Each year Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams commissions a book for those in his fellowship, the Anglican Communion, to read during lent. Ruth Barrows, known as Sister Rachel in her Carmelite Community, was commissioned for the 2012 book. The April 4, 2012 edition of the Christian Century includes an interview of Barrows by Amy Frykholm. Q: What is faith? What does it mean to have it or to lack it? A: Faith is a profound mystery that we can never adequately Read More …
Living Together Before Marriage (#0684)
"Living together before marriage no longer a predictor of divorce" was the headline of page 21A of my local newspaper last Thursday. The AP article reports on some of the findings of a recent marriage survey of 22,000 men and women. The number of couples living together before marriage has grown from around 10% in the 1960s to around 60% today. While a generation ago those who cohabited before marriage were more apt to divorce than those who did not, today there Read More …
Review of the Power of Parable (#0683)
Meet the Author John Dominic Crossan "is generally regarded as the leading historical Jesus scholar in the world." He has been a professor of religious studies at DePaul University since 1969 and currently serves that institution as professor emeritus. Over the last forty years Crossan has written over twenty-five books on the historical Jesus, earliest Christianity, and the historical Paul. Some of his best-sellers include God and Empire: Jesus Against Read More …
Jimmy Carter On Equality (#0682)
Former US President Jimmy Carter is a Baptist who spent many years teaching Sunday School and who takes his faith seriously. To help promote his new book, NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter, he recently answered several challenging questions posed by Paul Brandeis Raushenbush for a Huffington Post article. When asked about what the Bible has to say about gay people's role in church and society Carter responded: Homosexuality Read More …
Being and Becoming Virtually Religious (#0681)
“Virtually Religious: Technology and Internet Usage in American Congregations," the latest Faith Communities Today (FACT) report, provides insight into the current role of technology in churches by means of an aggregated data set that includes responses from over 11,000 congregations affiliated with over 120 denominations. Congregational use of technology continues to increase: During the most recent decade (2000-2010) congregational use of email and websites more than doubled: email Read More …
Review of Religion for Atheists (#0680)
Meet the Author Alain de Botton is the founder and chairman of the School of Life and creative director of Living Architecture. He is the author of numerous essays on a variety of topics as well as multiple best-selling books, including The Architecture of Happiness (2006) and How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997). (I recently blogged about his TED talk on Atheism 2.0, which focuses on the theme of his latest book: Religion for Atheists.) Book Read More …
Why Are You Still in Church? (#0679)
Much is being written about why people are leaving church, especially those in younger generations. Emily Case, Associate Pastor at Kennesaw United Methodist Church in Kennesaw, GA, recently wrote about why she has chosen to stay: Why do I stay? Because I believe that just like I am broken, the church is broken, that we all are broken. But, I believe that God can often work best through brokeness. Why do I stay? Because I have seen lives changed because someone held their hand Read More …
Overweight Clergy (#0678)
Recent research shows that most clergy in the United States are overweight. In blog posts on Beyond the Ordinary, Cynthia Woolever (2010) and Joelle Kopacz (2012) share how pastors fare when compared to the population as a whole. Woolever relates how senior or solo pastors fare compared to the population: 77% of American male senior or solo pastors compared to 72% of all American males BMI (Body Mass Index) is high enough to be considered overweight 76% of American female senior Read More …
King Chrome (#0677)
On Sunday March 18, 2012, Chrome officially became the leading browser for the first time. Tarmo Virki, writing for Reuters, explains: On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 percent of all browsing, while Explorer had 32.5 percent share. When people returned to their offices on Monday, the IE share rose to 35 percent and Chrome's share slipped to 30 percent. So What? Googles' Chrome has been climbing and Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been fading for quite some time. Over the last year, Read More …
Review of The Holocaust by Bullets (#0676)
Meet the Author Father Patrick Desbois is Roman Catholic priest who has devoted his life to confronting antisemitism and furthering Catholic-Jewish understanding. Desbois serves as co-founder and president of Yahad-In Unum, an organization committed to (1) supporting initiatives of dialogue "between Catholic and Jewish religious authorities and (2) to respond to the great needs of today's world through common projects based on an ethic inspired by the Law received on Mount Read More …