Sightings Articles
Numbering Worshipers in Boston — Martin E. Marty
Atheism now gets more attention than usual when people measure religious trends in North America. More people put the name "atheism" on their a-religiousness than did so decades ago. For the record, my Ph.D. thesis in 1956 was on "unbelief" and a ser...
December 5, 2011
Braco's Enchanting Gaze — Alan Levinovitz
According to his official website, Braco (pronounced braht-zo) is a gentle Croatian man with a remarkable gift: a silent gaze that induces "transformative changes" and "profound experiences" in the hundreds of thousands who attend his "gazing session...
December 1, 2011
Tea and Occupy — Martin E. Marty
Twice in the last four years I have spied Benton Harbor, Michigan, a once flourishing factory town that has suffered all manner of ills: bad leadership, racial conflicts, and more. Its downtown is ghostly. The most devastating blow occurred when Whir...
November 21, 2011
Do We Stand Together? American Jewish Identity and Voices of Dissent — Lilah Shapiro
In a recent article in the Jewish Weekly reflecting on the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, a woman is quoted as saying that she envies Israelis because they have a country in which human life is so valued that they are willing to trade thous...
November 17, 2011
World Vision Foreign Aid by Martin E. Marty
While polarization marks and blights politics in America today, and while popular culture, commerce, and religion are afflicted with the all-or-nothing ideologies and practices that prevent the citizenry from meeting the challenges which only intensi...
November 14, 2011
Confusion Reigns in Public Discussions of Judaism and Israel by Sam Brody
A recent New York magazine cover featured a picture of Barack Obama's head covered by a yarmulke, under the headline "The First Jewish President." The story purported to counter a narrative gaining traction elsewhere in the media: that American Jews ...
November 10, 2011
Sacred Air at the Festival of Faiths by Martin E. Marty
Writers who deal with current topics are expected to "declare an interest," which on occasion—today is an occasion—I do. For many of the sixteen years since the Festival of Faiths has been celebrated in Louisville, Kentucky, I've been on the scene, a...
November 7, 2011
From Tahrir to Maspero: Religious Tensions in Egypt Before and After the Revolution by Anthony Banout and Emran El-Badawi
It seems so long ago that the eyes of the world were fixed on Tahrir Square, where a broad cross-section of Egyptians peacefully asserted their fundamental right to self govern and took a stand for their human dignity. Recent events, however, serve a...
November 3, 2011
American Baptists -- Martin E. Marty
Notre Dame’s Mark Noll, who knows as much as anyone about this subject, wrote in the July-August issue of Books & Culture magazine, “So You’re a Baptist—What Might that Mean?” Answer: almost anything and everything, most of which is congruent with ba...
October 24, 2011
Zombie Sightings by Jessica DeCou
You may have seen them around—more and more lately—and they will soon swarm the streets in a three day Zombie Apocalypse scheduled to begin October 29 in more than 400 cities. Zombies are everywhere. Books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and The...