Among the blessings of modern living, we routinely count standard vaccinations for adults and children. Scourges such as smallpox have been eradicated, due in part to mandatory vaccinations that ensure immunity in entire populations. When I heard that a significant number of parents, including some . . . . Continue Reading »
In some ways, Christians this Lent are like Israel in Babylonian exile, bereft of land and temple. Continue Reading »
Once we start thinking about baptism in the matrix between old and new, our horizon broadens. Continue Reading »
Prayer is, most fundamentally, a matter of heeding a call and showing up. Continue Reading »
Anti-Semitism is hardly a thing of the past; it’s a constant, vicious drumbeat—and it’s louder today than it has been in decades. Continue Reading »
Teshuva means return, and return in the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish legal tradition means return to God. It is the word for repentance. Some prominent modern Jewish thinkers have used the term teshuva to refer to the individual or the community’s return to itself. The list . . . . Continue Reading »
Chanukah is Judaism at its least demanding and most comfortable. Continue Reading »
The Hanukkah candles glisten through the winter, signaling that we need to see beyond mere utility, to discover in others an inalienable dignity. Continue Reading »
It is not ethnic descent but union with Christ that determines one’s place in the household of God. Continue Reading »
Abraham is closest to God when, in Kierkegaard’s phrase, he goes “no farther than faith”—when he simply, merely, obeys the command. Continue Reading »
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