Sightings Articles
One Hundred Years of America by Martin E. Marty
It is not hard to sight what I am sighting for Sightings this week, since its shiny gold "100 Years" cover is almost blinding. I am speaking of the centennial issue of America, one of the magazines on which many of us depend for comment on both Cath...
April 20, 2009
Destiny's Child by Thomas Zebrowski
In her recently-released spiritual memoir, Anne Rice, the bestselling author of Interview with the Vampire, writes that the mass appeal of her fantasy books may be due partially to the way she has draped their otherworldly trappings over a convention...
April 16, 2009
Holiday Conflicts by Martin E. Marty
America got past the seasonal holidays and festivals relatively unscathed this month. Such an observation may sound surprising, because one would not expect holidays or festivals to scathe anyone. "Holiday," says definition one in the dictionary, i...
April 13, 2009
Religion, Vengeance, and Hospitality in The Last House on the Left: The Long Strange Journey of a Myth Motif by Brian Collins
"Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." -Genesis 19.8 Wes Craven's notorious 1972 exploitati...
April 9, 2009
God is Back by Martin E. Marty
God is Back is the title of a richly detailed new book by John Micklethwait, editor, and Adrian Wooldridge, Washington bureau chief, of The Economist, the news magazine so welcomed at our house. I profited from reading the book, but, in our self-impo...
April 6, 2009
Seminaries as Incubators of Inter-Religious Leadership by Joshua M. Z. Stanton
Evangelical pastor convinces student to become rabbi. It sounds like the start of a bad joke. But while I was an undergraduate, The Reverend Dr. Paul Sorrentino, who is Director of Religious Life at Amherst College and a beloved mentor, convinced m...
April 2, 2009
The Decline of Denominational Publishing by Martin E. Marty
"Christian Book Expo Attracts Few Customers," headlines Marcia Z. Nelson in the March 23rd Publishers Weekly. This is overlookable news to most Americans who have little interest in Evangelicalism and its books, but it has portents for all kinds of c...
March 30, 2009
Is Anyone Really Watching Watchmen? by Kevin Boyd
It is not terribly surprising that Zach Synder's film adaptation of Alan Moore's "unfilmable" graphic novelWatchmen is receiving a mixed critical review. The film's subject material is intense and uncomfortable, and at nearly three hours long it is ...
March 26, 2009
The Decline of the Culture Wars by Martin E. Marty
Eight days ago columnist Frank Rich in the New York Times joined the company of those who note, as his headline says, that "The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off." He wrote of the "upside to the economic meltdown," one which allows citizens to get serio...
March 23, 2009
A Crackdown on Miracles? by Heather A. Hartel
There has been a recent flood of speculation that silence will be considered golden by the Vatican in cases of apparitions, revelations, visions, and miraculous happenings such as weeping statues and stigmata, at least until officials conduct a forma...