Features
The crawl space
You were thrilled to enter the crawl space, but also frightened. There was a chance of snakes.
Faith on the edge: Writer Dennis Covington
"Belief is not the 'substance of things hoped for.' Faith is."
Equipped for your needs: My church's magical supply closet
On the seventh floor of Hogwarts, Harry Potter and his friends discover a magical room. My church contains such a room.
Stealing Jesus: A Protestant takes communion at mass
My ecclesiastical criminality has been going on for 45 years. It all started at a Trappist abbey in Virginia.
Seeing whiteness: Exercises in understanding race
I used to lead activities like the "Privilege Walk" and "Cross the Line." I couldn't shake the feeling that they were not taking us very far.
Books
Bipolar Faith, by Monica A. Coleman
Honest and harrowing, this spiritual autobiography testifies to God’s persuasive presence in a life that bears family legacies of slavery, alcoholism, abuse, and mental illness.
Love without coercion
Oord’s kenosis model is a compelling answer to the problem of evil—one that draws on scripture, theology, philosophy, and science.
Ambivalent motherhood
The physical reality of her son, the very tangible way that he is a part of her, will not go away. He is with her everywhere she goes.
The morality of marriage equality
Many Americans have gone from being squeamish about same-sex marriage to being squeamish about telling their gay friends that their relationships are less than valid.
A teenage killer’s brain
You can never fully know your child’s interior life. You cannot know the measure of sadness or rage that may be unfolding within them.
After One-Hundred-and-Twenty, by Hillel Halkin
Part history and part memoir, this volume gently immerses readers in Jewish traditions surrounding death.
Departments
Listening in
When I walk and talk with a friend, we share an intimate experience. Listening to a podcast is similar.
Pastoral sabotage
Those of us who sought to change the congregation's communion practice met with indifference. So late one Saturday I took matters into my own hands.
The missing theologians
There are some very important national conversations taking place these days. Few people seem to be saying anything grounded in theology.
Short-term but vital
Perhaps when we plant congregations, we should plan on starting two: one that lasts and one that doesn't.
Vanitas, by Pieter Claesz (c. 1597–1660)
The vanitas tradition in 17th-century Dutch still-life painting draws inspiration from the Vulgate version of Ecclesiastes 1:2: “Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas” [“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”]....
Unprohibited speech
Trump complains that tax-exempt rules require religious nonprofits to be silent on politics. He’s wrong.
News
Stephen Butler Murray becomes ICCC executive minister
Stephen Butler Murray became the executive minister of the International Council of Community Churches, an association of Protestant congregations that is one of the smallest denominations in the National Council of Churches. ...
Orthodox leaders hold historic council
For the first time in 1,200 years, and after 55 years of preparatory conversations, the Holy and Great Council of the Eastern Orthodox churches met—though without representatives of four churches, including the largest....
Presbyterians elect new leaders, skip fossil fuel divestment
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was marked by several firsts: it elected a black man for the 1.6-million-member denomination’s top leadership role, chose comoderators for the general assembly, and added a confession from ...
Ancient Jewish community in Tunisia has unsure future
Brightly colored Hebrew letters are pasted on the walls of a kindergarten in the sun-washed community of Hara Kbira, Tunisia, where toddlers clap and sing Jewish songs....
Interfaith Kosovo gathering builds on area’s historic Muslim-Jewish friendship
Three years ago, Joshua Stanton was walking around Peja, a Balkan city where the skyline includes the minarets of three historic mosques, when he decided to put on his yarmulke.
“I am Jewish,” he thought. “I want to put it on.”...
Nation of Islam is now a shadow of the group Muhammad Ali joined
Muhammad Ali, laid to rest in the tradition of his Muslim faith in June, introduced many Americans to Islam....
Hieronymus Bosch’s art featured in two exhibits 500 years after his death
Hieronymus Bosch, who gave us many of our modern visions of hell, has inspired episodes of The Simpsons, rock ’n’ roll lyrics, a children’s book character, movies The Exorcist and Seven, and Dr. Martens boot designs....
Transgender divinity graduates Adam Plant and Brett Ray share their stories
Three years ago, when Adam Plant began master of divinity studies at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, Plant was a North Carolina woman with a desire to plumb the intersection of faith and sexuality....
Centuries-old synagogue in India holds a service for first time in decades
A nearly 900-year-old synagogue recently held its first sabbath service since 1972 in one of the diaspora’s most far-flung places: the coastal Indian city of Cochin....
Lectionary
August 7, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Genesis 15:1-6; Luke 12:32-40
Hope is the content of faith. Hope is the adopted son, the grafted inheritor. If there are to be, as with Abraham’s descendants, innumerable stars and grains of sands, it will be through this boy.
Ordinary 18C (Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21)
Paul says the hidden life is a moral one, putting off vices like a set of dirty old clothes.