A terrific book, the kind that lights my fire, encompassing seventeenth century issues furthering the cause of the Reformation. Controversies there were aplenty, some crossing confessional boundaries, others not so much. Drawn Into Controversie: Reformed Theological Diversity and Debates Within Seventeenth-Century British Puritanism. Edited A. G. Haykin and Mark Jones (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011) A... Continue Reading

The question that deserves examination is: Does the fact that women were directed to carry out roles in various ways during the course of redemptive history provide a sound basis for the proposition that women in this present time are not just to carry out those similar roles but, in fact, different roles altogether? In... Continue Reading

The new movie, “The Help,” based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling book by the same name, continues to lead ticket sales at the box office. Both dramatize the extent and tragedy of segregation and discrimination in the South during the early 1960s. Racism affected almost every area of Southern (and many areas of Northern) society before... Continue Reading

“This body has been praying a Christian prayer since the founding of this county in 1767, even before this nation was founded, and we never have had one single complaint, said Commissioner Barber. “In fact, the ACLU refuses to tell us the name of the individual who is complaining. As far as I know, no... Continue Reading

I also realized that the free will response didn’t get God off the hook; it just pushed His presence into the distance a little further. I remember thinking: With a word, He could have altered the plane’s direction to miss the building. In an instant, He could have alerted security screeners’ eyes to the terrorists... Continue Reading

Yale professor of theology Miroslav Volf spoke on reconciliation and the role of religion in conflict. He recited “Death Fugue,” a poem by…Paul Celan: “We shovel a grave in the air. There you won’t lie all too cramped”—unaware of the deaths happening in the air only blocks south. Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, dawned cloudless, breezy,... Continue Reading

“Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are both affiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity – and Rick Santorum comes out of the most conservative wing of Catholicism – which has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction.” A New York Times... Continue Reading

An example of that influence is when someone tends to the sick, risking infection. In earlier times, that selfless person might actually have put themselves at risk of death, which doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary perspective particularly if the sick person is not family. Religious beliefs shape key behaviors in ways that evolutionary theory... Continue Reading

Faith-based groups must now pay for search giant’s tools. Brian Young had big plans for his church’s IT strategy. But his vision suffered a serious setback this summer after Google Inc. altered its nonprofit program to prohibit all churches and religious organizations from participating. For years, the search and software giant individually offered some of... Continue Reading

The state ended its contracts with the charities this summer after passing a law recognizing same-sex civil unions. The state of Illinois informed Catholic Charities, an arm of the Catholic Church, that its policy of limiting foster and adoptive parents to heterosexual married couples violates the new civil unions law. (WNS)–A county judge in Illinois... Continue Reading