Hating Both the “Sin” and the “Sinner”
Or, how to proof-text your perfect hatred.
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Avatar: A Subversive Reading of the Bible?
Many have recognized colonialist themes in Avatar but is there also room for an anti-imperial reading of the bible in its narrative?
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‘Traditional’ Christianity vs. ‘Liberals’? It’s Not That Simple
From abortion to homosexuality to stem cells, you’ve heard time and again that what we are living through is a fight between religious conservatives and activist liberals. It’s not. It is a deep disagreement inside Christianity over what conserving faithfulness means.
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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?
Read MoreWant to Save Marriage? Ban Divorce
Jesus was pretty clear about divorce: it’s a sin. If you live in California you can sign a petition to make it illegal — and see how it feels to try to step on the civil rights of others.
Read MoreDefending the Helpless: New Bible Highlights Poverty and Justice
In the Bible, God has a preference for the poor and outcast, but this message is lost on many contemporary readers. A new edition seeks to remedy this ignorance, even as it turns a tidy profit for the publisher.
Read MoreTell It All, Sister! NJ Female PCUSA Pastor Gets Married—To Another Woman!
Which raises the thorny question: what will the church do about that pesky “fidelity and chastity” clause?
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Moses on the Mayflower: Was the Prophet a Founding Father?
Author Bruce Feiler is back from “walking the Bible” and is roaming the country, tracing Moses’ footsteps. But in his eagerness to make the prophet into a unifying symbol, he misses the true complexity of the relationship between religion and the secular in America.
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Sex, the Body, the World: It’s R. Crumb’s Bible Now
Among the most surprising things about underground comics master R. Crumb’s new illustration of the first book of the Hebrew Bible is not only how straight he plays the visual translation, but also the affinity between his own sensibility and the fleshly materiality of Genesis.
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The Gospel of Contradiction: An Interview with Mary Gordon
Why is the character of Jesus so powerful? Why is he such a hit? Bestselling writer Mary Gordon re-reads the Gospels, asking these questions, among others, and trying to figure out why fundamentalist readings of scripture, grounded in fear and rage, have come to dominate the understanding of religion in this country.
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