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YOU Are Spiritual But Not Religious: The Secret Spiritual History of the Choose Your Own Adventure Books

By Daniel Silliman

…sibility. This core belief made him exactly the right person to hear about Packard’s idea for a new kind of kids’ book. Packard, a lawyer from New York City, spent the end of the 1970s trying to get publishers to show some interest in his book. By his account, he had grown lazy while making up a rambling, multi-part bedtime story for his children. When he began to ask them what they wanted the character, a shipwrecked boy named Pete, to do, it occ…

Let’s Get Lost: Mapping Religion in the 21st Century

By Spencer Dew

…? We are not there, but we are confronted with something more powerful and palpable than a mere idea of there—we are dislocated, even disoriented, by our experience of maps, made aware of where we are not. Maps allow for a kind of immersive wandering, yet at the same time reminding us of our distance from that which we contemplate. This is an essential caution for considering any maps of American religion, from the robust—such as Indiana Universit…

Ministries of Presence: A Report from Nepal

By Cathleen Falsani

…hoping to offer some kind of spiritual aid, solace, or direction to the Nepalese. In generations past, we might simply have labeled this cohort “missionaries,” visitors hoping to share their version of the gospel truth with the broken and brokenhearted. A Bible verse and hand prints of many of the more than three dozen children who live there decorates a wall at Mendies Haven, the orphanage outside Kathmandu run by Charles Mendies’ family for 60…

Hajj Journal: Using the Toilet at the Grand Mosque

By Amina Wadud

…ble escalators from each floor rose up to the third floor. There is also a partial 4th floor; more of a balcony over the deepest part of the mosque. Not a full circumabulation, so you cannot do tawaf from there, but you can do saiy. Fortunately for me, this toilet visit was from a place just next to the green line. The green line marks a distance in saiy where the pilgrim is supposed to run, because this is what Hajar did.* That way, when I return…

Are You Rapture Ready?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…es far fewer calculations. I had already seen this date predicted on a van parked in a shopping center parking lot near Columbia, South Carolina months ago, so I suppose I’m already behind in my preparations. I count myself among the scoffers of second coming date-setting since Jesus himself said we won’t know the date or the time of his return. Evans is prepared with his answer to me and others who laugh off their efforts: “Sadly, only eight peop…

‘Heretics’ or ‘Atheists’? A Response

By Rachel Ozanne

…ey’ve responded that atheism needs moderates like us. One of my friends in particular compares the way that people think of the term atheism to the way that they think of the term feminist. By this he means that over time many people who support women’s rights have shied away from using the term because it has become associated, rightly or wrongly, with an especially negative, single-minded person. For instance, when this friend was the teaching a…

The Wrong Emperor: Why Ralph Reed’s New Pro-Trump Book Distorts the Bible to Cast the President as Tiberius

By Tony Keddie

…the generic title “Caesar,” but the other historical figures mentioned as part of Paul’s trials (especially Porcius Festus, who governed Judea beginning around 59 CE) leave no doubt that the emperor in question is none other than Nero (r. 54–68 CE). Later ancient Christian texts such as the Correspondence of Paul and Seneca, the Acts of Peter and Paul, and the Martyrdom of Paul all dramatize aspects of Paul’s encounter with Nero. Did Reed, one of…

Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015) and the Rise of Extreme Evangelicalism

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…s copies of the book have sold for the past half century and it was ranked number 9 in the “Top 50 Books the Have Shaped Evangelicals” by Christianity Today, alongside works by C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Francis Schaffer, and Rick Warren. Her influence is well noted in her obituary by Kate Shellnutt at Christianity Today. Through Elliot’s book, evangelicals latched on to the deaths of these five young men, and their story became a galvanizin…

By The Numbers: Jeb Opposes Francis on Climate Change at His Peril

By Daniel Schultz

…nge is a real problem: For a guy who’s been touting his potential to draw Spanish-speaking voters into the Republican fold, this is a sticky situation. Hispanic Catholics, as it turns out, actually care about the environment, and so does the first pope from Latin America. Bush is working at cross-purposes, claiming to speak for Hispanic values while ignoring at least one of their issues. He wouldn’t be the first politician to try to pull a fast on…

6 Overlooked Takeaways From a Reviewer of Controversial Texas Textbooks

By David R. Brockman

…need a solid grasp of the religions of the world. One thing I learned from participating in the 2014 textbook process is just how important public school textbooks are in shaping attitudes towards religions. Certainly college-level religious studies courses such as those we offer at SMU play a vital role in increasing religious literacy, but attitudes toward religions are formed at an early age. While students today can draw on a vast array of inf…