Martin Marty: Sightings
Recalling Ian Barbour, who stood at juncture of faith and science
By Martin E. Marty — January 21, 2014
Scholar Ian Barbour probably did more than any other American to transcend the “extremes" in science-religion conflicts.
Guns
By Martin E. Marty — January 14, 2014
Fight for rational, limited gun-control if you are so moved by the Spirit or spirits, but know that in the present culture you will have stepped beyond the bounds of politics and moved to question the heart of one of the vital, vivid religions active today.
Religious Architecture
By Martin E. Marty — January 6, 2014
Few expressions of religion are as public and inescapable as buildings. It is difficult to hide temples, churches, chapels, mosques, and shrines from public view. Millions of people in all cultures enter and use them, and billions recognize them in skylines or down the block.
Religion in 2013
By Martin E. Marty — December 23, 2013
With this release Monday’s Sightings says good-bye to 2013. Appropriately, I want to use this moment to take a retrospective look at religion-in-the-news during the past year.
Losing Faith
By Martin E. Marty — December 16, 2013
Commonweal, a superior Catholic magazine, recently presented a symposium featuring notable, mature and senior Catholic parents who wrote about the absence of explicit Catholic faith among many of their grandchildren. The collection inspired an uncommon number of blog posts and other responses, a fact suggesting that this topic concerns multitudes.
War on Christmas
By Martin E. Marty — December 10, 2013
Two stories vied for top notice over the weekend. The first was the death of Nelson Mandela, the South African maker of peace. The second was the war about “The War Against Christmas.” Both dealt with the “public religion” themes that preoccupy Sightings.
Pope on Unequal Wealth
By Martin E. Marty — December 3, 2013
Pope Francis’ “apostolic exhortation” wiped out all competition for attention among opinion-makers and reporters who deal with significant news in the spheres where religion and everything public meet.
Exorcism
By Martin E. Marty — November 25, 2013
When a profound liturgical act, the prayer service, with an exorcism attached, gets seen as a “stunt,” it loses its ability to achieve its non-stunt end, of which nothing is more profound and urgent in Catholic and other Christian liturgies.
Church Snakes and State Law
By Martin E. Marty — November 18, 2013
“Asserting a God-Given Right to Snakes” is the kind of headline which can grab attention in the midst of news-of-the-week about the Affordable Care Act, the catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines, and other beckoners for public notice.
State Sanctioned Prayer
By Martin E. Marty — November 11, 2013
As thousands of bloggers and interest-group leaders responded at once, it became clear that this year again the Court will be called to resolve the irresolvable and put an end to the unendable debates on this subject.
Mormons and Native Americans
By Martin E. Marty — November 4, 2013
Good news for readers who are weary of some subjects which are naturally covered in Sightings: here is a story about some Native Americans and about Mormons who work among them.
Evangelical Pullback/Retreat
By Martin E. Marty — October 28, 2013
The public is getting used to headlines like these: “Evangelical Leader Preaches Pullback from Culture Wars” and “Southern Baptists Sounding Full-scale Retreat in Culture War?” The former is from The Wall Street Journal and the latter from Renew America. The theme has become a constant in the blog world and among public media, just as it has become a topic of conversation in churches, and wherever “culture wars” have been standard unsettlers, and where innocent bystanders have been unsettled.
Thanksgiving and Secularization
By Martin E. Marty — October 21, 2013
Having had enough of talk about Congress and the Affordable Care Act and “default,” let’s look ahead, not back. I propose a glance at the calendar, with Thanksgiving Day several weeks off.
In Surprise Move, Evangelical Moody Bible Institute Drops Its Alcohol Ban
By Martin E. Marty — October 14, 2013
Born on Dwight L. Moody’s birthday, able to keep an eye on the Moody Bible Institute from my apartment’s west window, friend through the years of some faculty and students, and remembering that the Institute has shown hospitality to some of my researching former graduate students, I am always interested in seeing how it negotiates its way in American culture.
Census: Many U.S. Jews Are Cultural Not Religious
By Martin E. Marty — October 7, 2013
While religions are by no means to be valued on the basis of numbers, the loss of believers, adherents, participants, and congregants in a faith-community as large as Judaism’s, is felt by those who remain in the “core.”
