Features
Spring books: Reviews
Our spring books issue's reviews include Stanley Hauerwas on David Gushee, Shirley Hershey Showalter on Sonia Sotomayor, Ralph Wood on Rowan Williams and more.
Holy digital: The Bible on iPad
I switched to a digital Bible for ease and versatility. But I gave something up: a sense of the sweeping history of God's engagement with God's people.
Take & read: Spring books
Our spring books issue includes the following annotated lists of new titles: Old Testament, theology and ethics.
Chaste romance: The lure of Amish fiction
Might Christian nostalgia—wrapped in a cape dress and sealed with a kiss—have an interest in the future as well as the past?
Human and holy: Texts for preaching
At this point in my preaching journey, I find myself drawing on or being informed by the writings of theologian Howard Thurman, novelist Toni Morrison and poet Langston Hughes, as well as the musical literature known as the spirituals.
Texts for preaching: Spring books
What reading do ministers rely on for inspiration or help in preaching—apart from commentaries or other materials directly related to the task?
A book’s life: One reader to another
When you buy a used book, it's like joining a conversation in progress—a conversation that may outlast you.
Books
Sarah Osborn’s World, by Catherine A. Brekus
Catherine Brekus introduces us to a disturbing, heartbreaking and improbably inspiring life....
Carry On, Warrior and The Girl Got Up
Shortly after Glennon Melton was plucked from obscurity thanks to a series of enormously viral blog posts, Scribner beat out nine other major publishers in the bidding for her first book, Carry...
The Lion’s World, by Rowan Williams
Who would have thought that a new book on C. S. Lewis could bring fresh, even revolutionary insight to perhaps the most overstudied Christian writer in the anglophone world?...
God’s Hotel, by Victoria Sweet
Laguna Honda sounds like a car, but it’s a hospital. It’s an almshouse in San Francisco, a place of refuge for several thousand people....
My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor
Celebrity memoirs often appeal to readers’ basest motives. They hope to discover some secret formula for success. Or they want to know whether the author took revenge on enemies or intimates....
The Fall of the House of Dixie, by Bruce Levine
Bruce Levine begins this compelling book with a prologue recounting Edgar Allan Poe’s famous story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” setting up an elaborate metaphor for the demise of antebellum so...
The Myth of Persecution, by Candida Moss
Candida Moss unravels a common misperception: that Christianity faced murderous government-sanctioned persecution for its first three centuries, a period in which “the blood of the martyrs” supplie...
The Sacredness of Human Life, by David P. Gushee
David Gushee’s attempt to define and defend the concept of the sacredness of life is a welcome reminder of why it is so important that we not take for granted the protections that surround our live...
Should We Live Forever? by Gilbert Meilaender
By book 10 of his Confessions, Augustine has completed the narration of his long, often tortuous spiritual journey from paganism to Christianity....
Going Clear, by Lawrence Wright
I’m sure it’s only a coincidence, but nearly every time I’ve shoehorned a brief lecture on Scientology into my survey of religion in North America course—brief because I’m not at all sure it merits...
Theology
Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine, by Khaled Anatolios....
Human and holy: Texts for preaching
At this point in my preaching journey, I find myself drawing on or being informed by the writings of theologian Howard Thurman, novelist Toni Morrison and poet Langston Hughes, as well as the musical literature known as the spirituals.
Seasoned with poetry: Texts for preaching
One night recently I was reading to my children a book about songbirds. There we discovered one of the most beautiful things in the world: a brood patch.
Preaching the news: Texts for preaching
In addition to the biblical text, the most important material for me tends to come from our context and from what I discern in the lives, community and world around us.
Old Testament
The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins, by Peter Enns....
Conversations that inspire: Texts for preaching
Life is a sermon. Whenever I grab my pen and legal pad, I view myself as a chronicler of the beauty, tragedy, humor, anxiety and ultimate hope that characterize the Christian life. There is a wide range of regular sources for inspiration and example.
Ethics
A Faith Not Worth Fighting For: Addressing Commonly Asked Questions about Christian Nonviolence, edited by Tripp York and Justin Bronson Barringer....
Books that linger: Texts for preaching
For the first year or two of my preaching life, I lived in a constant state of low-grade panic. Those Sunday morning deadlines were inflexible and unrelenting.
Light reading in the pulpit: Texts for preaching
I read theology to understand myself and be reminded that I cannot ever hope to understand God. I get my deep meaning from reading dead Germans. Most everything else is entertainment. But it all affects my preaching.
Astonished again: Texts for preaching
Putting together words that can break through the sea—sometimes the cesspool—of words in which we live seems a Sisyphean task. I look for help wherever I can get it, so I read.
Wise women: Texts for preaching
When I’m working on a sermon, I like to have wise women nearby. My favorite is the poet Nikki Giovanni, who tells it like it is.
Departments
He Was Received Up Into Heaven, by Hanna Varghese
Hanna Varghese is a Malaysian artist who often works in batik, as she does with this image of the ascension....
Back to centered
When I cling to anxieties or resentments, my whole body is like a clenched fist. Contemplative prayer requires unclenching it.
The art of power
Both Thomas Jefferson and Lyndon Johnson were vastly talented and deeply flawed. And both understood power.
Mad desires
How can we imagine a world that counters the one that the Don Drapers helped create?
The rest of the story
Everyone knew the family's problems, but there was never a word of judgment or even pity. The congregation was just being the church.
Faith-based partnerships
Obama's OFNBP has kept a low profile. It's also sidestepped the thorniest issue around partnerships between faith-based groups and government.
News
Feeling forgiven helps us forgive others, study says
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Many religious people count on God’s forgiveness, but find it difficult to put aside feelings of bitterness and resentment to pardon others....
Backers of gay marriage look for small victory
Jeff Zarrillo brought his case for gay marriage to the Supreme Court in late March because, he said, “the court is supposed to step in and protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.” Edith Windsor brought her case for same-sex spousal ...
Church must act decisively on sexual abuse, says pope
Pope Francis has called for strong, specific worldwide measures for the Roman Catholic Church to act “with determination” against the clergy sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the church for more than a decade....
Obama recalls Holy Land at prayer breakfast
As he gathered with clergy at the White House on a Friday in early April, President Obama recounted personal details of his recent Holy Land trip, calling it a chance to experience “the eternal spirit of Easter” and feel closer to Jesus....
Liberty expands rules on concealed-gun permits
Trustees of Liberty University have changed the Christian school’s weapons policy to allow students, staff and visitors with concealed-carry permits to bring weapons into all campus facilities except for dormitories....
Tutu’s work on forgiveness wins prize
Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his battle against apartheid, has won the 2013 Templeton Prize, which is billed as the most signif...
Pope says women in church have a ‘fundamental’ role
Pope Francis recently said women play a “fundamental role” in the Catholic Church as those who are mostly responsible for passing on the faith from one generation to the next....
Lectionary
Ascension of the Lord, May 9, 2013: Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53
What is it those angels invite us to see on the earth from the Mount of Olives?