Sightings Articles
Cell Phone Theology - Brent A. Smith
I see applications for Paul Tillich's theology of culture in the most unusual places. His claim that "religion is the substance of culture [and] culture is the form of religion" reminds me to look for the deepest longings and "ultimate concerns" of h...
August 24, 2006
Irony and "Islamofascism" -- Martin E. Marty
Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim excrescences that issue in terrorism are coming to be called "Islamofascism" among those who want to see the "War on Terror" be part of "World War III" (or IV). Roger Scruton, author of A Political Philosophy: Arguments for C...
August 21, 2006
Commodified Conversion and The Dr. Phil Show — R. Danielle Egan and Stephen Papson
One aspect of the pervasive "religiosecular" character of American culture is the marriage of capitalism and conversion experiences, particularly in "self-help" television. Psychologist cum life coach Phil McGraw, who got his start on Oprah, hosts th...
August 17, 2006
Remembering the Sabbath — Martin E. Marty
Sightings of religious issues in public life this week appeared along the highways and in the Jewish weekly The Forward (August 4). Columnist Jenna Weissman Joselit reminded readers that this is the fiftieth anniversary of the Interstate Highway Syst...
August 14, 2006
Religion in Modern Times
While it may not constitute as momentous a cultural event as it would have thirty years ago, Bob Dylan will release Modern Times, a new album of ten original songs, on August 29. Early reports and "leaked" online audio fragments indicate that Modern ...
August 10, 2006
Extra Ecclesiam -- Martin E. Marty
One week after I explained why Sightings does not always pick the "topic of the week" for comment, I find myself commenting on the "topic of last week," Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst. I'll pass the whole controversy by except to lift out a sub-t...
August 7, 2006
Good for the Gander? The Iraqi Constitution and American Democracy -- Brett T. Wilmot
Whether you are liberal or conservative, believe that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was justified or not, most of us probably can agree that the establishment of a democratic government in Baghdad would represent a significant improvement over the pre...
August 3, 2006
Civic Pedagogy and Violence — Martin E. Marty
Readers of Sightings through most of a decade may have noticed that the concept driving it is "pedagogy," not "ideology." What José Ortega y Gasset called being a "civic pedagogue" is appealing as a vocation. Some subscribers, to most of whom we cann...
July 31, 2006
Going the Way of Masonry — Martin E. Marty
Summer travels off the interstate highways and onto byways, where vestiges of earlier American civilization(s) linger, often lead to passing visions of neglected, boarded-up, or refashioned Masonic Lodge buildings. Just as numberless Catholic church ...
July 24, 2006
New World Blood Libel — Spencer Dew
Last month in Tampa, Florida, a grave was robbed. The body of a six-year-old boy killed by a car in 1975 was stolen. Police immediately speculated, publicly, that this crime was "more" than vandalism: "We are just leaning toward it being cult related...