Cover Story

Emily Scott had an idea: what if young adults got together for a weekly agape feast? Soon St. Lydia’s was born--but Scott was not ordained.

Video games have the potential to aid in forming us as moral beings, for better and for worse.

To build stronger communities, we need to get in the habit of recognizing what undergirds our relationships. We can't afford to take it for granted.

"Parents are the most important faith guides, mentors and teachers a kid will ever have."

The children from our church walked into the synagogue quietly. But when the rabbi invited them to look at the ark containing the Torah scroll, they lost all reserve.

When black theologians focused on nontraditional and extra-Christian sources, white theologians had an excuse to ignore them. Not anymore.

Lisa Belkin, Christian Smith and others have raised concerns about campus sexual culture. We asked several college chaplains to comment on their assessment.

"I once asked a panel of students about relationships—were they seeing anyone? Did they feel like they had to break up before graduation? They looked at me as if I had been speaking Greek."

Equal marriage is a social experiment of yet unknown proportions. No wonder we are confused.

When clergy meet regularly in a "community of practice," they find that trust develops, anxieties diminish, and challenges turn into occasions for learning.

Impulsively, I e-mailed three other clergywomen and invited them to participate in a writing group. Their responses came quickly and enthusiastically: Yes. I'm in. I need this.

"Chemical trespass and climate change are often dealt with by two separate groups of environmentalists. I am interested in bringing these two together."

A special Christmas review of noteworthy books, video and music. Categories include theology and spirituality, creative nonfiction, fiction, history and current events, children's literature, TV on DVD, choral Christmas music and popular music.

Mercy Seat spends about $27,000 a year on the arts—a quarter of its annual budget. At those rates, the church is one of the better-paying gigs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Some post-worship-war churches revel in musical eclecticism. Others have a singular approach and sound, rendering the terms traditional and contemporary irrelevant.

The protesters sleeping in the cold do not claim that 99 percent of Americans agree with them. Their point is that the top 1 percent plays by different rules.

In 1983, Kenneth Mitchell and Herbert Anderson wrote that "death is only one form of loss." This would have been unthinkable for Christians half a century earlier.

The emphasis on patients' rights and autonomy has been a weak remedy for medicalized death.

Our fall books issue's reviews include Walter Brueggemann on Peter Ochs, Robert Bellah on Parker Palmer, Shirley Showalter on Leymah Gbowee and others.

Our fall books issue includes the following annotated lists of top new titles: New Testament, practical theology and world Christianity/American religion.