The Plot to End the World
Writer Michael Baigent talks about his latest book, Racing Toward Armageddon.
Mark D. Jordan’s recent RD op-ed garnered a response from Peter Steinfels, whose final New York Times column was referenced in the article. Here are both Steinfels’ letter, and Jordan’s response.
The Christian symbolism in Daybreakers.
Jesus, Son of Allah: The Roots of the Riots in Malaysia
Rioting continues in Malaysia this week as Muslims fight for the exclusive right to the word “Allah.” But is the name of God a name or a noun? And who stands to gain politically from this unrest?
Proselytizing the Pros: Christianity in Big-Time Sports
Mark McGwire gives thanks to “the man upstairs” as he confesses his steroid use, Tiger Woods is publicly urged to find Jesus—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, or the football, as the case may be, when it comes to the link between sports and evangelical Christianity.
Unforgiven: Brit and Tiger and the Problem of Speed-Cycle Grace
Tiger could take Brit Hume’s suggestion and get Jesus for his troubles but nobody should pretend that anything Christian is going on here.
Was Fox News commentator Brit Hume merely demonstrating Christian chauvinism when he recommended that Tiger Woods convert to Christianity? Or are there deeper levels of ignorance to be plumbed here?
Paul the Pluralist: Jesus’ Number Two Was Not a Christian
Saint Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, set the theological foundation for centuries of Christian thinking about faith and redemption—and for as many hundreds of years of implicit (and explicit) anti-Semitism. But what if Paul has been misread?
House Health Care Bill Discriminates Against Religious Freedom
Abortion is not a liberal, secular invention; there are examples in Jewish, Muslim, and even Christian theologies—and in Buddhist and Hindu traditions—of instances in which abortion is justified.
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.