Deutsche Kirche, Inc.

In the run-up to this fall’s Synod on the Family, we’ve been hearing a lot from the German bishops. They argue that church teaching and discipline must be informed by Lebenswirklichkeit, the reality of life. The Church should engage “the reality of human beings and of the world,” they say, . . . . Continue Reading »

Dump Hamilton

Quinn Hillyer at National Review is calling the anticipated change in the U.S. $10 note “outrageous and ignorant.” The change entails removal of Alexander Hamilton’s portrait for that of an as yet unnamed woman. It’s not the woman that arouses Hillyer’s unhappiness, but the removal of his . . . . Continue Reading »

Susan B. Anthony for the New $10 Bill

The Federal Reserve recently announced that the $10 dollar bill is getting a redesign: the founder of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, is going to be replaced by a woman.The lucky (though deceased) lady has not yet been determined, and the Treasury is asking the public for input. Therefore I would . . . . Continue Reading »

Heavenly Treasure

The Ransom of the Soul: 
Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity
 by peter brown 
harvard, 288 pages, $24.95 In the opening pages of this book, Peter Brown declares that he will “compare two ages—the world of the early church in the late second and third centuries and the early . . . . Continue Reading »

Worthy of Double Honor

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, median clergy income was 14 percent lower than the overall median income in the U.S. This is all the more striking when one considers that most professional clergy received years of specialized religious and theological graduate training after receiving their undergraduate degrees. Indeed, median clergy earnings are 24 percent lower than median earnings of people who hold undergraduate degrees, and 36 percent less than individuals who hold masters’ degrees. Continue Reading »