Margaret Atwood on Christianity, The Handmaid’s Tale, and What Faithful Activism Looks Like Today: This detailed interview with the author whose novel has received renewed interest may offer students a way to consider how religion and theological themes are treated in literature. The teacher could easily assemble a course around this and other selected novels […]
Why Does the Bible Require New Mothers to Atone after Childbirth? — Leviticus 12-13 says that when a woman gives birth, she is impure for several weeks, after which she must offer two distinct sacrifices: an “olah,” or burnt offering, and a “ḥatat,” or sin offering. This article offers some different views on the text. How might […]
What’s It Like To Be A Squirrel? This brief update (including a great 2 min video of a squirrel with a GoPro!) on Thomas Nagel’s famous essay on consciousness can introduce students to the problem of consciousness, subjectivism, objectivism, and the difficulties of arriving at a common baseline for reality. Students in apologetics should be […]
Reinhold Niebuhr, Washington’s Favorite Theologian: This not entirely sympathetic essay on Reinhold Niebuhr can introduce students to an important modern theologian and to themes in modern world affairs and theology. We may find reasons to agree, disagree, and probe further into this essayist’s views: Individuals were capable of overcoming sin, he [Niebuhr] argued, but groups were […]
Why Religion Is More Durable Than We Thought In Modern Society: (See also the Pew study) Check both the audio and the text versions of this NPR coverage of the Pew data on religion and more education. The new consensus of sociologists and demographers is that modernization and secularization are indeed related, but in complex ways. A […]
In America, Does More Education Equal Less Religion? On one hand, among U.S. adults overall, higher levels of e ducation are linked with lower levels of religious commitment by some measures, such as belief in God, how often people pray and how important they say religion is to them. On the other hand, Americans with college […]
No, The American Church Isn’t ‘in Exile’: Among the many discussions about Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option is this contribution from David Congdon. Students can find links to other commentaries and points of view, using this piece as a point of departure for their own assessment. Says Congdon, “Many Christians have already put down their weapons […]
Why the Lord Doesn’t Allow David to Build the Temple: This essay from Jewish poet Atar Hadari discusses why David is not God’s person or politician of intersection between the Temple and Israel. David remains a revolutionary hero, a guerrilla leader and desert tribal bandit—too much of a renegade at heart to be entrusted with His house. […]
The Science of Sinning Less: What new research reveals about self-control and willpower — Few topics in social science right now are hotter than willpower and self-control, considering both the number of studies on the subject and the disputes over their validity. Psychologists, sociologists, and other scientists aren’t just interested in self-control’s practical benefits. They want to […]
Under Caesar’s Sword (from the University of Notre Dame): By all counts, religious freedom violations are on the rise worldwide. Islamist extremism and ethnic nationalism have pushed persecution to record levels three years in a row, according to Open Doors research. Christians bear the brunt, experiencing between 60 percent to 80 percent of religious discrimination, UCS […]
