Features
Crusader: Bush's religious passions
Are George W. Bush’s religious convictions his own business and no one else’s? Or do they have very public consequences? We can begin to probe the question by considering the religious context of his entry into national politics.
Scriptural schemes: The ABCBAs of biblical writing
“But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (Mark 10:31). “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matt. 20:16).“Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30).
These aphorisms of Jesus might be said to describe a common—and clever—biblical style of writing. Just how extensively chiasmus occurs in the Bible is debated in scholarly circles. But that it is used can hardly be doubted.
Burden of choice
Barry Schwartz’s book became a page-turner for me when he began discussing a survey of preferences in medical care. The majority of nonpatients said they would want to be in charge of their treatment if they were to get cancer, he reported. But most of those who actually had cancer wanted their doctors to take over.
The heat is on
Since bursting onto the national scene in 1989 with his celebrated documentary Roger & Me, Michael Moore has gone from being that goofy overweight filmmaker in tennis shoes and a baseball cap to being the resolute voice of the common American. His battles with the powers-that-be have cast him as a modern-day Frank Capra. His biting attack style is reminiscent of satirists like Swift, Twain and Mencken.
Books
God's Last Words: Reading the English Bible from the Reformation to Fundamentalism
One of the comical moments in the early history of printing occurred in 1631, when the English ...
The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the Suffering World
If Douglas John Hall is right, the gospel has been almost eclipsed by Christian triumphalism....
Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in an Age of Evolution
Here is the mature thought of one of the academy’s most eloquent and learned scholars of religion and science...
Pilgrims in the Kingdom: Travels in Christian Britain
From Columba at Iona to Evelyn Underhill at Pleshey, British men and women of past generations yearned to know God and follo...
Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Ages
About 15 years ago a proposal to eliminate the Th.D....
What kind of pacifist?
Stanley Hauerwas and I first met at a conference at Bethel College in Kansas in the early 1980s....
American idol
For Stephen Prothero and Richard...
When Science and Christianity Meet
Christian faith has generally had an uneasy and sometimes extremely contentious relationship with modern science, a relationship that this book...
Real Kids, Real Faith: Practices for Nurturing Children's Spiritual Lives
I wish this book had been around 20 years ago....
Departments
Heavy hearts: Truth-telling prophet, caring pastor
Pastors often experience an uncomfortable tension between trying to be both a truth-telling prophet and a caring pastor....
Getting religion: Where Democrats have failed
The Democrats have a religion problem, and it is not just that presidential candidate John Kerry has run afoul of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church because of his support of abortion rights and gay civil unions....
Passed on: Vocation and the family business
The photo of the new priest among his people is an old one. “First Solemn High Mass,” it reads in white handprint in the top right corner, “of Rev. Thomas P. Lynch,” and on the next line, “St....
Bald facts: A new hair color
Montana is to be envied for its great Great Plains, its purple mountain majesties, and its celebration of color. The state motto is colorfully Oro y Plata, gold and silver. Its flower is the bitterroot, a delicious pink and white bloom....
News
Century Marks
Bad table manners: When Samuel Wells was the vicar of a small Anglican church in a marginal neighborhood, a gang of surly adolescents burst into the church one Sunday as the Eucharist was being celebrated....
SBC warned on veering further right: A risk of Pharisaism
Southern Baptists broke ties with their global brethren in the Baptist World Alliance, marshaled support for a familiar list of social issues, and voted to keep the Southern Baptist Convention name, despite suggestions that it hinders their image ...
Southern Baptist voices . . . On the 25th anniversary of the conservative resurgence: On the 25th anniversary of the conservative resurgence
On the 25-year anniversary of the fundamentalist-led campaign for the "conservative resurgence called a "takeover"...
Evangelical document tries to present more nuanced social position: A landmark statement
In a self-defining paper for the broad spectrum of U.S. evangelicals, a landmark document nearing completion warns against close alignment with one political party and endorses government-aided social policies that are fair and just for all....
Former theology dean Walter Muelder dies: Dedicated to global ecumenism and racial equality
Walter G. Muelder, dean of the Boston University School of Theology from 1945 to 1972, died of a heart attack on June 12 at age 97....
Reformed Church calls Christian Zionism 'distortion' of scripture: An obstacle to Middle East peace
A popular reading of scripture embraced by evangelical giants Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and played out in the top-selling Left Behind books, was declared a “distortion of the biblical message” by leaders of the Reformed Church in America....
Vermont Episcopalians unveil ceremonies for same-sex unions: "Consistency in teaching, in language"
Episcopalians in Vermont, in a “pastoral response” to the nation’s first and only civil unions law, have unveiled liturgical rites that gay couples can use in the state’s 48 Episcopal churches....
Grieving parents cite dangers with popular church vans: Van Angels retrofitting 15-passenger vehicles
Mark Smith often contemplates what his daughter, Malori, would be doing now if she hadn’t been killed on a church mission trip to Mexico two years ago, six weeks after her high school graduation....
Sudan faith forum urges final peace: "The momentum must be continued"
Delegates of the Sudan Ecumenical Forum (SEF) from Africa, Europe and North America have hailed recent peace protocols signed between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the government of Sudan, but they would like to see a final agreement ...
Briefly noted
U.S.-based Muslim organizations have decried the beheadings in June of two foreign workers by extremists in the Middle East....
People
Peter W. Marty, 45, senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa, in February will become the host of Lutheran Vespers, the radio ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America....
Lectionary
On God's Case: Luke 11:1-13
While making nursing home and hospital calls one day, I visited several people who were on oxygen. A slim green hose ran from a machine to each person’s nostrils, piping in pure air to make his or her breathing easier. In each instance we prayed the Lord’s Prayer together in preparation for Holy Communion, our hands joined and our voices speaking together. I was struck by the strength with which each of these people prayed. Their bodies were weakened in many ways, yet the prayer flowed vigorously from their lips, as if the prayer as well as the oxygen was helping them breathe.
Living with Martha: Luke 10:38-42
A friend of mine recalls that her mother always sat sideways in her chair during meals. Whether the table was surrounded by family members or invited guests, she was poised for action. She’d jump up if she’d forgotten something in the kitchen, if someone wanted steak sauce rather than the ketchup that was on the table, or if it was time to pass the serving dishes around again. This mom seldom relaxed enough to enjoy the food and conversation.