The Plot to End the World
Writer Michael Baigent talks about his latest book, Racing Toward Armageddon.
Israel Claims Holy Sites, Reignites Religious Flashpoint
Netanyahu’s decision to declare two holy sites located in the Palestinian Territories and once shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims “national heritage sites” triggers violence and conflict.
Yearning For A God We Can Live With
Two new books, one offering a vision of interfaith, universal religion, the other a model of a radically transformed Judaism, attempt to wrestle God into the everyday. Against the ascendancy of the so-called New Atheism, both writers argue for a God who transcends “god-management systems” and whose primary claim on us is through our own spiritual longing.
Jewish Past/Israeli Future: A Review of The Invention of the Jewish People
The reactions to the English-language publication of a book deemed “a scandal” reveal as much about the politics of contemporary Israel (and of its relation to the American Jewish community) as they do about the history the book describes. It’s not that Shlomo Sand believes that the Jews are not the chosen people—he argues that they might not be a people at all.
The Orthodox Jews of Lakewood, New Jersey, are worried about supporting the rights of gays and lesbians to marry because it might reflect badly on the community. Rabbi Justus N. Baird offers a corrective.
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.
Doonesbury Comic Waxes Eloquent on the Greatness of Jesus, Slams Old Testament God
Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau picks up an unfortunate thread in his latest cartoon, in which a character ponders the superiority of Jesus to the wrathful OT deity, and inferences are made regarding moneychangers and usury.
Sex and the Chosen People: Be Fruitful and Multiply, Etc.
From essays on same-sex segregation in Orthodoxy to the Jewish case against marriage to queer theology, this collection—edited by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg—offers everything you ever wanted to know about Judaism and sexuality but were afraid to ask.
Having a lesbian head a transdenominational body opens the door to gay rights across the board—a little like wondering if an Iowa marriage will be accepted in Alabama.
In a recent speech on the the economy, Obama could have stressed biblical justice; instead he opted for a “post-partisan” emphasis on firm foundations and solidarity in common cause.
Benedict decides to rescind the excommunications of four bishops, all of whom are antagonistic toward Judaism, and one of whom is a holocaust-denier.