Around 3 a.m. Eastern time on Nov. 6, a crowd gathered in the lobby of the West Palm Beach, Fla., convention center where Donald Trump had just delivered his victory speech. The crowd, which included Christian singer Sean Feucht, began…
Inside U2’s ‘cathedral in Las Vegas’
People could perhaps be forgiven for cynically receiving U2’s 2023 Super Bowl ad announcing a Las Vegas residency inaugurating The Sphere as an indication that almost five decades after their 1976 founding, the Irish rock band has arrived at semi-retired…
Remembering the theologian who became pope
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on the morning of Dec. 31 at the age of 95, leaves a legacy that will be the subject of intense discussion and debate for decades to come. In the hours that followed the…
Pope Francis and BWA general secretary join in latest meeting of Baptist-Catholic dialogue
Pope Francis was directly involved in the latest round of dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church. The fifth meeting of Phase III of the international Baptist-Catholic dialogue took place Dec. 12-16 in Rome, hosted by the…
Ecumenical dialogue could heal a world of problems, Baptist author says
A Christianity united through ecumenism could bring guidance and healing to the cultural, political and environmental challenges confronting the U.S. and other nations, Baptist author and scholar Steven Harmon believes. The professor of historical theology at Gardner-Webb University School of…
Baptists and Catholics together? Progress and promise despite a shaky start
A few years ago, I delivered a keynote address for a symposium on the Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, held at Creighton University in connection with the 50th anniversary of its promulgation on Nov. 21, 1964. The fact…
Re-receiving the gift of inclusive liberty, with help from Pope Francis
This past weekend, I offered Baptist ecumenical reflections on Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical “On Fraternity and Social Friendship” (Fratelli Tutti) on the program of the Hearth for the Human Family conference sponsored by the Focolare Forum for Dialogue and…
‘Do you mean vote for the murder babies crowd?’
Last week I shared to Facebook a Washington Post story titled “White House directs federal agencies to cancel race-related training sessions it calls ‘un-American propaganda.’” I prefaced it with this: “At all levels of American society, we are confronted with…
Can a Baptist be a Catholic?
A cadre of Baptist scholars has been writing about emerging catholicity, the holy desire for unity among all ecclesial communions. Taking tradition more seriously as a source for theological construction, these Baptists urge usage of the ancient creeds of the…