"For God and country,” said the SEAL team commander. But if the God that Augustine had in mind were to shape how we think about war, there wouldn’t be much room to celebrate the killing of Osama bin Laden.
"I wanted to open a bookstore that would contain the best of what had
been thought and written," says Warren Farha of Eighth Day Books. It's "an impossible goal, but that was the guiding
telos of the store."
Sometimes we speak of "possessing" memories. That's not quite right. A
precious memory held in a lockbox doesn't release life, at least not the
fullness of life of which it is capable.
Libya lacks the illustrious Christian heritage of Tunisia and Algeria, home of Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. But prior to the outbreak of violence, more Christians resided in Tripoli and Benghazi than in the region's other countries.
Fruitful leadership in an established
church requires learning the congregation's story. God's vision
will emerge partly out of that history, and leaders must be able to connect
the new vision to past visions.
The language of vocation confirms that at no time in our lives are we exempt from responsibility for others. We never stop being called to share in the creative and redemptive activity of God through lives of discipleship.
“For decades there has been a premium on language as subject,” says poet Christian Wiman. But recently poets are “trying to find some way of speaking of ‘ultimate things’ with some sort of credibility.”
The Vietnam War forced Protestant ethicists to consider Catholic teachings about war, and I learned much from Catholic colleagues. My outlook was also changed by ecumenical contacts of another kind.
Pulling works of art from the rubble of buildings destroyed in a
disaster may seem trivial compared with providing food and medical care. But it helps ensure the
culture's long-term recovery.
The common good is taking a beating. Economic inequality has accelerated dramatically since the early 1980s, and many think nothing can be done about it. But that verdict is a nonstarter for Christian morality.
“What are we to give to God in return for this love?” asked Martin Luther. “Nothing. You shall not go to Rome on pilgrimages.” I'm Lutheran, and I went to Rome on pilgrimage.
As the Society of Biblical Literature has grown in membership, tensions have simmered over the degree to which religious apologetics fits into an organization devoted to critical research.
Most churches have the equivalent of Eat at Joe's signs, advertising religious services so that people will stop, come in and taste what is good. The signs are imperative; they command us to eat here and not there.
Reading scripture in
unexpected places can unsettle the reading you were
likely to bring to the text. So once a week I
read a short biblical passage in some place other than my home or office.
On March 11, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to celebrate
national unity and condemn sectarianism. Days earlier, Christian-Muslim
clashes resulted in deaths, injuries and a burned church. What is going
on?
This is not a classic conversion story, let alone a pietistic revulsion against the intellect. It is an account of how prayer has the power to change one's perception of the theological task.
When Ash Wednesday arrived in 2009, my recently diagnosed stage IV cancer had already reduced two of my vertebrae to dust. I feared that the rest of me wasn't far behind.