columns

By Jayne Hugo Davis I never thought of myself as living life holding my breath. Certainly, not like a child demanding the resolution of some grievance, willing to voluntarily turn blue. Not even with wonder and delight in anticipation of…

By Molly T. Marshall In my last column I described the coming church as browner and poorer, more sensuous and feminine, less clerical and more collegial/inclusive, more attentive to the need for structural change than quick palliation, and more multilingual…

By Doyle Sager Let’s face it. For most of us, beauty has never been at the top of our “most important doctrines” list. Perhaps we should reconsider. But let’s remember that our Maker probably sees spatial beauty and facial beauty…

By Kyle Henderson Last week my local theater was showing The Sound of Music on the big screen. The theater was filled with the lush sound track and the spectacular cinematography. Though I have seen the movie many times, I…

By John Chandler Since 1840, global human life expectancy at birth has risen about three months with each passing year. A century ago, Americans were expected to live until age 47; now, newborns are pegged for 79 years. If life…

By Starlette McNeill The season of Lent is over, but I am still thinking about Christ’s body. In last month’s column, I considered “Christ’s Body image” and thanks to a 24-hour news cycle and minute-by-minute social media updates, we are…

By Bill Leonard Gardner C. Taylor died on Easter Sunday 2015. Those who knew him weren’t surprised that as one friend said, “he held on till Easter.” Taylor, a spiritual icon inside and beyond the African-American community, was civil rights…

By Amy Butler “From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.” I’m pretty sure James Joyce wasn’t thinking of the minister’s experience of Holy Week when he wrote that sentence filled with deep and resounding truth, but any…

By Scott Dickison With the arrival of our first son about a year and a half ago, my wife and I have been more intentional about creating our own family holiday traditions. So last Easter, our first together as a…

By Brett Younger For four years at the Mercer Preaching Consultation, Alan Culpepper and I have led a discussion on each year’s Advent texts. The first year I compared us to Simon and Garfunkel. The dean responded that it was…

By Molly T. Marshall I regularly read the Abbey Banner, which is the publication of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. I spent a fruitful sabbatical there in 2000, and this Benedictine community remains of interest to me because of…

By Nora O. Lozano Some Sundays ago I went to pick my son up from his church youth meeting. I was not paying much attention to the time, and until I opened the building door, I realized that I had…