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Lent can be for Christians a dour and dispiriting time because we suppose it to be a season to...

Embrace vulnerability or attempt to erase it -- this elemental choice largely determines the texture and trajectory of our personal and communal lives. The former choice leads to flourishing; the latter leads to a downward spiral of disengagement, isolationism, mutual suspicion and violence. Christmas is God's embrace of vulnerability. Christmas...

The phrase "Never forget!" is vacuous or dangerous, either meaningless sloganeering or a provocation. The vital question is "Why remember?"

Many, especially in New York, remember 9/11 because they cannot forget; the traumatic grip of memory is severe and unrelenting. What can "Never forget!" mean for those who have no...

Fairness, kindness and, above all, love seem like ethereal notions empty of force in a world of power politics and free wheeling capitalism. Realpolitik is for the sober-minded whereas love is best left to otherworldly preachers and slightly addled spiritual gurus. At a subtler level, some Americans have come to...

New York is now my city and has been so for just over a month. I've arrived in time to be here as the city commemorates the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Ten years ago, I was in Jackson, MS. As I was driving into work at Millsaps College, I turned...

Almost all occurrences of the word "closure" in American public life are questionable and even worrisome, especially because the word is most often deployed after a killing. In addition to ample empirical data that execution rarely affords closure for victims' families, Christians have special theological reasons to be concerned about...

I am a Christian theologian who loves Buddhism.

Unlike some who turn to Buddhism because of trauma from a toxic or inadequate version of Christianity, my love for Buddhism is not a product of alienation. My religious family of origin is not ideal -- no family is -- but my...

A dangerous thought: suppose we measured the worth of our religious traditions pragmatically? What if the merit of a tradition hinged on its capacity to help us live out the wisdom it commends? Of course, our traditions are treasuries containing spiritual resources that can inform us about how best to...

Islamophobia in America is gradually reaching epidemic proportions. The toll that such toxicity will exact on our core constitutional values is slowly becoming apparent. But few seem to realize that surrender to suspicion and fear also brings with it a heavy moral and spiritual price. When Christians (and sadly much...

On Monday, June 7th, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships sponsored a meeting on "Advancing Interfaith and Community Service on College and University Campuses." At that meeting, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) and member of the President's Advisory...

Too many atheists display the same aggression and smug self-satisfaction that they detest in their fundamentalist rivals. The tragedy is that the crossfire between these groups prevents robust alliances between modest liberal religious communities and humble non-dogmatic atheists on matters of real urgency.

What binds many atheists together is an...

The state of American religious public discourse is profoundly impoverished. Conversations in print and broadcast media are stifling because they are largely monoreligious: Christianity appears to be the only game in town. Islam is permitted occasional appearances but only under the guise of militancy.

This week's PBS broadcast of David...