Martin Marty: Sightings
Moral injury: An assault on the soul
By Martin E. Marty — August 31, 2016
...just to watch parades or hear macho defenses of the military or ponder theological “just war” arguments will not go far enough, now that we realize anew that moral injury of this sort can be fatal to individuals and cultures.
A landslide victory for Catholics and Lutherans
By Martin E. Marty — August 25, 2016
Some see the change as betrayal. If Catholics and Lutherans had convictions, we hear, they’d still be murderous toward each other...
Success and truth in religion
By Martin E. Marty — August 18, 2016
Conservative churches – not just liberal ones – are also seeing a decline in membership. We might now once again need to observe that “success does not certify truth” in church life.
History-less judgments
By Martin E. Marty — August 8, 2016
The absence of US history from academic curricula could impact religion-in-culture.
The Mormon moment and others
By Martin E. Marty — August 8, 2016
The purpose of this exercise in time-measurement terminology is ... to suggest that people may profitably invest in some of those in their own era, age, and moment, and gain perspective for what is before them.
Social problems and religion
By Martin E. Marty — August 8, 2016
Are churches key to solving social problems? Fewer Americans now think so.
“White Christian America”
By Martin E. Marty — July 19, 2016
Is 'the end' a proper category to discuss the history and prospects of White Christian America?
Conversations about hard truths
By Martin E. Marty — July 11, 2016
Sightings responds to David Gushee's July 4th column on “Seven hard truths.”
‘Convulsive ingatherings’ and the reaction against immigrants
By Martin E. Marty — July 8, 2016
The immediate occasion for the present chaos, is reaction against immigrants, immigration, and governmental elites which have not found or chosen ways to convulsively ingather people into “clusters” of “separatenesses.”
The cost of hate vs. the healing of authentic dealings
By Martin E. Marty — June 24, 2016
Three week-end stories about mass murders help frame crisis issues. The first recalls the murders of nine blacks in and during church in Charleston, South Carolina, exactly one year ago by a white supremacist. (New York Times, June 16). The same paper, the same day, front page, dealt with “Young New York Muslims, Robbed of […]
Who’s a heretic? Martin Luther, Pope Saint John Paul, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis
By Martin E. Marty — June 13, 2016
Popes have been interested in heresy and heretics for centuries, and language linking “papacy” and “heresy” continues to prosper down to our own day. The language root of “heresy” connects with “to choose,” and the heretic is someone who, in the eyes of someone else, makes bad choices. Those of us who are not of […]
A creative approach to Georgetown’s sin of slavery
By Martin E. Marty — June 7, 2016
In a comment to one of the many blog posts about a controversy concerning Georgetown University’s past with slavery, we read: “I did not enslave anyone. I did not profit from slavery.” Such an abrupt dismissal of the moral issues is alienating, but the responder who added this comment hung around long enough to quicken […]
Sunday’s canonizations show sainthood now has few critics
By Martin E. Marty — April 28, 2014
Historian Martin Marty recalls that, in centuries past, not everyone was a fan of the idea of saints.
Pope asks for forgiveness
By Martin E. Marty — April 15, 2014
Holy Week in the Western Christian calendar is a time for Christians to confess their sins, ask for forgiveness, and seek to amend their lives. A billion believers will be doing all that in the five days ahead. Some may do it in their churches, some in other places of their choosing, and more in […]
Calvinism and Conflict
By Martin E. Marty — January 27, 2014
Last Saturday was the day set aside for the annual festival commemorating “The Conversion of St. Paul.” Did anyone notice? Still, Paul is “all over the place” in Christianity. Almost everything about him evokes or signals conflict.
