Religion is Not about Belief: Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God
Of all the monotheisms, Christianity has come to depend the most on the idea of belief, or doctrine. But there is a strong countertradition, now submerged, that insists that any time we say we know who God is, or what God wants, we are committing an act of heresy.
The Silence of Religious Voices in the Health Care Debates
The national conversation about health care has been about everything but care, or compassion, for those truly in need. Isn’t it simply wrong for religious leaders to sit this one out?
Revisiting Hagar, The Woman Who Named God
An interview with the author of a new book that takes a critical look at the biblical tale of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and sons, claiming that this story at the core of anxiety between religions isn’t exactly as it seems.
Why I Am Still a Christian
A friend once asked Diana Butler Bass why she was still a Christian. The answer lies in the question of spiritual memory, and of a community that exists through time.
Christianity v. Christ: An Excerpt From A People’s History of Christianity
Most people know only the Big-C Christianity—Christ, Constantine, Christendom, Calvin, and Christian America—but there is another one, linked to a biblical parable of a wounded man’s rescue by a stranger.
Easter in the Mountains: Christianity vs. The Call of the Wild
Can a This-Worldly and an Other-Worldly faith be friends?
Ideology is More Than Skin Deep: Why I Can’t Get Along To Go Along
The differences among religious folk in this country—once these issues make their way into politics—manifest in real divisions of money and power and security. To think that these conflicts can be resolved with mild-mannered compromises between Third Way and centrist evangelicals underestimates their importance.
Killing the Prophet: The Spanish Exception
In a small town in Spain, a yearly festival celebrates the hybrid racial and cultural identities, both Christian and Muslim, of the local populace—a ritual of reconciliation.
A Scholar Responds to John McCain: No God But Country
Did Lofton's critique go far enough? Was it too measured and neutral? Scholar Mark Hulsether writes that “given the issues at stake in the current election and the huge gap in scholarly persuasiveness between some articulations of Christianity and others, this is a place where my own inclination would be to draw more critics out of the shadows and to give them space to twist their knives harder.”
John McCain: No God But Country
The president’s faith, according to John McCain, is “[the] number one issue.” Having scoured the public record, the author reports back with a startling proposal: John McCain may not believe in God.
The United States has exported its contradictory and confusing HIV prevention strategy to Africa: Abstain, Be Faithful, Condoms (ABC). Herewith a modest proposal to reconcile Christianity, identity, and HIV prevention...
Religious Right leaders insist it’s not only legitimate, but necessary, to question the legitimacy of Sen. Barack Obama’s Christian beliefs...
Interview with Karen Armstrong
The best-selling scholar says that the Bible is more violent than the Qur’an, that religious fundamentalism is political, and more.
RDPulpit: Evangelical Manifesto, the “Chamomile Tea” of Theologies
The controversial document renews debate on the role of evangelicals in electoral politics...
The Black Church: Institution or Abstraction?
Rev. Wright’s assertions that it’s really the “Black Church” under attack help reduce the complexity of the religious life of black America to a soundbite...
The Promise Keepers have gone from hugging and shedding tears to doing battle for the Christian Right.
Despite our annual effort to remember it differently, Dr. King was universally criticized for his refusal to be a good “Negro leader”.
King as Inspiration, Not Guide
On the 40th anniversary of his assassination, we honor Martin Luther King by refusing to ask: “What would King think?”
Getting Wright Wrong: Preaching is Not Policy
Anyone who thinks that full agreement with your pastor is necessary has never been to church...
Dispatches from the Beltway: Beyond the Graying and Greening Religious Right
Less strident, less partisan, less defensive—the emerging evangelical center defies the stereotype...
Op-Ed: Rev. Wright and the Church-State Divide
Agonized analyses about the proper relation between church and state too often miss the point.
The Biblical Circus of William Stringfellow
He was an Episcopal theologian, activist, openly gay man, and connoisseur of the circus...