essayist Candice Marie Benbow has been hired as the daily lifestyle, education, and health writer at TheGrio, MSNBC’s website for Black news and entertainment....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

Lectionary

February 27, Transfiguration B (Luke 9:28-36 [37-43a])

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus—like Moses and Elijah—is a figure of departure.

by Liz Goodman

February 20, Epiphany 7 (Luke 6:27-38)

It’s a terrible fact that we have so many opportunities to love our enemies.

by Liz Goodman

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