Life of Faith
Black men I’ve mourned
I’ve preached more than 800 funeral sermons. Many of these deaths have marked me.
Reckoning with the careless ableism of the church
Amy Kenny’s call for disability justice leads with righteous anger but offers grace.
Feeling US history
School districts and legislatures aren’t just challenging textbooks and curricula. They’re challenging feelings.
The spirituality of slow fashion
I have found joy reusing, recycling, and repairing clothing.
Luke Timothy Johnson’s scholarly life
The prolific biblical scholar offers an engaging account of his career—and of the spiritual journey that helped shape it.
Threshold: Essays by readers
We gave our readers a one-word writing prompt: “threshold.”
On the holiness of casseroles and spreadsheets
When our church offered Rosa sanctuary, our ordinary habits became a politics of hospitality.
This is my broken body
When illness took over my life, I developed a new understanding of the Eucharist.
Was my father right to embrace predestination?
If we take the doctrine seriously, then we dare not draw the circle of salvation along religious lines. Or any lines at all.
Thinking about God’s desire with the medieval mystics
“I have the sense that Mechthild of Magdeburg’s whole life was lived in pursuit of her divine beloved.”
Love’s knowledge
We learn the most from those with whom we have a strong emotional bond.
A White woman takes on the problem of nice White ladies
Sociologist Jessie Daniels reckons with the dangerous implications of the person she was raised to be.
Unexpected revelation
My conversation partner may have been a prophet—or a quack. My job was simply to listen.
Who’s doing our dirty work?
Eyal Press looks inside the daily lives of prison workers, drone warriors, and meatpackers.
The unexpected gift of missional friendship
I was a United Methodist pastor. He was a campus minister with Cru.
Ukraine’s sleepless children
A failed high school science experiment increased my empathy for those who can’t sleep.
June 12, Trinity Sunday C (John 16:12-15)
We are not the first to face complex global crises and wonder, “How can we possibly come back from this?”