Sightings Articles
Ten Commandments for a Biblical Psychology — Kalman J. Kaplan
Fifty years ago, Dr. Erich Wellisch wrote, "The very word 'psyche' is Greek. The central psychoanalytic concept of the formation of character and neurosis is shaped after the Greek Oedipus myth...There is need for a Biblical psychology." Recently, ...
July 23, 2009
Jimmy Carter and the Elders — Martin E. Marty
Two years ago last weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa, twelve senior statespersons met to form a group called, yes, the Elders. Their founding date, July 18, 2007, may not go down in history as a turning-point, but-who knows?-it may well at least ...
July 20, 2009
The Radicalism of Caritas in Veritate? — Rick Elgendy
The Vatican recently released the long-awaited papal encyclical Caritas in Veritate, which ranges from theological to political and economic themes. Now that the dust has settled, the encyclical and reactions to it can be seen to be rather remarkabl...
July 16, 2009
Homosexuality and Slavery in the Bible — Martin E. Marty
Annually I write the report on "Protestantism" for World Book and other yearbooks. For a dozen or score of years now, the lead story always has to be about churches tearing themselves apart in lose-lose battles over the blessing of gay marriages and...
July 13, 2009
A Week in "Secular" America — Martin E. Marty
Internet print-outs overload my "in-bucket" of items about the public face of religion in America on a daily basis. Regular subscribers, however, know that the week comes to its climax as we scan the two national dailies, the Friday Wall Street Jour...
June 29, 2009
Fatherhood — Martin E. Marty
"Fathering across Diversity and Adversity: International Perspectives and Policy Interventions" is the forbidding theme of the fat, 254-page July 2009 issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (Volume 624). I am a F...
June 22, 2009
Jewish Girl, American Doll — Sarah Imhoff
The Sabbath accessory set with its plastic hallah, tiny candlesticks, and tea service is backordered for another six weeks. Nine-year-old Rebecca Rubin would be sad to hear that she'll have to wait so long to have her own Shabbos candles. She would b...
June 18, 2009
A Different Side of Chabad — Martin E. Marty
Whenever I stroll down "my" Michigan Avenue in Chicago I pass forlorn pickets in front of the now forlorn-looking Congress Hotel. After six years I had never understood why this union is picketing this hotel. This week's Forward (June 11) cleared t...
June 15, 2009
In the Shade of Napoleon and Malcolm X: Making Sense of Obama’s “New Beginning” in Cairo — Omer M. Mozaffar
When Napoleon's forces arrived in Egypt in 1798 speaking of liberty, equality, and fraternity, many Muslims wondered if Napoleon had become a Muslim. Nevertheless, that moment - Napoleon's military and administrative conquest - marked the beginning o...
June 11, 2009
I Was In Prison, But... — Martin E. Marty
Sightings files bulge with clippings and printouts having to do with religion and prisons. Every year I "do" one of the sixty synod assemblies of our cosa nostra, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This year it was the Southwest California s...