Use this page to scroll back through over 800 previous entries across several topics and disciplines. See the various subject matter pages for content selected for specific disciplines.
Desanctification of Law and the Problem of Absolutes: (Note: one free download allowed) Legal Scholar Jeremey Waldron reflects on the current breach between the application and practice of positive law and any of its sources in moral absolutes and in the sacred. “I am talking about modes of critical moralizing that seem natural, appropriate, and […]
Appeals court upholds California’s abortion education law: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s FACT Act which requires licensed pregnancy counseling clinics to disseminate a notice on the existence of publicly-funded family planning services, including contraception and abortion. The court affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction to three religiously-affiliated non-profits, rejecting free speech and […]
On Paying a Price for Your Beliefs–the Benedict Option: Dreher’s concept of the Benedict Option is a strategy of Christian community that practices moderated withdrawal from the culture but remains as a distinct influence withing the local neighborhood and city. His views have received increased attention, some agreement, and some disagreement. Dreher explains what he means […]
The Professor Wore a Hijab in Solidarity–Then Lost Her Job: This article is an in-depth profile of the Wheaton prof who put on a hijab and prompted an extended dispute at her campus and across the country on Christian-Muslim relations and theology. “When Larycia Hawkins, the first black woman to receive tenure at Wheaton College, […]
Two years later, few Hobby Lobby copycats emerge: Obamacare supporters warned that if the Supreme Court allowed Hobby Lobby to eliminate birth control coverage because of their religious beliefs, others would rush to follow — and not just to eliminate contraceptives, but also, potentially, treatments like blood transfusions and vaccines. Those fears haven’t been borne out. This […]
Death Rights: This carefully written article assesses the difference between Canada’s judicially determined right to assisted suicide with Germany’s legislative allowance for narrow instances of assisted suicide without prosecution for family members: “Laws forbidding suicide assistance are based on the moral conviction that all killing of innocent life is wrong. If liberal democracies today can no […]
The New Culture of Life: The demographic outlook for the pro-life movement looks anything but bleak. On issues from race to sexuality to drug law, Americans are used to seeing each new generation become more progressive than their parents; with abortion, it’s not happening: 51 percent of anti-abortion voters younger than 30 considered the issue “very […]
Civil Righteousness, and the Gospel in the American Church: This brief essay can assist students with distinguishing moralism from the Gospel. The writer notes the tendency of American culture to assimilate Christianity into its civil religion: “It’s one thing for the American political regime to value Christian churches because they help supply the moral requisites […]
Martin Luther as history’s first tweeter? An ongoing legacy, 500 years later: Three artifact shows demonstrate how Luther’s legacy is also as relevant and immediate as a Facebook feed. The Morgan Library exhibition in New York, “Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation,” includes an extensive display of Luther-related materials. An exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art focuses on the cultural and […]
Jesus for Atheists (and Agnostics and Nones and Everyone Else): Students can read this interview as an intro to the history of non-Christians stumbling across Jesus and their efforts to interpret and reinterpret his words and works. Such a study might begin with Marcion or perhaps Simon Magus in Acts 8.
