1 Thessalonians

Stephen Fowl’s fresh approach to the study of idolatry

Like John the Baptist, progressive Christians tend to define ourselves in the negative.

How is thankfulness engendered? By giving thanks in all circumstances.

We seem to always want something—anything—to happen. This has implications for the life of prayer.

In my Century lectionary column for this week, I wrote about Zephaniah 1 and 1 Thessalonians 5, with their shared theme of the “day of the Lord.” Zephaniah’s account is particularly fearsome, and it serves as important background for the medieval liturgical text “Dies Irae.”

I chose to focus on these passages because they are hard to hear. Initially they seem so alien, and yet on second reflection, their scenes of destruction are so terribly familiar.

Are our days of destruction the "day of the Lord"?

Multitasking is marked by a sustained sense of urgency in a world mediated by communication devices. Puttering is something different.

Let us imagine that humility was God’s gift to Paul at his conversion.

Some 50 years ago, Merton warned us about what can happen when “all words have become alike.”

Paul can be downright annoying.

The realization that one has enemies, personal or professional, can make one adopt a guarded and self-limiting stance toward life. Yet in Psalm 25, where someone is wrestling with this kind of situation, we see the psalmist reaching out to the one he can trust as not treacherous, to whom he can relate, secure in the knowledge that in God he has a source of steadfast love.