Sightings Articles
Capability and the Papacy — James N. Hoke
Pope Benedict XVI's resignation on Monday, February 11, 2013, has raised many questions about papal qualifications. In a recent post on the blog Think Progress, researcher and writer Jack Jenkins has enumerated some recent trends in papal attributes,...
February 22, 2013
Crowds — Martin E. Marty
Students of world religions sometimes speak in puzzlement about the long-held claim that "religion is a private affair." Part of that claim is based on something notable and no doubt laudable. In my tradition, Martin Luther said that just as everyone...
February 18, 2013
Catholic Schools — Martin E. Marty
In a bittersweet column in the Wall Street Journal, Joe Queenan suggests that "all sorts of iconic, useless institutions could be under siege; coleslaw, fedoras," etc. Added to that headlined list were U.S. Savings Bonds, dachsunds, Fortune cooki...
February 11, 2013
Presidents as Pastors in Chief: An Update on Religion in Inaugural Addresses — R. Scott Hanson
It did not receive much attention on Monday, January 21 during President Obama's second inauguration, but some were alarmed when the reporter at the private pre-inaugural worship service at St. John's Episcopal Church noted that Rev. Andy Stanley, ...
February 7, 2013
Religion News: One Day — Martin E. Marty
"Public Religion" or "Religion-in-Public," our cause, appears in blogs, films, on TV and radio, and in zillions of sources which together dwarf the coverage in print media, our main source. Occasionally I sample them by reporting and reflecting on on...
February 4, 2013
Religion News: One Day — Martin E. Marty
"Public Religion" or "Religion-in-Public," our cause, appears in blogs, films, on TV and radio, and in zillions of sources which together dwarf the coverage in print media, our main source. Occasionally I sample them by reporting and reflecting on on...
February 4, 2013
Philosophy of Pi : by Anil Mundra
Amidst the 2012-end apocalyptic fantasies, the customary commodified Christmastime God-talk, and the usual yarns of saviors and demons in Hollywood's holiday blockbuster season, Life of Pi stood out as an unusually overt pop-culture philosophy of rel...
January 31, 2013
Immigration Reform : by Martin E. Marty
Tomorrow is the beginning of what will be a congressional battle over immigration reform. The subject was rarely and lightly handled in the political wars last year, perhaps because both parties found other issues to be more important for the country...
January 28, 2013
Valuing All Human Beings: Disability and Reproductive Rights Meet Congress : by Courtney Wilder
On December 4, 2012 the U.S. Senate narrowly voted not to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a treaty that has been signed by 154 nations (including the United States) and ratified by 126 of those nations...
January 24, 2013
American Divide — Martin E. Marty
Next week Crown Forum will publish Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. The weekend Wall Street Journal gave a generous two-page preview. The foretaste in the Journal presented no surprises, since the author, Charles Murray, offered t...