Faith Matters

We can't remember Jesus the way we can remember, say, Bonhoeffer or the lavishly photographed St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

I am cherished, and called by the Shepherd to serve the flock. But I can save no one.

When I first came to Harvard, the weekly worship service was recognizably Protestant but flexible and welcoming. Over the years, our students have urged us toward new ways of gathering.

Everyone wants my opinion these days: airlines, hotels, Amazon. How healthy can it be to think of life as a series of episodes to rate up or down?

One has only to look at Tintin, his round face animated by the simplest imaginable features, to know that he is the ultimate Boy Scout.

The older and more tattered my Bible becomes, the more it becomes part of me.

Darkness does not come from a different place than light; it is not presided over by a different God.

Can I be a minister for others, many students wonder, if my own beliefs are in flux?

Men and the church are often at odds. Sadly, many of the reasons researchers give for this are as insulting as they are misguided.

The pastor was prepared for questions about the Transfiguration. Instead, one first grader asked, "what does 'obviously' mean?"

Why, the customs officer wanted to know, was I traveling to Canada just to preach? It was a question to ponder.

Much of the snickering about boring sermons comes not because we expect so little but because we have hoped for so much. A hunger persists for a word from the Lord—without which we are left to our boring selves.

Surely there are ten or 12 people a day who would sign up for a Jerusalem tour designed to deepen their questions instead of answering them.

If reception of the new translation of the Roman missal is as generous as it should be, the period of adjustment will be a chance to rediscover the shape of the liturgy and the essentials of Christian belief and hope.

A dying parishioner of mine didn't care about the church budget or the sexual orientation of the choir director. He just wanted help finding a faith to carry him through a life that'd been full of interruptions.

For many women, the hijab has become a symbol of striving for gender and racial justice.

The notion that grief moves through some kind of process toward resolution owes more of a debt to American optimism than to Christian hope.

For C.S. Lewis, Virgil prepared the way for all subsequent Christian epics by changing the subject from the adolescent theme of heroism to the adult theme of vocation.

Eating at my city grandmother's table was a chore. I remember being dressed up, speaking in soft tones if at all, and being terrified of spilling on that lace tablecloth. But my country grandma served  her meals in the kitchen.

Our service ended with a Eucharist, celebrated at an imposing altar. I learned to make my gestures big, to open my arms wide, to lift the cup above my head. What I never quite got the hang of was the chanting.