Life of Faith
December 1, Advent 1A (Matthew 24:36–44; Romans 13:11–14)
It’s troubling to imagine the Son of man arriving with criminal intent.
Saying good-bye to my congregation
I had to make room for conversations of thanks, forgiveness, love, and good-bye.
The problem with specialization
Chess players and golfers might benefit from an early, singular focus. Most people don’t.
Our legislators’ silence is a failure of moral courage
Margaret Chase Smith and Abraham Lincoln modeled a better way.
Pastors, friendship, and the limits of boundaries
What use are boundaries when you’re sitting with a friend who is about to die?
How Sister Helen Prejean became a “social justice sister”
“What saves us is learning how to love, even to the point of death.”
What moral fusion organizing can do that callout culture can’t
Build a broad-based movement
The man who volunteered to be imprisoned at Auschwitz
In the face of evil, we tend to keep our heads down. Not Witold Pilecki.
Reading the creation story in a dying world
The poetry of Genesis 1 invites us into a sort of palliative care for the earth.
Children’s books for tough conversations
We asked 11 writers to tell us about a book that opens up space for adults and children to discuss important questions.
“Self-interest seemed almost omnipotent”
Langdon Gilkey’s account of his imprisonment during WWII is a study in how humans act under pressure.
When the chapel is the most open place on campus
Virginia Woolf’s ideal university had no chapel. Mine has more than one.
The gift of relying on others
Briallen Hopper develops an alternative to the twin American creeds of self-reliance and marriage.
How I learned to love the doctrine of total depravity
When unremitting human sin is something I expect, I can face evil without despair.
When our past sins come up
There's no perfect way to atone, but humility is a good start.
A word that helps keep me rooted as the child of immigrants
Nadhe is a longing and a hope, a heaven and a solid place on earth.
In the Radical Listening Project, Carol Gilligan’s work has found its voice
The psychologist’s new project makes explicit the moral imperative that has animated her work for decades.