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November 17, 2021

Volume 138, Issue #23

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Features

First Person

The five spiritual senses

Lessons from Maximus the Confessor and my dog

by Amy Frykholm

How My Mind Has Changed

Why I came back around to repentance

First I needed to meet a progressive, gracious God.

by Brittney Cooper

Interviews

Luke Timothy Johnson wants us to read Paul in all his complexity

“What advantage do we gain by possessing a Pauline theology that lies outside and above his writings?”

Nijay K. Gupta interviews Luke Timothy Johnson

First Person

At Tijuana shelter Casa del Migrante, every meal is holy

I take the morning shift to give the longer-term volunteers a few hours of rest.

by Isaac S. Villegas

Critical Essay

Created out of nothing means created out of love

To say creation is ex nihilo is to say that divine love is the only power at work in the creation of everything.

by Norman Wirzba

Books

Our social contract needs to be renewed

Economist Minouche Shafik puts public policy at the heart of her vision.

by Andrew W. Stevens

What would it take for #CurriculumSoWhite to stop trending?

According to Bree Picower, it starts with the teachers—80 percent of whom are White.

by Maggie Vandermeer

A truth-telling child of Southern Methodism

Journalist John Archibald turns the spotlight on himself, his preacher father, and White Christians’ failures.

by William H. Willimon

Sister Agatha roller-skates away from the church

The heroine of Claire Luchette’s novel realizes she became a nun to avoid being herself.

by Jessica Mesman

Departments

Brazil’s explosion of música gospel

As Protestants gain numbers, a sizable world of Christian music in many genres has emerged.

by Philip Jenkins

Faith Matters

Pure justice is an idol

Atop the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, Lady Justice presides over a long history of injustices.

by Samuel Wells

First Words

End-of-life decisions in the ICU

The Christian tradition has something to say about the ethics of extending life.

by Peter W. Marty

On Art

Bowl of Oranges, by Sayde Laine Anderson

“I hope to cultivate space to think about who we are as nurturers of our relationships and of the land,” writes Sayde Laine Anderson on her website (saydelaine.com)....

art selection and comment by Lil Copan

From the Editors

Why do we teach history?

Behind the curriculum debates lurks a deeper question about what it means to form citizens.

News

Retired UMC pastor and bishop’s spouse opens up about gender transition

Because she wants to be a witness to others on a similar journey, minister Mary Johnson is beginning to share the story of her gender transition and her choice to now live fully as the person she feels God created her to be....

by Melissa Lauber

Menlo Church investigation finds no direct evidence of sexual abuse

A third-party investigation at one of Northern California’s most prominent megachurches ended in October with a report that found no evidence the pastor’s adult child had acted on his confessed attraction to minors....

by Bob Smietana

Stolen angels returned to Italian church after three decades

A British art collector who bought a pair of 17th-century marble angels from a Neapolitan antiques shop two decades ago has returned the winged putti to Italy’s art police after learning that they had been stolen from a church....

People

Peace activist nun Megan Rice dies at 91

Megan Rice, a Catholic sister and peace activist who spent two years in federal prison after breaking into a government security complex to protest nuclear weapons, has died. She was 91....