Faith and the craft of writing
“I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer” (Anne Lamott). In its third year now, “Faith and Creative Writing” is the workshop that I
“I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience; let me add that so is being a writer” (Anne Lamott). In its third year now, “Faith and Creative Writing” is the workshop that I
No, I did not get up early to watch Will and Kate tie the knot. But, to ask the age-old Sesame Street question, is one of things not like the others?
Renowned preacher, scholar, and hymnwriter Thomas Troeger will keynote the ninth annual Day of Homiletical Reflection at Concordia Seminary, May 11, 2011, 9:00am to 4:15pm
In addition to giving up Facebook for Lent, I have been doing another spiritual discipline during these 40 days: I have been daily walking a prayer labyrinth at a nearby church
Hell is a popular place these days. Not for tourism, of course. But it’s the talk of the religious town
I have known Ron and Maggie Hilmer for a long time, since I was in my teens and they were…well, younger than they are now
“Seismic Shocks.” That was the eerily prophetic title of this past Friday’s entry in the Lenten devotional booklet I’m reading, What’s Next, God?, by Stephen Carter (published by Creative Communicati
The first time I remember giving something up for Lent I was in the fourth grade. I gave up soda
I spent some time the other day looking through my “Civil Religion” posts from the past (almost) three years. Strangely enough, I never once wrote generally about what I’m interested in and why I writ
Over the holidays, a family friend pointed me to a guest op-ed in The New York Times. Being a lawyer, he schooled me on how the column’s advocacy (by Chicago economist Richard Thaler) of radically al
WILL WE? (Photo credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times) A stunningly violent shooting in Tucson, Arizona, and we are talking again about violence and violent images. And the war of words has begun. I have to confess that I am frequently bewildered by the violent use of violent metaphors in our public speaking
As it happens, when Classic 99 went off the air in July 2010, it never died. Classic99.com continues to live stream its vast catalog of classical and sacred music online, just as it did when it broadcast on the FM dial. Matter of fact, I’m listening to it as I write this post, and I’m even hearing the familiar voices of former KFUO-FM announcers, now volunteers for the Internet station. And The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has announced that the Synod’s Board of Directors voted to provide an additional $193,000 through at least mid-2012 “not only to continue but to improve the way it provides quality classical and sacred music to listeners via the Internet.” And, evidently, both the online station and its listener base are expanding
By now, it has been making the email and Facebook rounds many times over: The Opera Company of Philadelphia hides in the Center City Philadephia Macy’s on Saturday, October 30, and during the height of the busy shopping day breaks into an “impromptu” performance of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” It was a “Random Act of Culture,” funded by the Knight Foundation as a campaign to bring “classical artists out of the performance halls, into the streets – and our everyday lives.” The only reason we know about it—and have “seen” it—is because it was posted on YouTube. And in the weeks since it has gone, as they say, viral. Three years ago, I wrote in a more academic venue about the experience of Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular as an experience of cultural “transgression.” It seems that a similar…
I spent some of my Thanksgiving holiday catching up on the stack of magazines that had piled up, mostly issues of The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly (got to keep an eye on the high and low brows). Perhaps the most thought-provoking read I have come across lately is by The New Yorker ’s Malcolm Gladwell , of Blink and Outlier fame, in his New Yorker article “Small Change” on why social media like Twitter and Facebook will not (despite popular opinion) lead to great movements for social change. His reasoning is based on a sociological distinction between “weak-tie” and “strong-tie” activism
Not too long ago scholars spoke of the story of salvation in the bible as “salvation- history .” In part this phrase meant that God carried out his work of salvation in history through a historical people and through historical events. This distinguished Christianity from so-called nature religions that too closely identified their gods with nature. We called that pantheism
I gave up my Starbucks addiction a long time ago. (In a previous life, the Webster/Old Orchard Starbucks was a near-daily stop on my way to work until I realized that it was part of the reason I gained 25 pounds and lost most of the cash in my wallet.) But I couldn’t help seeing Starbucks’ still new ad campaign while I was recently in the airport. “Take Comfort in Rituals.” Does it bring to mind visions of a hot cup of chai?