Sightings Articles
Putnam and Campbell Highlights — Martin E. Marty
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, a book which Sightings glimpsed on October 18, is much on my mind and agenda. Authors Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell are not content with telephoned polls but believe very much in site-visit...
November 8, 2010
Putnam and Campbell Highlights — Martin E. Marty
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, a book which Sightings glimpsed on October 18, is much on my mind and agenda. Authors Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell are not content with telephoned polls but believe very much in site-visit...
November 8, 2010
November 4, 2010 Tikkun Olam: Jewish Sacred Repair, Secular Action or both?
In an attempt to address the well-documented and growing gulf between the economic fortunes of the rich and poor--and almost in tandem with the onset of the recession and the collapse of the housing market--Rabbi Jill Jacobs published a book on the J...
November 4, 2010
Catholic Drift — Martin E. Marty
“Everybody’s talking” about data detailing decline of church and synagogue participation as revealed in a Pew Forum and by Putnam and Campbell in their new book American Grace. “Everybody” includes atheists, agnostics, “nones,” Protestants, Evangelic...
November 1, 2010
Christian Violence — Martin E. Marty
“Christians kill too!” is the topic this week as frightened and angry Americans keep raising the temperature of Islam-versus-Everyone-Else controversies. In his new book Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, Timothy Longman writes that in three months...
October 25, 2010
Religious Language and Women’s Rights in Afghanistan - Helena Zeweri
Taliban officials have been engaging in secret talks with the Karzai government regarding a prospective peace deal, according to a Washington Post report. In another report in the Toronto Star, Jennifer Rowell, head of policy and advocacy for Care In...
October 25, 2010
Days of Disappointment
The Colorado Springs Gazette reported last July that a local woman had placed ads on ten bus-stop benches alerting passersby that Jesus Christ will return to earth on May 21, 2011. The woman is a believer in the eschatological calculations of one Har...
October 21, 2010
American Grace — Martin E. Marty
American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell is the religion-and-culture blockbuster book this season. Awaited for several years, especially given Putnam’s prominence since he patented the concept captu...
October 18, 2010
Muslims, Middle Schoolers, and Lawsuits — Joseph Laycock
In May, Wellesley Middle School took a class field trip to see the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) in Roxbury. The curriculum had previously included field trips to a synagogue as well as performances of gospel music and lectures by...
October 14, 2010
Money Making and Money Giving — Martin E. Marty
Ungodly and godly money making and money giving are key topics while many Christian churches gear up for November as “stewardship month.” As they and others face “budget-setting time,” multiple items netted from the public press and the internet beck...