Sightings Articles
Generosity — Martin E. Marty
"Gauging Generosity," a recent headline in The Economist (May 3), assesses how nations rank in respect to their generosity toward others, i.e., "Which rich countries do most to help poor countries?" With its U.K. ("secular") base, the magazine did no...
May 12, 2003
Uncommon Cause — Martin E. Marty
Now that the U.S. proposal, or "road map," for Israel-Palestine futures is unfolding, most columnists, when they discuss American Jews, concentrate on highly-placed figures in the Bush administration. Some Jewish columnists also talk about the nature...
May 5, 2003
Nobody's Business — Martin E. Marty
Call this column "Exclusion II." We can't answer your e-mail responses, though we welcome them and learn from them. And we rarely repeat attention to a topic, since there are so many objects of our "sightings" out there to treat. But thoughtful respo...
April 28, 2003
Exclusion — Martin E. Marty
"Exclusion," Carl Sandburg once said, was the ugliest word in the English language. Two kinds of exclusion appear in the sightings we do every week. It's important to keep them apart. In the first, particular religious communities welcome only the...
April 21, 2003
Paris Perspective — Martin E. Marty
Five days in Paris left me and the entire Marty-Party (five of us) refreshed, thanks to our attendance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, conducted by friend John Nelson at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We cannot profess expertise about what the “French” ...
April 14, 2003
A Jesus Sighting — Martin E. Marty
A policy statement from your Monday morning contributor to Sightings: we are not going to talk about religion-and-the-war every week. There is plenty to talk about, and we won't close our eyes and ears to it. Note: this is not opting out for commerci...
April 7, 2003
Emergence — Martin E. Marty
Most Americans spent their wartime Sunday eight days ago doing mainly ordinary things: going to church, not going to church, spending time with the children, reading, watching TV. Many others did extraordinary things, far from media and the public ey...
March 31, 2003
Attesting, Contesting, and Protesting — Martin E. Marty
Sociologist Henri Desroche in Jacob and the Angel* offered "a triptych corresponding to three functions" of religion in society: "attesting," "contesting," "protesting." A self-affirming society that confirms its own existence has religion "attesting...
March 24, 2003
Strong Religion — Martin E. Marty
Sightings does not normally do book reviews, I cannot write jacket blurbs for books, and we editors have to be careful when we "have an interest." This is not a review of Strong Religion: The Rise of Fundamentalisms Around the World, but it treats th...
March 17, 2003
Chaplaincy — Martin E. Marty
Editorial Note: Many of you who have followed Sightings over time may recall the recent tenure of Jonathan Ebel, former managing editor of Sightings. This week, we have learned that Jon has been recalled and will be stationed in Germany serving under...