Features
Top-down reform: Colleen McDannell on Vatican II
"Parish priests had a lot of control over the speed at which things changed. Interestingly enough, the parishioners had no say over it."
A response to "Unwanted Publicity" Case by case: Case by case
Thomas thinks he should have been more suspicious of Lee and that his sermons should have had more of an effect on him. But these are not the immediate issues at hand.
Unwanted publicity: Case by case
Around 3:30, an SUV bearing the local TV station's logo pulled up. Thomas wondered how they knew about the service project.
Classroom Christianity: How theology is flourishing in China
China's leaders still speak implicitly against religions with strong foreign ties. Meanwhile, Christian theology thrives in China.
Uneasy in Cairo: Egypt’s new constitution
Some insist that the Christian-Muslim alliance evident during the overthrow of Mubarak remains strong. Yet Egypt is divided in many ways.
Books
China’s homegrown Protestants
According to Lian Xi, radical Protestantism flourished in 20th-century China partly by distancing itself from the Western missionary establishment.
Pity the Beautiful, by Dana Gioia
Poet and critic Dana Gioia, former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, signals his ambitious artistic tendencies and his firm spiritual commitments from the first poem of this new collect...
Islam: A Very Short Introduction, by Malise Ruthven
In this thorough revision of an earlier volume, Ruthven offers a quick overview of Islam and its adherents....
Unfolding the map
Robert Wilken's historical survey of Christianity is impressive, accessible and lively. It also leaves out a lot.
Clearly Invisible, by Marcia Alesan Dawkins
In Clearly Invisible, Marcia Alesan Dawkins explores passing—presenting oneself as a member of a racial group to which one does not belong. Dawkins argues that passing is a rhetorical act that “forces us to think and rethink what, exactly, makes a person black, white or ‘other,’ and why we care.”
Departments
Friendship, by Rod Sawatsky
Rod Sawatsky uses calligraphy to illuminate a faith story. The artist’s eight-year-old daughter Tallie makes Saturday trips with her grandfather to downtown Portland, Oregon, where they feed and talk to people who are homeless....
Vengeance is mine
Django Unchained is an irreverent, profound and problematic exploration of America's original sin—and the power of a revenge fantasy.
Praying for the Mideast
There's a broad consensus that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians depends on a two-state solution. So why doesn't it happen?
Homeland insecurity
The TV series Homeland raises some grave real-world questions.
Of guns and neighbors
In the Bible, social issues are always framed primarily as questions of obligation, not individual rights.
Celluloid scripture?
The anxiety over Zero Dark Thirty reveals what happens when we cede the task of constructing our social narrative to the entertainment industry.
News
Lutheran ‘comfort dogs’ welcome students back to Newtown school
As the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, returned to class in January for the first time since December’s deadly shooting spree, they and their parents were greeted by police escorts, support counselors, teachers—an...
A rapid transition at Luther Seminary
Late last year Luther Seminary in St....
Iowa Baptist church is open to gay weddings
An American Baptist church in Iowa City has announced that it will perform same-sex weddings, presumably the state’s first Baptist congregation to do so since Iowa’s Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2009....
Baptism: How young is too young?
Something just clicked for Charity Roberson, and she knew it was time for her to be baptized. Roberson, now the pastor at Sharon Baptist Church in Smithfield, North Carolina, was nine at the time....
Belated pardon for the Wilmington Ten
After 40 years of protests, the Wilmington Ten, a group of nine black men and a white women, were pardoned (four posthumously) as innocent in a civil rights–era case of firebombing a grocery store in Wilmington, North Carolina....
Fewer Americans view homosexuality as a sin
Americans’ acceptance of gays and lesbians is continuing to grow, with a new poll showing that just over a third of Americans view homosexuality as a sin, down from 44 percent a year earlier....
After Sandy, congregations seek federal aid
The interior of the West End Temple in New York City’s Rockaway Beach neighborhood in Queens looks like a construction zone—walls and floors gutted down to the wooden studs, bathroom fixtures gone, warped pews piled in the banquet hall....
Journal holds 'Jesus' wife' item for more relic testing
The Harvard Theological Review is postponing publication of an article on the papyrus fragment in which Jesus seems to refer to his wife, raising further doubts about a discovery that sparked immediate curiosity when it was announced last...
Catholic Church targeted via White House's online petition process
The White House’s novel online system for allowing citizens to petition the administration on any number of causes has led to such efforts as these: petitions to secede from the U.S.; a petition for Vice President Joe Biden to star in a reality sh...
Gallup chief sees signs of religious revival
Despite a deep drop in the number of Americans who identify with a particular faith, the country could be on the cusp of a religious renaissance, says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll....
Marathon ministry trains runners to put 'one foot in front of the other'
In a few weeks Mark Simpson will lace up his sneakers, set out some five-gallon water coolers and start waiting for a miracle....
Lectionary
Sunday, February 17, 2013 (Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13)
Where Moses reassured his listeners with the word when, the devil tempts Jesus with the word if.
Ash Wednesday: Isaiah 58:1-12; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Isaiah gives voice to God. God is amazed at our epistemic closure.