Features
Who pledges how much? Why pastors should know
I believe that my leadership has been most effective when I know who's giving what to the church.
Were you lonely when you were a freshman?
There I am in the bottom bunk of my small room in the old hall, with my roommate snoring above me, the roommate I hardly saw and hardly knew.
Living by the Qur’an: Islam scholar Jonathan Brown
"The Qur'an is like a stream of divine consciousness. The literal meaning of the Qur'an is never the literal meaning of the Qur'an."
The prophet’s candle
As the first Advent candle is lit, world leaders will be making their way to Paris to try to create a climate treaty.
Dance in the dark: Preaching the blues without despair
America is living stormy Monday while the pulpit is preaching happy Sunday. Can we recover a blues sensibility?
Books
Here at Last Is Love: Selected Poems of Dustan Thompson, edited by Gregory Wolfe
Thompson suddenly disappeared from the literary scene in the early 1950s, when he moved to a small town on the east coast of England with his partner, Philip Trower....
Culture and the Death of God, by Terry Eagleton
In Terry Eagleton's compelling narrative, three plotlines run concurrently: a parade of ideas from the Enlightenment to the present, a sustained argument about the role of culture, and a burlesque apologetic for Christianity.
The Paradox of Liberation, by Michael Walzer
Michael Walzer addresses a surprising question: the interplay between social revolutions and reactive counterrevolutions.
Wrestling with Paul
Frances Taylor Gench doesn't ignore difficult texts about women; she wrestles with them. That's because she is committed to the Bible as scripture.
Excavating the Sky, by Konstantin Kulakov
Kulakov’s poems find the holy in the unsettling yoke of disparates: in the Bible and Qur’an lying side by side; in a mango glowing from within an aluminum can; in Harlem, where “flowers of blood na...
Speed Limits, by Mark C. Taylor
Mark Taylor's cultural history of speed starts at the Reformation and examines the interwoven threads of religion, society, politics, art, and economics.
Culture war fatigue?
Some have dismissed the culture wars as a sideshow. Andrew Hartman insists that the issues at stake in cultural politics are real.
Departments
A shower of nouns
My Italian is rusty. When I go to church in Rome and try to follow along, I'm reminded of Woolf's "incessant shower of innumerable atoms."
Parsnips, Carrots, and Beans, by Erin Currier
Traveler, trash collector, and artist Erin Currier seeks out “places the mainstream sightseer pays money to avoid: barrios, ghettos, slums, worker compounds.” In explaining her artistic process, she writes, “I collected post-consumer waste in ever...
Virtue politics
Virtue, says former senator John Danforth, is what's missing from the current political equation—and the church is a place where virtue can be taught and advocated.
Retelling the old, old stories
I just got back from Disney World with my kids. The trip set me thinking about how stories get told and passed on.
Who owns France’s churches?
Why, asks Dalil Boubakeur, should hundreds of empty churches not be converted to mosques? It's an intriguing question.
Smart about guns
President Obama is furious that legislators lack the will to address gun violence. But there are steps he could take without them.
News
Llan Carlos Dávila leads anti-mining efforts in Guatemala diocese
Llan Carlos Dávila, a leader in church-based efforts against chemical mining in southeastern Guatemala, came to the United States for a speaking tour in October....
Vatican summit on family concludes with vague but open document
For three weeks in October, Roman Catholic bishops held their most significant and contested gathering in the past 50 years....
Survey sees impact for religious groups of special events
The Christian conference circuit has special appeal to women.
Jews and Muslims alike have dinners and parties organized around their holiday calendar....
James Fowler, pastoral psychology scholar, dies at age 75
James W. Fowler III, a scholar of practical theology and pastoral psychology, died October 16 in Atlanta, at age 75, from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease....
Iraqi artists lead efforts to preserve musical past damaged by war
(The Christian Science Monitor) In an antique stall near al-Mutanabbi Street, the shop owner wipes the dust off a brittle black disc, winds up a gramophone, and plays the multilayered ...
Heather Cook, former Episcopal bishop, receives prison sentence for DUI death
Heather Cook, 59, former Episcopal bishop suffragan of Maryland, received a seven-year prison sentence on October 27 for charges related to driving while intoxicated and killing a cyclist....
Jewish and Arab neighbors torn apart by violence in East Jerusalem
Just one narrow street divides the Arab village of Jabel Mukaber from the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv in East Jerusalem. But the gulf between the two communities seems impossible to bridge these days....
U.S. Muslims see rise in hate, kernels of hope
(The Christian Science Monitor) For many American Muslims, the past year has been one of the most difficult in recent memory....
Lectionary
December 6, Advent 2C (Luke 3:1-6)
This week’s Gospel proclaims a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins. Aren’t we looking to the arrival of Christ with hopeful anticipation, rather than weighing ourselves down with how screwed up we are?
Advent 1C: Luke 21:25-36
Advent stands at odds with the tranquility our culture hopes for this time of year. The coming of the Son of Man will yank us off the hamster wheel of life.