Latest Articles
Soul music
Researchers say Mozart has amazing effect on rats," headlined the Chicago Tribune on August 11. "Music's boost to humans also occurs in rodents," read the subhead. I was skeptical....
Send Lazarus: Luke 16: 19-31
The deacons of a well-off parish announced that they would give grocery vouchers to strangers who dropped by the church office....
Incomplete portrait
By V.S. Naipul, Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples. (Random House, 408 pp.)...
The Papacy and the People of God, edited by Gary MacEoin
Edited by Gary MacEoin, The Papacy and the People of God. (Orbis, 176 pp.)...
The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Hershel Shanks
By Hershel Shanks, The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. (Random House, 246 pp.)...
Unrepentant, unforgiven: Clinton's missed opportunity
Bill Clinton has served as our national pastor on many occasions, empathizing with those who suffer, comforting those who grieve, and deftly articulating people's sentiments....
Looking beyond murder: Visions of Reconciliation
As a mother I am very happy, but on the other side I am not happy. I feel the pain of Mrs. Biehl....
Room for the imagination: What's down in the basement?
You should know there's a ghost in the basement." My friend Frank levels me with his eyes, checking out my reaction. "She's a good spirit, but she occasionally scares the dickens out of my cat....
Seeking the lost sheep: Exodus 32: 7-14Psalm 51: 1-101 Timothy 1: 12-17Luke 15: 1-10
"The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners . . ." (1 Timothy 1:15)....
Protestantism and the quest for certainty
In the course of my career as a sociologist of religion I made one big mistake and had one big insight (arguably not such a bad record)....
Division and conflict in Israel: A Jewish-Christian exchange
Yehezkel Landau and Tom Getman recently met over lunch in East Jerusalem to discuss political and spiritual issues....
She who truly loves
The first thing I saw was a tear--an unforgettable giant tear in the big brown eye of a ten-year-old girl. Then I saw tears in her mother's eyes....
It’s in the blood
About 30 years ago, in a doctoral examination, a student, Trygve Skarsten, a colleague, R. Pierce Beaver, and I, the historian of religion, got into a colloquy about ancient pagan rites of Norway....
The future of family
Edited by Phyllis D. Airhart and Margaret Lamberts Bendroth, Faith Traditions and the Family. (Westminster John Knox, 172 pp.)...
The Battered Wife, by Nancy Nason-Clark
By Nancy Nason-Clark, The Battered Wife: How Christians Confront Family Violence. (Westminster John Knox, 155 pp.)...
Lost Highway, by Richard Currey
By Richard Currey, Lost Highway. (Houghton Mifflin, 258 pp.)...
Making theology cinematic: Connections: ‘Bulworth’ and ‘Mickey One’
Novelist John Irving quotes François Mauriac: “God doesn’t care at all--what we write--but when we do it right, He can use it.” I have a story I want to relate, but Mauriac’s admonition is intimida...
The Great Tribulation
I suppose we are in the minority now, but there are still some of us who preach on the saints of the church....
Jesus is my pitching coach
Having retired from teaching, I find I have time on my hands. I had been thinking of resuming an interest in baseball, an interest abandoned after childhood....
Abundant life (Luke 14:1, 7-14)
The most precisely regulated social order that I’ve experienced was junior high school....