If only that committee assigned the task of determining which biblical text goes where and when in the lectionary readings had shown a little discipline! The members of the committee should have been well aware that the season of Lent has to do with denial and, yes, discipline. more

A dispute in recent issues of The New York Review of Books provokes an old but ever-new question: Is it possible for authentic followers of Jesus the Anointed of God to be conservatives, or must they by definition be liberals?

The ongoing NYRB disagreement between Professor Corey Robin of Brooklyn College and Professor Mark Lilla of Columbia University also makes it possible to ask that question in a slightly different way: Must authentic followers of Jesus be reactionaries or are they called to be revolutionaries?

It takes some translation, to be sure, but how sisters and brothers in the church line up against each other explains a lot about both the religious and political divisions that plague our American democracy. more

It took a wild and crazy guy—someone out of his mind—to recognize who Jesus was.

It happened early in the ministry of Jesus at a synagogue in Capernaum where he was teaching with great effectiveness. That is, the folks gathered there on the Sabbath were impressed by how different this young rabbi was from the scribes who were their normal fare. Evidently it wasn’t just what he was teaching but also the authority with which he taught.

Those were people in their right minds: tame and typical. more

By now, I think we can safely assume, the sages from the East were headed back home—wherever home was. more

Christmas is, after all, an invented date…The much more serious question is whether Christianity itself is an invented faith. more

Very few things spark my ire more quickly, and then manage to sustain that anger longer, than TV commercials…The current rare exception is an ad for United Healthcare insurance. more

Except for that dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus, the actual connections between Paul and Jesus aren’t all that clear…But it is clear that Paul did get the point. more

Some portions of scripture seriously tempt me to abandon my Christian faith and go on the lookout for another religious tradition that more unambiguously represents what I understand to be the truth and efficacy about the God proclaimed and demonstrated by Jesus of Nazareth. more

Thank God (literally) our Roman Catholic and Orthodox sisters and brother aren’t biblical literalists. Otherwise, they certainly would be in big trouble with Jesus and his teachings about what we call ourselves. more

A friend reminded me awhile back that when the Pharisees were trying to trick Jesus in order to entrap him during that last week of his earthly life, he finessed their own entrapment. The question the Pharisees raised was simple: Is it, or is it not, lawful to pay taxes to the emperor? more