Family Phases: The History of Family Strength in America May Reveal Good News — This article by Allan C. Carlson cites three interpretations of the history of the family in America. Carlson then offers a fourth view: four distinct cycles or periods of a “strengthening” or a “weakening” of American family systems around a single, normative model. […]
Can the Greatest Religious Painter of the 20th Century Make a Comeback? French modernist Georges Rouault completed his expressionist landmark in the 1920s. New York’s Museum of Modern Art, among other top-notch museums, owned one of its 450 initial copies and repeatedly celebrated an artist it called “the greatest religious painter of the 20th century.” Yet the Parisian’s reputation has faded […]
Christian but Not Religious: “’Spiritual but Not Religious’ is a phrase many young Evangelicals now use to describe themselves, in order to highlight their personal relationship with Jesus. As someone who studies law and religion in America, I’m embarrassed to say that this was new to me.” The writer, Mark Movsesian, co-directs the Tradition Project at the St. […]
Former Employee’s Fraud Claim Against Diocese Dismissed: A Missouri state court dismissed a fraud claim against the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City brought by the former director for social ministries of a local parish who was dismissed after a newspaper article disclosed that she was in a same-sex marriage. Inquiry “into the knowing falsity of the […]
SCOTUSblog resource page on Zubik v. Burwell: The several cases are now consolidated and the amicus deadline has passed on whether the HHS contraceptive-coverage mandate and its “accommodation” violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by forcing religious nonprofits to act in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.
Why Global Churches Struggle Over LGBT Rights: Some African church leaders who refuse to accept gay rights have described the assumption that they’d fall in line with American and European evolving understandings of sexuality as being akin to a colonial-era decree to “civilize” the benighted darker races. The debate over whether to accept LGBT Christians as full […]
30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself: A shuttle engineer for the Challenger has carried a burden of guilt for thirty years. Says Bob Ebeling, “That was one of the mistakes God made. He shouldn’t have picked me for that job. But next time I talk to him, I’m gonna ask him, ‘Why me? You […]
Mount St. Mary’s and the future of Catholic higher education: Over the past two decades, Catholic colleges have found themselves at the center of an intense discussion about what it really means to be a Catholic institution of higher education. And there remain numerous approaches to this question. This essay from a Religion prof at […]
Waste not, hunger not: Forty percent of the food produced in the U.S. ends up in landfills. Meanwhile, people are hungry. Daily Table tries to address both problems. Two questions and a caveat: How does Daily Table manage to sell fresh food at such inexpensive prices? Why does Daily Table sell food instead of giving it away? There are […]
Miss Marple and the Problem of Modern Identity: This is a story in which several characters are not — or may not be — who they say they are. Agatha Christie’s character and amateur detective, Miss Marple, explains why the problem of identity is a particularly significant one for them, situated in their particular time and place. Alan Jacobs […]
