Can terrorists be forgiven? Do they have stories that ought to be heard? Is there more of importance about them than just their acts of evil? Is asking questions such as these part of contending with terrorism in our time?

It could be that answers to these questions are suggested...

As Benedict XVI relinquishes the papacy, much of the non-Catholic world has to admit they have seldom heard him speak directly to them in a language they could understand. He is not John Paul II. Benedict's heavy German accent, his advanced age and his more restrained personality -- certainly more...

There is a fleeting moment early in Steven Spielberg's recent American opus in which Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln enters a White House room one night to find his son asleep on the floor. The President tosses aside the official papers in his hand, kneels to brush back the hair...

We have heard the soaring phrases often. They are fixed in the American book of verse. Now, they sound again in Steven Spielberg's magnificent film, "Lincoln."

They come to us as tones of faith from Abraham Lincoln's presidential speeches: "a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this...

There are nearly seven million Mormons in America. This is the number the Mormons themselves use. It's not huge. Seven million is barely 2 percent of the country's population. It is the number of people who subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens magazine. London boasts seven million people. So does...

The words still evoke the shame and disgust they did eight years ago. Abu Ghraib. It means "The Place of the Ravens." It was the name Saddam Hussein gave to one of his torture palaces. Chains still hung from its ceilings and blood still spattered its walls when the U.S....

My Old South grandmother used to tell me that I should never speak of religion and politics in "polite company." She was right. Nothing divides like these two topics and if we wish to preserve harmony with our acquaintances we should find other subjects for discussion.

Until, that is, one...

The summer months of a presidential election year rarely hint at the "total war" the fall will bring. Publicly, the two campaigns move like panting dogs on an Alabama blacktop in mid-July. Each is content to sniff the other from a safe distance. There are occasional growls, but only such...

When Americans sent their sons and daughters to fight in Iraq, whether they agreed with their government's actions or not, they hoped for some result greater than mere retribution. They did not wish for miracles, but they did dare to hope that when the war was over there might be...

Forty years ago, college professors assured their students that our present moment in history would be "post-Christian" and probably "post-religious." It has not proven true. We live instead in an era of roiling religious sentiment and little reveals this as clearly as the religious themes at play in the 2012...

She was the largest ship in the world. In fact, she was the largest movable object man had ever made. More than 11 stories tall and almost a sixth of a mile long, she dwarfed the seaside buildings of Belfast where she first arose like a colossus and where her...

In the weeks before Easter, during the traditional season of Lent, Christians fix their hearts on the death of Jesus Christ. They reflect upon what he endured because they believe that it was redemptive, meaning that in some miraculous way he suffered what he did for all men. Other faiths...

The conventional wisdom is that the political left in America is suspicious of stories of presidential faith and the political right is suspicious of stories of presidential faith that involve Barack Obama. What we often lose in the crush between the two are those tender, endearing episodes that sometimes arise...

America has recently marked the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, a tearful remembrance of horror in the skies, the loss of our proud towers and the transformation of our national life. Though it is seldom recalled, the events that followed that dark day also included a milestone in yet...