G. Jeffrey MacDonald writes in Thursday’s RNS report about evangelicals’ greater acceptance of mystery in the wake of recent natural disasters: As a Baptist preacher in Waco, Texas, Randall O’Brien knows the Bible says disasters can be signs of God’s judgment. But he’s not preaching anything of the sort, not even in this year marked by one natural disaster after another. Instead, he’s joining other evangelical Protestantleaders in offering an answer that would have been unthinkable for a Bible-quoting preacher even one generation ago. Despite all he knows from Scripture, O’Brien is proclaiming God to be a mystery, at least when calamity occurs. What O’Brien illustrates is a growing admittance of puzzlement in evangelical circles. That has prompted some religion scholars to wonder if understandings of God-and religious authority-might be undergoing some subtle but significant revisions among one of this country’s largest and most influential religious groups.
Elizabeth Bryant discusses the seemingly endless work in progress that is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain: The Sagrada Familia soars above this Mediterranean cityscape, a whimsical confection of airy bell towers, triumphant angels and jewel-colored pinnacles. Nearly 125 years after the first stone was laid, this massive church represents the last great Roman Catholic edifice being built on a continent where religious observance is tumbling, and the Vatican’s preachings for many appear obsolete. But rather than a forsaken symbol of bygone devotion, the Sagrada Familia is Spain’s most visited tourist attraction-even as its original architect, Antoni Gaudi, is on a fast track to sainthood. Nobody seems to know exactly when the church will be completed; estimates range up to 30 years or more. And until recently, nobody seemed to care.
Finally we take a look at painter Thomas Kinkade‘s methods in a feature by David Dunkle: Thomas Kinkade laughs at people who think he doesn’t paint much anymore, or who believe he doesn’t do his own work. “I love this mythology that I have a huge studio with all these artists hidden away, doing my work for me,” Kinkade said during a telephone interview from his studio in Morgan Hill, Calif. “I would like to know where all those artists are. I could use them.” Kinkade is known as the “painter of light” for his trademark paintings of warmly glowing cottages and lighthouses. In an interview, he discussed the work that has made him one of this country’s most popular Christian artists.
