Features
Can we be friends? Pastor-parish relationships: Pastor-parish relationships
Now concerning the love of brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another . . .
1 Thessalonians 4:9
Broken and shared: Worship: Act four
Let’s talk about sex: Challenging the hook-up ethos
Like any Catholic college, mine boasts an ethic of sexual abstinence for students, does not allow any form of birth control to be distributed on campus, and has same-sex residence halls that post visiting hours for members of the opposite sex. Yet most students will tell you, if asked in the right setting, that there is a gap between the ideal and the reality when it comes to sex.
End of days: NBC's 'Revelations'
Theology geeks with whom I’ve discussed the NBC miniseries Revelations are usually indignant that it does not engage in a scholarly, historically aware study of the book of Revelation.
Crusades revisited: 'Kingdom of Heaven'
Thousands of medieval Christians answer the spiritual call of the pope, take up arms, and travel to the Holy Land to defend the faith against a barbaric and militaristic Muslim foe. The war is bloody, and over time Jerusalem is won, then lost again—but the spread of Islam into Christendom is halted.
We all know the story of the Crusades. Or do we?
Sound alternatives
Space opera finale
In creating Revenge of the Sith, the third (chronologically) and final (cinematically) installment in the six-film Star Wars saga, George Lucas confronted a writing challenge unprecedented in movie history. Not only was he required to answer the questions and resolve the problems raised in The Phantom Menace (1999) and Attack of the Clones (2002), but he had to conclude the film in such a way that it could lead seamlessly into the first episode of the original trilogy—a film that was released 28 years ago.
Books
Setting it right
When Paul speaks of God “justifying” the “ungodly” Abraham when he believed God, Paul does not mean that Abraham was morally “wicked.”
Unnatural virtue
Telling your own story
Catching Light
The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited
Departments
Fear not: An alternative to the politics of fear
Double vision: Missing in the Newsweek fuss: historical perspective
The gift of infertility: From despair to celebration
Open season: Surviving church conferences
Holy contention: The freedom to raise questions
News
Bush cites scripture to Calvin College grads: "Love your neighbor as yourself"
Advocacy group ends long Disney boycott: Cause lost on "crowded cultural battlefield"
People
Century Marks
A “faith-based economy,” argues Frederick H. Borsch, is based not so much on a “preferential option for the poor” as on a concern for the well-being of a community in which no one is left behind or left out or deprived of dignity. This is a goal that can never be achieved, yet should not be surrendered. says Borsch (Anglican Theological Review, Winter).
Bush won’t budge on stem cells: Hard line could backfire
Anglicans, Catholics find common ground on Mary: Role model and Christ's foremost disciple
Roman Catholic and Anglican leaders have announced newfound agreement on the Virgin Mary, seeing her as a role model and “Christ’s foremost disciple.”
French philosopher Paul Ricoeur dies at 92: Studied how people overcome doubts by drawing on spiritual heritage
Ricoeur, 92, an influential thinker on both sides of the Atlantic, died May 20 at home in Chatenay-Malabry near Paris after a months-long illness.
Hundreds of Christian leaders see new unity: Conference on World Mission and Evangelism
The May 9-16 Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, held outside of Athens, was the 12th such meeting since 1910—when the modern ecumenical movement began in Edinburgh.