theology
The best religion books of 2020
By Jeffrey Salkin — December 23, 2020
Biblio-therapy for the ill at ease. That means -- all of us.
Will the death of George Floyd sway white evangelicals on race?
By Robert K. Vischer — July 15, 2020
(RNS) — The future of racial justice could depend on white evangelicals recognizing the extent to which structural racism continues to afflict our country.
The good, the bad and the merciful: Pope Francis after six years
By Thomas Reese — March 12, 2019
(RNS) — Pope Francis' strength is as a pastor who calls people to conversion. He does not think like an administrator, one who establishes policies and structures to ensure things are done properly.
How Christian theology lost its way
By Paul O'Donnell — February 28, 2019
(RNS) — When our theology does not provide us with a compelling alternative vision of the good life, it betrays its purpose, write two prominent Yale theologians.
Retired Pope Benedict accused of anti-Semitism after article on Christians and Jews
By Tom Heneghan — August 3, 2018
PARIS (RNS) Both Jewish and Catholic leaders say that the retired pontiff’s essay on Jewish-Catholic relations in the current issue of Communio suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views.
A battle over ‘Catholic identity’ at Catholic University of America
By Jack Jenkins — June 21, 2018
(RNS) — Ongoing feuds between faculty and administrators signal a deeper struggle over how the school defines that term — and itself.
What is hell?
By Joanne M. Pierce — April 18, 2018
(The Conversation) — The Christian belief in hell has developed over the centuries, influenced by both Jewish and Greek ideas of the afterlife.
From hell to atonement, musician Audrey Assad has been quietly evolving
By Jonathan Merritt — April 5, 2018
(RNS) — 'I suppose if there is anything I could say I reject, it is the idea that God’s love and acceptance is dependent on our right belief. I no longer see how that could be possible,' said Audrey Assad.
From the black church to India: The theology of Martin Luther King Jr.
By Kimberly Winston — April 2, 2018
(RNS) — Montgomery. Albany. Birmingham. Selma. Washington, D.C. In each of these places King demonstrated an evolving theology.
Responding to American Christianity’s obsession with youth
By Jonathan Merritt — March 1, 2018
Author Andrew Root says, "As the church finds itself with an authenticity deficit, it often runs to youthful forms to legitimate it."
What living with a death sentence can teach all of us about life
By Jonathan Merritt — February 6, 2018
(RNS) — 'If someone found cancer to be a gift, wonderful. But there is a certain cruelty to asking suffering people to bear the weight of other people’s theological conundrums,' Christian historian Kate Bowler tells RNS' Jonathan Merritt. (Commentary)
Moving beyond a fear-based faith
By Jonathan Merritt — January 19, 2018
Fear is largely seen as a psychological issue. But it is also a spiritual issue, according to author Benjamin Corey.
Conservative Catholic dissidents attack Popes Francis and Benedict
By Thomas Reese — January 3, 2018
Conservative Catholic dissidents, who have been attacking Francis, showed their true colors recently by attacking Benedict for his subversive writings and modernist tendencies.
Allowing guns in church flies in the face of tradition and Scripture
By Tom Verde — December 19, 2017
(RNS) — Pistol-packing parishioners may seem like a way to guard against the church shootings that have become so commonplace recently. But there is a long history in Christianity of opposing such strategies.
Two Sundays, two mass shootings: Why do bad things happen to good people?
By Holly Meyer — October 8, 2017
(USA Today) — After a succession of bewildering violence, questions arise: Why does evil exist? Why didn't God intervene?
