Features
On Laurel Street
A hundred times I warned my kids about that stretch of road. A dozen times I inquired about streetlights, or reflectors, or anything in that tunnel.
Aftershock: A church on the front lines in Ferguson
At our church in Ferguson, people are no longer afraid to bring up the pain of last year. But anxiety over the deeper issues remains.
Online fellowship: The ethical world of multiplayer gaming
"Anyone for Assault on the Ringwraith's Lair?" types Kam. The fellowship he forms may include old or young, male or female, Jew or Greek.
Resources for Christian formation & video games
Resources for Christian formation & video games
Websites and Online Resources
Christians gamers reflecting on gaming:
Congregational conversations
A recent Templeton Foundation program sought to cultivate local conversation on science and faith. We asked some pastors to describe their experience.
Resources on religion & science
Read the main article on scientists and the local church.
Websites
BioLogos
An evangelical site with “an evolutionary understanding of creation.”
The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
An interdisciplinary resource site based in Cambridge, England.
Scientists welcome: A challenge for congregations
The geophysicist's talk had none of the triumphalism of efforts to prove God exists. It was the testimony of experience—and it was unequivocal doxology.
Boycotting the boycott: The problem with the BDS movement
The BDS movement posits that a just future for the Palestinians lies first of all in disengagement from and resistance to Israel. But does it?
Books
The Fall of the Ottomans, by Eugene Rogan
Eugene Rogan tells a fascinating story about a part of the Great War that many know little about: the conflict between Allied and Central Powers in the Middle East....
Deadly illusion
Philosopher Firmin DaBrabander has written a judicious exposition of the crisis of guns in our society. He pays particular attention to the ideology, claims, and consequences of the NRA.
Latest Readings, by Clive James
When literary critic and poet Clive James discovered in 2010 that he had terminal cancer, he decided that “if you don’t know the exact moment when the lights will go out, you might as well read unt...
The Greatest Empire, by Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson offers a carefully balanced narrative of Seneca's life that is derived, as it must be, from partial and often contradictory sources.
Splitting an Order, by Ted Kooser
Simple, measured, and settled, the poems in Ted Kooser's new collection were composed by an artist with nothing further to prove.
Departments
The militant Buddhists
Western media treat Asian faiths quite generously in matters of religious conflict. Yet Christians on the ground in Asia face serious issues.
Seven Propositions on Nationalism and Their Corollaries, by Jerry Bleem
When a nephew was sent to Iraq with his army unit, Jerry Bleem, a Franciscan friar who teaches in the department of fiber and material studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, joined the rest of his family in praying for his safety...
Trafficking in ideas
Anthony C. Yu died this spring. I am still discovering the profound influence this teacher had on me.
Feelings and faith
As I watched Inside Out, I found myself thinking about Augustine's assertion that we are what we love and what we hate.
Religion and politics do mix
Our beliefs inform how we live, how we order our priorities, how we spend our time and money, and how we vote. The recent papal encyclical takes this as given.
Talk about the end
Most Americans say they want to discuss end-of-life treatment with their doctors. Yet few seriously ill patients ever actually do.
News
A year after Ebola crisis, new cases
A year after the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a global emergency last August 8, cases are beginning to appear again....
Israel divestment resolution rejected by Episcopal body, tabled by Mennonites
While the United Church of Christ passed a resolution for divestment from companies working in Israel’s occupied territory at its General Synod in June, a similar measure failed at the Episcopal Church convention....
Nicole Garcia on her way to being ELCA's first transgender clergy person of color: People
A self-professed church nerd, Nicole Garcia says she was “a good Catholic boy” in her teens....
James M. Dunn, religious liberty advocate, dies at 83: People
James M. Dunn, who led the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty for nearly two decades, died of a heart attack July 4 at age 83. He was known for his stalwart defense of religious liberty, colorful turns of phrase, and bow ties....
Sarah Mullally fourth woman bishop in the Church of England: People
Sarah Mullally was appointed suffragan bishop of Crediton in the Diocese of Exeter, which makes her the fourth woman to be named a bishop in the Church of England....
Adventists vote against women's ordination
Seventh-day Adventists voted 1,381 to 977 at their 60th General Conference Session in San Antonio not to allow their regional church bodies to ordain women pastors....
Episcopal Church adopts same-sex liturgy, causing 'distress' for some Anglicans
The 2-million-member Episcopal Church voted overwhelmingly on July 1 to let gay and lesbian couples marry in the church’s religious ceremonies, reinforcing its support for same-sex nuptials days after the U.S....
Bath from biblical times discovered during home renovation
An Israeli family experienced the surprise of a lifetime when, during a home renovation, workers discovered a 2,000-year-old Jewish ritual bath, called a mikvah....
Black churches debate forms of protection after fires, deaths
The leader of the National Baptist Convention, USA, says churches should “do everything that is humanly possible” to protect themselves—even if it means hiring armed guards....
Lectionary
August 16, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
If Solomon were an older and more experienced ruler when God appears to him in his dream, I wonder if he would ask for wisdom.
August 9, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Ephesians 4:25-5:2
We are to work honestly, work with our hands, and work so that we can share with those in need.