Features
Letting suffering in: How a colleague's death changed my teaching
I knew Jannie Swart's witness would have a lasting impact on our seminary. I didn't anticipate how it would challenge me in the classroom.
A seminary’s calculated risk: CBTS president Molly T. Marshall
"We had to be willing to do a clear-eyed assessment of our financial situation—and to risk our old identity for the sake of a renewed mission."
Why leaders are a pain: Truth telling in the parish
There's a subtext to lots of sermons I hear, and some I preach: Discomfort is avoidable. Here's my formula. It's the promise of all bogus religion.
Should Episcopalians repent? American liberals in a global communion
The Episcopal Church was and is right to affirm same-sex marriage. Now we should be willing to face the costs.
Books
Emmett Till in Different States: Poems, by Philip C. Kolin
Americans are still processing the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, the Chicago boy who was lynched while visiting relatives in Mississippi....
Immanuel is the agenda
What humankind needs is a love that sticks around, a love that stays put, a love that hangs on. That’s what the cross is.
The myth of a religion/science conflict
Are science and religion enemies or friends? Neither, says Peter Harrison—but they're both forms of virtue.
The black social gospel
In American history, some lives have mattered; others have not. That difference fundamentally has been a racial one.
Cultivating character
Cultivating character is the lifelong work of evaluating and choosing between various virtues. It's difficult, and it’s our calling.
Dying faithfully
Whether we're dying or living with grief, there are faithful ways to do so. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre points us in the right direction.
Departments
Doctor Johnson’s failures
Every New Year's, every Easter, every anniversary of his wife's death, Samuel Johnson took stock and prayed for the grace to try again.
Feeding of Judas, by P. Solomon Raj
Lutheran pastor P. Solomon Raj works with linocuts, woodblock prints, and batik to convey a Christianity that speaks amid the diversity of Indian culture. In Feeding of Judas, Raj, director of St....
Florence Li, much beloved
In 1944, an Anglican bishop consecrated a Chinese woman to the priesthood—30 years before women attained that rank in the Episcopal Church.
Complicit all around
One might expect Spotlight to be fascinating because of the victims' stories. But it's the focus on clerical and legal institutions that grabs the viewer.
The pay gap at church
When it comes to equal pay for women, the church should do better than employers generally, not worse.
News
Eugene Borowitz, Reform Jewish leader, dies at 91
Eugene B. Borowitz, a leader and theologian in Reform Judaism, died January 22 at age 91....
Howard Divinity School returns sacred manuscript to Ethiopian monastery
A delegation from Howard University Divinity School has returned an ancient manuscript to an Ethiopian monastery after scholars discovered its place of origin....
Salah Farah, Muslim Kenyan who shielded Christians in attack, dies
Salah Farah, a Muslim schoolteacher who shielded Christian fellow passengers when their bus was attacked by militants in northern Kenya, died January 18....
Church groups respond to water emergency in Flint, Michigan
The Michigan bodies of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) launched The Gospel in Action––Flint in January as President Obama declared a state of emergency in the city over its poisoned water....
Anglican leaders censure Episcopal Church
The Anglican Communion’s worldwide leaders, finishing up four days of heated discussions in mid-January, sought to project a sense of unity despite a move to exclude the Episcopal Church from key policy decisions as a result of the American provin...
Two Lutheran seminaries to close, reopen as one
Two Lutheran seminaries in Pennsylvania are planning to close and launch together a new school of theology in 2017 with hopes of slashing costs and reversing years of declining enrollments....
Catholics, Lutherans plan liturgy for jointly marking Reformation anniversary
Catholics and Lutherans have made another step toward joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 by issuing common liturgical guidelines for ecumenical services to mark the occasion....
Kenyan clergy protest new government rules
Christian and Muslim leaders are protesting a government plan to regulate religious groups, saying it tramples on religious freedom....
Belgian archbishop says Catholic hospitals can deny euthanasia
The new head of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium is demanding that faith-run hospitals and nursing homes have the right to refuse euthanasia to patients....
Helen Berhane, Eritrean gospel singer and torture survivor, tells story
Gospel singer Helen Berhane found new life in Europe after fleeing Eritrea, where she was locked in a shipping container and tortured for her faith....
Lectionary
March 6, Fourth Sunday in Lent: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
It has become almost a cliché for preachers to focus on the older brother of the Prodigal Son. Too often, not even our churches let us be the fallen brother who desperately wants to come home.
Third Sunday in Lent: Isaiah 55:1-9; Luke 13:1-9
We don’t talk about idolatry much anymore, despite the caution against it in everything from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament epistles. This is ironic, because idolatry flourishes in our culture.